WIP Administration Guide

Owned by Jean-Philippe Golay
Last updated: Mar 20, 2024 by Hemangi Kurapati
18 min read

 

 

 

 

 

WIP Admin Guide

Table of Contents

 

CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

Guarantees

Ebiexperts does not guarantee that this document is error free

Copyright

Overview

What Do We Mean by "Administration"

By administration we mean a comprehensive overview of the WIP product detailing the administration setup options to utilize WIP.

Introduction

Welcome to the WIP Administration Guide.

This guide aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the WIP product detailing the administration setup options to utilise WIP. It is recommended that you go through the WIP Installation Guide first before proceeding with the Administration Guide.

Support Information

Should you have any questions or challenges please contact us at:

support@ebiexperts.com

For registered users, our ticketing system is available on our support website at www.support.ebiexperts.com

Please note: Only active maintenance customers and subscription customers will be supported by our support team.

Other Information Sources

The following documentation can also be downloaded from the Ebiexperts website.

Social Media

Ebiexperts Facebook page

Ebiexperts Twitter page

Ebiexperts LinkedIn Group - WIP: Agile Lifecycle Management Solution

Should the reader require any additional information please email our support team.

General Configuration Overview

WIP is a multi-tiered solution. It consists of a database (also called WIP repository) and of a web server. The web server is connected to the database either directly through (OLEDB and Native) or through an intermediate server called VM Remote Provider.

The connection between the web server and the server database is a lightweight WCF (Windows Communication Framework) connection. The WCF enables multiple users to interact with the repository at the same time. The connection can be deployed in an intranet or it can be used to share files over the Internet, it will not interfere with Firewalls or other security settings.

WIP Architecture

 

 

DEFINITIONS

Two Development Environments

The WIP application provides two development environments:

  • WIP – Installed on a local machine

  • WIP – Installed on server machine

WIP is a local / server based released thus enabling the user to develop locally on their own machine, or installing WIP on the server to develop on the server database utilizing a Database Connection or Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Service Connection.

Installing WIP on the server machine allows a concurrent user environment, thus allowing multiple users to develop using the WIP Web Server Application. A concurrent users environment can also be enabled by allowing other users access to your machine or IP, please consult the Installation Guide for more information on how to configure your development environment. This guide will help you setup your administration options depending on your development environment.

WIP Management Console

WIP Management Console is the main web application utilized to manage all your applications and deployment environments, all your developments and the entire application life cycle is managed within WIP.

All your administration setups are also managed using WIP.

WIP Setup

WIP Setup is the mandatory module used to connect WIP Web Server to your MSSQL or Oracle database. You can manage your connections as well as create a new database directly in WIP Setup.

WIP Repository

WIP Web Server requires that you create a repository on your server database. Deployment Repository are folder/stream locations for projects and subsequently all scripts and applications related to a specific project.

The repository would be where all your application assets will be located. It is possible to create many repositories on your server database.

WIP Environment

An environment is a Folder (View) or Stream (Sense) on your repository where you define where your applications will be deployed. Publication Environments should be set up for various Application Development Cycles such as DEV/UAT/PROD.

Organizational policies related to your Qlik Development will guide the Publication Environment structure. Most organizations have a Development (DEV), Quality Assurance (QA) and a Production Environment (PRD). WIP is set up with these environments by default and can be changed through the admin setup features.

Development:

The development environment is where all draft versions of your development projects will reside for developers, applications are then migrated to Quality Assurance where User Acceptance Testing (UAT) will be completed and signed off, after which you can deploy your files to the Production Environment.

Production:

The production environment is where all approved and signed off files (QVW/QVF/QVD/Excel etc) will reside and utilized by both Qlik Sense, QlikView Users.

Concurrent Users Environment (Windows WCF)

Concurrent user’s environment means that you have installed WIP to a server, and able to connect the WIP Web Server Application to the server.

WIP Server and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service is required in order to manage concurrent user sessions. All development work will be synchronized and saved on the server database.

When utilizing a concurrent / server environment, the WIP user Checks Out the application from the server database to the shared folder (View) or #MyWork (Sense) and develops the application from there. The user Checks it back into the server environment and then deploys the file in the server deployment destinations.

When utilizing a concurrent server environment, a User will see or be informed that an application is checked out by another User thus not allowing the new User to access the application until it has been checked back into the database by that User.

Local WIP Developments

Local WIP development means that you are not connected to a Qlik server. Check in and Check Out destinations are on your local machine.

Files

Files contains all the development assets (applications) for that specific workspace. A workspace has a hierarchical file structure that contains all development assets. The user can create and manage folders in Files that will correspond with the folder structures in your database repository. The user can set up a custom folder structures. It is possible to drag and drop folders and streams from your Qlik server into your folders or drag and drop your entire server.

 

 

Development Assets

All information related to a specific workspace: All Connections, All Scripts, All Expressions, All Files (QVW/QVF/QVD/Includes etc.), Deployment Structures.

User Rights

Active users within the system can have permissions based on their role within the WIP Development environment. User rights are assigned to Groups, the Administrator then assigns Users to Groups that will inherit rights that are assigned to the Group. Group security rights are set on an environment level and a folder level. These rights should be assigned after your first time logging in to WIP and can be configured at a later stage by a user with Administrator rights.

Development User

A Development User requires a Development Users License and can be assigned by an Administrator when creating the User. A development User has access to all features of the WIP Web Server Application.

Business User

A Business User requires a Business Users License and can be assigned by an Administrator when creating the User. A Business User has minimum access to features of the WIP Web Server Application.

Admin User

An Admin User can be either a Development User or Business User. Admin rights are assigned after first time logging in to WIP with the default User (VMMANAGER), Rights can then be managed by the new Admin User.

Issues

Users can create an Issue in WIP. An Issue contains a list of project related files that the User imports from Files. A non-licensed user can create an Issue from the login screen, a business user can create an Issue from the Board Board and a development or admin user can create from the Board Board or Issues menu.

Release

A Release can be created from an Issue, a Release is a snapshot of an Issue to mark milestones or when the Issue is ready to be published. A User cannot Check Out files in a Release. Issues and Releases will correspond with the Board Board. Releases can be created on the Board Board or in the Issues menu.

Board Board

The Board Board effectively manages and organises project workflow, identify issues preventing progression and improves communication between Users. Users can create/edit issues and drag/drop them across the Board Board. Add files into the issue, define the status, create tasks, set priorities, assign subscribers and add comments that will automatically notify subscribers.

Dashboard

The Dashboard allows an Administrator to manage the multiple Issues across your different environments. Administrators can approve or deny User Requests and manage User and Group rights. A Development User and Business User can view the Issues that are associated as well as manage their own User profile.

Administration Options

The WIP Configuration can be accessed on the menu where only an Administrator can setup the administration options in WIP.

 

 

To utilize Configuration options the current logged on user must have Administrative rights assigned, or for first time login as VMMANAGER.

 

First time login:

Username: VMMANAGER

Password: EBIEXPERTS

In the WIP Configuration the Administrator can:

  • Create / edit Servers

  • Create / edit Users

  • Create / edit Groups

  • Create / edit Business Units

  • Change settings in Options

  • Manage licenses

Servers

In the Servers menu, here you will create a repository on the server where WIP will connect to the MSSQL/MySQL/Oracle database repository.

Server settings are defined once off in the WIP Servers Configuration.

 

Link to a QlikView Server

Refers to Guide “WIP Connect to QlikView Server”

Link to a Qlik Sense Server

Refers to Guide “WIP Connect to Qlik Sense Server”

Link to NPrinting Server

Refers to Guide “WIP Connect to NPrinting Server”

Environments

Environments are defined to assign where the development publications (e.g. QVF’s) are deployed. Environments can be created according to your own company structure (Usually Development, User Acceptance Testing and Production).

Deployment Environments are created within the Deployment Server Folder structure. The Deployment Features migrate your work between your Deployment Server and Deployment Folder environments.

Permissions to utilize each environment is also configured here in the Security section and is managed according to Groups. Environment settings are defined once off in WIP.

Create Environment

To Create an Environment, first select a QlikView or Qlik Sense server and click “Edit”. Navigate to the Environment list section and click “Create Environment”.

 

Name: Name of this specific Environment.

Description: A brief description of this environment

Login Enabled: Whether a User can login to this environment in the login screen

Environment Type: Select whether this is a DEV, UAT or PRD environment. It is important to select the type of environment to make use of the WIP promotion workflow. Each time a file version will be published in this environment, it will be tagged “PRD” as published in production.

Click “Save”

Security

In Environment List, select the Environment you want manage security and click “Edit Environment”

Click the “Security” section on the right to manage which groups are allowed to perform certain actions in this specific environment.

  1. Click “Add a Group”

  2. From the drop down, select a Group that you have already created. Please see the Chapter Groups on how to create a Group.

  3. After selecting the Group, click “Create” to add the Group.

  • Read: Allows the user to access and login in to the environment

  • Delete: Allows the user to delete items in the environment

  • Publish: Allows the user to deploy files in to this environment

  • Change permissions: Allows the user to make changes to permissions in this environment. (Only administrator groups recommended)

  • Change publication properties: Allows the user to edit publication properties of the application in this environment

 

To remove a Group from this Environment simply click on the red button “Remove”

 

Check-List

A Checklist is created when certain requirements need to be fulfilled before a User is able to publish a file. The Checklist will automatically appear in the Publish form based on the Environment the User has selected. The Administrator can specify which items on the Checklist are mandatory, a User will not be able to publish to the Environment without checking this mandatory item.

If a User does not have permission to Publish to an Environment, the file will be published to the queue for approval where an Administrator will approve of the publication and publish the file in his Dashboard.

Click on the Add Task field, name your Task and click Add Task to create a Task. When you have multiple Tasks you can drag and drop the item to re-order the tasks.

Complexity Analyzer

The complexity Analyzer thresholds setup per environment enables you to set up the complexity per environment. You can drag the various categories measured as part of the complexity index (See Complexity Analyzer Index Chapter 10.5) to set the thresholds you wish to apply to the specific environment.

When you set the complexity thresholds on an environment any file that does not pass all complexity category thresholds will not be allowed to be published into the environment and would require the user to request dispensation from the administrators, who can then publish the file.

 

Users

An Administrator or VMMANAGER can create Users in the Users menu.

 

Add User

Click “+Create ”

  1. Fill in the following fields

  2. Name: this is the user name

  3. Password: define password to be utilized

  4. Confirm password: repeat the password

  5. Description: basic information about the user

  6. Email: The Email address of this User where notifications will be received

  7. Phone: Phone number of the User

  8. Employee Number: Employee number of the User, this can be any text or number

  9. Business Unit: Select which business unit this User belongs to from the drop down, if none is created select “Default”

Click “Apply”

 

 

Delete Users

Users are deleted in a 2 step process:

  • Inactivate : from user list select users and press “Inactivate”, users will be inactived

  • Delete : from user list uncheck the “Active” button, select users ans press delete, only at this moment users will be removed from the database

GDPR Inactive Users Auto Delete

After 90 days Inactive users will be automatically deleted. You can change this behaviour modifying the value : WipDbSettings.InactiveActorAutoDeleteDays in your AppSettings.json file. By default the value is 90 (3 months), put -1 to inactivate or increase or decrease the values to change the number of days.

User Rights

You can allocate the User to a Group, the User will inherit Rights associated to the Group on an Environment level or Folder level. Drag and drop the group from “Available Groups” to “Allocated Groups” or you can allocate to every Group by clicking “Add All”.

Avatar

You can upload an Avatar (Display Picture) to the User from here. Choose a default avatar, select a file to import or drag and drop the file in to the box. If the User wishes to upload his or her own Avatar they can do so in the Dashboard menu when they are logged in to WIP.

Client Addon

Installing the client addon allows the user to check out QlikView files to their local machine, each user should install the client addon to their own machine. Once installed the Client IP will automatically be identified in WIP, you should check the connection by clicking on “Test Addon Connection”.

Import from Active Directory

When adding a new user, AD integration is supported by defining the name in the following format <Domain name\Username>. WIP will automatically assign AD user rights to this user when logging in. If the user has access to the Qlik servers they will be able to browse the Qlik servers directly in WIP.

Groups

In the Groups Menu, the Administrator can create and manage groups that the Users belongs to, each Group can be defined to have certain permissions, such as Administrator privileges and permissions to publish to environments.

 

 

If a Group is to be deleted, simply click “Delete” in the Groups Menu.

If you wish to modify a Group by reassigning Users or renaming the Group, click “Edit”

Add Group

Click “+Create”

  1. Fill in the following fields

  2. Name: this is the group name

  3. Description: basic information about the group

If this Group is to be an Administrator – tick the Administrator box

If you have already created your Users, you can start adding Users to this Group by dragging and dropping the User into the “Allocated Users” section. You can also add all Groups by clicking “Add All”

Business Units

A Business Unit is a department / segment in the Organisation that represents a specific business function. An Administrator can assign Users to a Business Unit in WIP for further control and security.

To add a Business Unit, navigate to Business Units in the menu.

  1. Click “+Create”

  2. Define the name of the Business Unit

  3. Click Save

  4. Assign the users which you want to be as Release manager to this Business Unit.

 

 

When creating a User you can now assign them to a Business Unit.

Release Manager

Release Manager is a User/Developer with additional permission to approve the Publications of other user/developers belonging to the specified Business unit.
NOTE: Admin users will have by default permission to approve the Publications of other developers and hence by default release manager role.

How to assign a user the release manager’s role.

Login as admin
Go to configuration -> Users
Select/double click the user/developer to whom you need to assign the release manager role and click on Business Unit
Add the Business unit for which we need to make the user release manager and tick the checkbox.

 

 

Options

Options allows you to further configure WIP settings according to your own or organizational preference.

Options

Allow Duplicate File Names – Allow Check-In of files into the WIP repository with the same name

Tag Files – Allow files to have tags

Add WIP Version To File Commentary – Adds the WIP version to the file

Disable Check-In When File Is Checked-Out – Users will not be able to Check-In a file when it is Checked-Out

Enable Check-In Only If File Is Checked-Out – Users can only Check-In a file if File if it is Checked-Out

Enable Check-In Of Previous Versions – Allow Check-In of an older version of a file, this will create a latest version of the file.

Collaborations

Administrators can provide useful information to all WIP users such as numbers, linked content, chat groups, etc. The collaboration groups will appear in the Boards section in the WIP Menu on the left. WIP provides up to 4 collaboration groups.

Title: click on the edit title icon and define the name of the group

Name: Provide a name for the entry

Description: A brief description of the group

Link: You can provide a hyperlink that will be in the “Name”

Attachment: Save the entry first to be able to add an attachment, users will be able to download the attachment

 

 

Extensions

Extensions are how WIP treats file extensions when they are imported into WIP, they will be processed differently as they are imported.

Select an extension, click the drop down in the “Process As” column and choose from the list.

 

License

The WIP license is shown here, copy and paste the license key into the License field and click “Save” to import the license.

Product Options – The different modules available in your license

License Number – The number of licenses you have purchased for the different modules

Allocated Licenses – The number of licenses you have consumed in WIP

Expiry Date – The date when the product module will expire

Board

You can configure the layout of your Board Board from here. Tick the “Active” boxes to enable or disable the different columns / rows.

Email

WIP Email settings are configured here, the WIP email is the mail address that will send all licenses and unlicensed users notifications.

 

Complexity Analyzer Index

Each Qlik Application has a Complexity Index value in the file. The complexity value of a file is a sum of several different measures of complexity of a file’s content, including number of tables, number of fields, number of sheets, objects, expressions, calculated dimensions, etc. WIP users have the option of changing the weighting factor for any of these individual complexity measures as well as setting their thresholds.

Applications that exceed the threshold of one or more attributes are probably those whose performance could be improved by reducing their complexity. Their improvement is also likely to benefit the QlikView Server performance by reducing system resource requirements.

The measures in the Complexity Indexes are:

Base is the level for factoring into the complexity index. If a file contains tables, sheets, or other objects whose counts are below the base settings, then those elements are not calculated in the complexity index. Any number that exceeds the base is used in the complexity index. For example, if the Tables Base is 5, and a file has 6 tables, then 1 would be used to calculate the complexity index.

The Max value is used as a divisor in the complexity index calculation, so the higher the Max value, the lower the impact of counts that exceed the Base.

The Weight is a multiplier in the complexity index calculation, so the higher the Weight, the greater impact of counts that exceed the Base.

 

Publish Workflow

Define a promotion workflow between your environments. This rule is applied when publishing your files. You can set if users are allowed to publish to any environment or if they have to follow a defined workflow such as publishing to DEV first then UAT then PRD.

Destinations

The Destination tab displays the standard WIP publication folder structure paths.

Environments

VmGeneral is the check-out destination and is defined per user

  • default for QlikView is temp folder

  • default for Qlik sense is Work folder

the other ones are publication destinations and are defined globally

Destinations

The destinations are set hierarchically and inherited like this

  1. Server Root Folder (QlikView)

    1. Current Folder if defined

      1. Parent folder if defined + current folder path

        1. File if defined

 

QlikView: The default folder path is used for your environments.

Qlik Sense: The default stream path is used for your environments.

 

 

The file path will automatically correspond with the structure in Files. VM General is the standard destination where your apps will be deployed to when you Check Out an application. The environment path is the standard deployment destination when you publish files.

Create Folders

Before you set the paths, you need to select the correct folder structure in Files in order for the paths to automatically correspond with the folders in your WIP repository database (Files).

To create a folder.

  1. Navigate to Files on the Menu

  2. Click More – Create Root Folder

  3. Define the folder name eg. Qlik Sense

  4. Click “Security” on the right side if you want to Set permissions for this folder

  5. Click “Save”

 

 

Select on the Folder that you just created in Files and then click on Destination

 

Select an Environment to set the path and click Edit

This will bring up the Server browser where you can choose which path will be set.

Once the Destination is selected the folder path will change to the selected Stream.

Select the file path for all your Environments

Note: The default path for VM General will always be #My Work. This is the default Check out path for all your Qlik Sense files.

Set QlikView Path

Create a new Folder under Files eg. QlikView

 

Select the QlikView folder that you just created and then click on the Destination button.

This will bring up the Server browser where you can choose where the path will be.

Select an Environment that you want to set and click Edit.

Once the Destination is selected the folder path will change to the selected Stream.

Select the file path for all your Environments

Note: The Folder paths in QlikView are hierarchical, they will follow the Folder hierarchy as it is in Files.

What Next?

Once you have configured WIP you can now begin using the product.

 

It is recommended that you review the WIP User Guide first although this is not a requirement to work through the Product.

WIP User Manual:

The WIP User Guide is a comprehensive overview of the application that goes into some detail about all the various functions of the application.

WIP Install Guide

The installation guide is a step by step and overview on how to install the WIP solution. This includes the Database specific installations, the Server modules and client deployment.