Alation Connector for Qlik OCF BI

The Qlik OCF BI Connector, developed by Logan Data, enables Alation users to automatically extract and catalog Qlik Cloud Analytics metadata, bringing Spaces, Applications, Sheets, Data Sources, Visualizations, and their measures and dimensions into Alation's unified data intelligence platform.

Built on Alation's Open Connector Framework (OCF) and delivered as a Zip file installable via Alation Connector Manager, this connector is available through Alation's Connector Hub and supports both Alation On-Premise and Alation Cloud Service deployments. It communicates with Qlik Cloud Analytics using a dual-API approach: REST APIs for Spaces and Applications, and WebSocket-based Qlik Engine JSON (QIX) API for Sheets, Visualizations, and Data Sources, ensuring complete and accurate metadata extraction from every layer of the Qlik object model.

What gets extracted:

• Spaces: top-level organizational units in Qlik, extracted with their type (personal, shared, managed) and access control information
• Applications: Qlik Sense apps within each Space, including app metadata and ownership
• Sheets: individual worksheets within an application, extracted via the QIX WebSocket API
• Visualizations: charts, tables, and KPI objects within each Sheet, including all associated measures and dimensions
• Data Sources: database connections used by each Application, including host, port, and connection string details extracted via the QIX engine

Lineage capabilities:

• Intra-system lineage: trace the full data flow within Qlik from Data Source tables through Sheets to individual Visualizations, giving users a clear picture of how data is transformed and consumed within a single Qlik application
• Cross-system lineage: connect Qlik Data Sources to upstream RDBMS sources already cataloged in Alation (e.g. Snowflake, SQL Server) by configuring the BI Connection Info on the data source settings page, enabling end-to-end lineage from raw database tables through Qlik analytics to business dashboards

Security and authentication:

• OAuth 2.0 Machine-to-Machine (M2M) authentication using client_id and client_secret with configurable OAuth scopes (spaces, apps, admin roles)
• API Key authentication as an alternative for environments where M2M OAuth is not available
• Permission mirroring: Qlik Space-level permissions are replicated into Alation, ensuring that users see only the objects they are authorized to access in Qlik

Extraction and scheduling:

• Full extraction: catalog the entire Qlik instance in one run
• Selective extraction: apply include or exclude filters on specific Spaces or Projects to scope catalog updates to the most relevant areas
• Automated extraction scheduling: configure recurring extractions at any frequency directly from within Alation's UI, no external orchestration required
• Navigation links on every cataloged object provide a one-click path from Alation back to the corresponding object in Qlik Cloud Analytics

Compatibility: Alation 2024.1.4 and above, Qlik Cloud Analytics. Supported on Alation On-Premise and Alation Cloud Service. Alation Agent supported for cloud deployments requiring network isolation.