Troubleshooting

Every message the object can show is listed, word for word, in the Reference.

Separate messages are merged into one bubble

A banner says 3 bubble(s) combine more than one message. The Message ID dimension is not unique — separate messages are being merged., and the bubble has a merged badge — its text replaced by 2 messages share this Message ID, so Only() returns nothing.

The Message ID is not unique. Two messages with the same id, sender and other dimension values are one row of the data, so they are one bubble. Make the id unique per message: a key field, RecNo() in the load script, or a hash of the message.

Every message to several people, or with several keywords, is reported as merged? Then the integrity probe counts a key field: the Message ID also links a recipients or keyword table, and counting it counts that table's rows. Count a field only the messages table has instead, such as Count([MsgText]) — see the integrity probe.

The object shows a message instead of a conversation

It says	Do this
Add a unique Message ID and a Participant dimension, plus a Message text measure. — or the From → To version	The object lacks a role it needs; the lines below it say which. Choose the conversation model, then add the dimensions and measures in order — see The data model
No messages for the current selection.	Nothing survives the selections. Clear some
The data returned 12 row(s), but none of them is a message: …	Every row read came from a table linked to a dimension — a person or a thread with no messages. The selections leave values with no messages
Could not load the conversation	The engine failed. Its own message follows

Messages are missing

• A banner says Showing the newest 5000 of 9000 messages. Filter to see the rest. — Maximum messages was reached. Filter the conversation, or raise the limit under Behaviour. Which rows are kept is under Maximum messages.
• A banner says some loaded rows were not messages — a table linked to a dimension used part of the limit. Filtering helps here too.
• In From → To, messages without a recipient are gone — Include null values has been unticked on the To dimension. Tick it again: nothing else can detect the loss.
• With conversations side by side, whole conversations are missing — only the ones with the latest activity get a lane, and the bar steps to the rest — see Conversations side by side.

One message shows as several

In From → To, a message's rows — one per recipient — fold into one bubble only when they agree on the text and Timestamp (numeric). Where they differ, they show as separate messages, each marked shared id, with a banner: 2 message(s) share a Message ID with a different message from the same sender. Make the text and the timestamp the same on every row of a message, or the ids unique.

Nothing is highlighted, or fewer values than expected

• No highlight field, or a banner saying The highlight field … is not in the data model.
• Nothing selected in the highlight field, and Highlight possible values off — the bar says Select values in … to highlight them.
• The selected values are excluded by other selections — a banner says … selected in …, but excluded by other selections.
• More values than Most values to highlight — the summary becomes a banner: The first 1,000 of 20,017 selected values.
• Whole values only is on, and the value occurs only inside longer words — or the text is written without spaces between words.
• Match case is on, and the text spells the value differently.
• The value is a number with leading zeros, loaded without Text(), so the field keeps another spelling of it.
• An image or PDF export never shows highlights.

Each of these is explained under Highlighting keywords.

A click selects nothing

• The sheet is being edited, the object is in an image or PDF export, or Qlik Sense holds the object inactive. Messages then show no pointer — see When a click selects nothing.
• Behaviour → Clicking a message is Opens the details or Does nothing — or Selects the recipient (From → To), without a To dimension.
• The field is locked. The corner says Qlik Sense did not select in …; the field may be locked, or for a keyword, … is locked.
• A highlight or legend chip: Select by clicking a highlight is off, or the highlight is inside a link.

The whole-conversations button is disabled

Hover over it; it says what is in the way:

• Whole conversations need the default state, not the alternate state … — set the object to the default state.
• Whole conversations need a Message ID dimension on a field.
• Whole conversations need … on a field, not an expression. — make those dimensions fields.

See What it needs.

A setting reverts while you edit the sheet

Requires Chatbox.qs 0.6.3 or later

Upgrade to 0.6.3 or later.

In 0.6.0 to 0.6.2, while a sheet was being edited, Chatbox.qs saved the whole object every time it was drawn. A value typed into Message metadata — or anywhere else in the property panel — could then be replaced by the value that was there a moment earlier, if the edit landed between the object being read and written back; the further the browser from the Qlik Sense server, the likelier. The conversation could also re-read its data repeatedly while the sheet was open for editing.

From 0.6.3 the object writes only when the Message ID dimension does not already carry what Message metadata says, and then only those expressions and the time order, so no other setting can be overwritten. Readers, exports and snapshots were never affected.

Messages change sides when the selection changes

With Layout set to Two-sided, the automatic sides are worked out from the messages loaded, so narrowing a selection can move them. For sides that never move, set Own participant, or Own message (1/0) under Message metadata — see Two-sided layout.

The extension does not appear in the assets panel

• Check what was imported. It is chatbox-qs.zip from inside the release archive — not the archive itself, and not unzipped.
• Look in the right place: Custom objects, the group .qs Library.
• On Qlik Cloud, Chatbox.qs is untested — see Getting started.

Copying does not work

The corner says The browser did not allow copying to the clipboard: the browser refused both the clipboard and its older way of copying, which can happen on a site served over plain HTTP. Use the site's HTTPS address where it has one, or select the text with the mouse and copy it.

No copy button on the messages? Appearance → Show copy button on messages may be off, and an image or PDF export never has one.