Getting started

Requirements

Chatbox.qs is built and tested on Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows. Everything it needs is in its archive: it loads nothing from the internet, so it installs and runs the same on a site with no internet access. Avatars are the exception, as they come from wherever Avatar URL points.

Qlik Cloud is untested

Chatbox.qs has never been run on a Qlik Cloud tenant. Treat Cloud as untested, and so unsupported, until a test pass on a real tenant has been done.

It imports on Cloud the same way it does on Windows, but several things that decide whether it works are different there:

• The content security policy. Cloud enforces one, with an allowlist per tenant. An address that is not on it does not load, and the object may not render.
• Media paths. Content libraries do not exist on Cloud; an app's media lives at a different address.
• The property panel is drawn by a different client.
• Themes are Cloud's own, and how the object's colours resolve against them has not been seen.

Nothing stops you importing it on a tenant to try it. The test pass is tracked in issue #13.

What to download

Download the release archive, chatbox-qs-v0.6.3.zip or later, from the releases page. It holds three files:

File	What it is
chatbox-qs.zip	The extension. This is the file you upload to Qlik Sense
LICENSE	The MIT licence
readme.txt	A short readme

Do not unzip chatbox-qs.zip. Qlik Sense expects the archive itself.

Installing

On Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows, in the QMC: Extensions → Import, and select chatbox-qs.zip.

To upgrade, import the newer release's chatbox-qs.zip the same way. If the QMC refuses because the extension already exists, delete the installed Chatbox.qs under Extensions, then import again.

On Qlik Cloud — untested, see above — it is Management console → Extensions → Add.

Finding it on a sheet

Edit a sheet, open the assets panel, and look under Custom objects for the group .qs Library. Chatbox.qs is there, with its logo as its tile.

Which version is installed is in the property panel, under About: Chatbox.qs v0.6.3, and when it was built.

A first conversation

1. Drag Chatbox.qs onto the sheet. Until it has what it needs, it says so — Add a unique Message ID and a Participant dimension, plus a Message text measure. — and lists what is missing.
2. Choose the conversation model first, under Conversation → Conversation model: Participants, one speaker field, for a group chat; or From → To, a sender and a recipient, for one-to-one conversations. It decides the role of each dimension you add.
3. Add the dimensions, in order. For Participants: the Message ID — unique per message — then the speaker, then, optionally, the conversation or thread. The panel names each slot's role as you fill it.
4. Add the measures: the message text, Only([MsgText]), then the integrity probe, Count([MsgId]), which warns you when separate messages merge into one bubble.
5. For times and days, set Timestamp (numeric) and Timestamp (display) under Message metadata — e.g. Num(Min([SentAt])) and Only(Time([SentAt])).

The full contract for both models, the one data-model mistake the object warns about, and which rows Maximum messages keeps, are on The data model.