Managing data files

In Qlik Cloud Analytics, you can manage the data files in spaces from Space details > Data files. The management of data files includes renaming, duplicating, moving, deleting, and adding new data files.

This help topic focuses on the interface for managing data files in a space. To navigate to this interface, open a space in the catalog and click Space details > Data files.

Folder structures in spaces

Each space in Qlik Cloud Analytics contains its own structure of folders organized in a hierarchical fashion. Data files can be organized in a structure of nested folders. For example, within your personal space, you might want to have separate folders for Order Data and Budget Data.

The location of a file or folder within a space is shown in its path. The path uses / symbols to represent when a folder is nested within other folders.

For example, suppose that within your personal space, you have separate folders for Order Data and Budget Data. If you have a data file named Orders_2024_December.QVD in your Order Data folder, this file would be located in the following folder path within your personal space:

Personal/Order Data

Applicable space types

You can organize data files in a hierarchical folder structure in the following types of spaces:

• Personal space

• Shared space

• Managed space

• Data space

Spaces in Qlik Cloud Analytics

In Qlik Cloud Analytics, data files in personal, shared, and managed spaces can be organized in a hierarchical folder structure.

Spaces in Data Integration

Data spaces are commonly used to store output files from Data Integration projects. Data files in data spaces can be used for analytics. From Qlik Cloud Analytics and Qlik Talend Data Integration, you can organize data files in data spaces in hierarchical folder structures. It should be noted, however, that data files in data spaces should only be re-organized into nested folders for the purposes of use in analytics. If a data file that is generated from a data pipeline is relocated to a folder within the data space, the file will continue to be saved to the top-level path in the space (rather than any nested folder) whenever the pipeline is run again.

The behavior for a personal space within Qlik Talend Data Integration is the same as for data spaces.

Navigation

The Data files section of a space contains tools to help you organize and create file-based data content in the space.

Toolbar

The toolbar is located at the top of the interface above the path selector and table. In the toolbar, you can:

• Search for data files in the space.

• Filter files by owner.

• Upload files.

  Adding a data file to a space

• Create folders.

  Creating folders in the space

• Perform actions on multiple data files at a time.

  Performing actions on multiple files and folders

• Change the sorting of the files and folders in your view.

  Change the sorting from the default Last modified option, and toggle between (ascending) and (descending) order.

• Change the appearance of the files and folders in your view.

  Select for the hierarchy view, which presents files and folders with indentation to visually display hierarchies. In hierarchy view, you need to select or expand a space to perform actions on specific files or folders.

  Select for the list view, where files and folders are shown with a flat structure in the table along with a separate column displaying their specific paths.

Path selector

The path selector shows you what folder you currently have open. The breadcrumbs show you the folder hierarchy. Select a folder in the path selector to navigate forward or backward in relation to the current path. Select the empty area after the current path to see the folders contained within the current position, and to search for folders.

Table

The table shows all the files and folders in the space, or in the selected folder within the space. The table is where you manage the data files and folders. Select folders in the table to navigate to them in the path selector.

In the table, you can also view important information about items, such as their size, number of folders, time of last update, and ownership.

Creating folders in the space

Create a folder to organize content in any way you prefer.

Do the following:

1. In a space, click Space details and select Data files.

2. In the toolbar within the Data files window, click .

3. Define the name of the folder.

4. Under Path, you can choose where in the space's folder structure to add the new folder.

5. Click the path bar and select a containing folder from the drop down menu. Alternatively, type the path of a specific location where you want to add the folder.

6. Click Create.

Alternatively, add a folder by clicking next to an existing folder in the table and selecting Add folder. The new folder is added within the existing folder.

Folders are also automatically created in a space when they are referenced in Store statement. See Referencing space folder structure in app and script development.

Performing actions on multiple files and folders

You can use the options in the toolbar to perform the following actions on more than one file or folder at a time:

• (Cut)

• (Copy)

• (Paste)

• (Delete)

You can cut, copy, and paste items between spaces or to different locations within the same space. For example, you can cut multiple items and paste them into a different space.

Do the following:

1. In a space, click Space details and select Data files.

2. In the table, select the items on which you want to perform an action.

   Tip note

   To select more than one item at a time, click the first item, and then use a combination of keyboard commands and clicking to select more files. For example:

   • Hold Shift and click the last item you want to select. This selects all items from the first to last item.

   • Hold Ctrl (Windows) or command (macOS) and click additional items one at a time. This selects each additional item individually.

3. In the toolbar, click an action. The available actions are listed earlier in this section.

When cutting and pasting items between spaces, you need to open the new space and open Space details > Data files to perform the Paste action.

Adding a data file to a space

You can add data files to the space.

Data files can be up to 100 GB. However, when uploading very large data files (over 6 GB), you might experience constraints with engine capacity. These constraints are more likely to be encountered with QVD data files due to the memory usage necessary to load QVD files into the engine. For more information about increasing the capacity available, see Large app support.

Do the following:

1. In a space, click Space details and select Data files.
2. In the toolbar within the Data files window, click to upload a file.

3. Drag and drop your data files into the Add file dialog.

   Alternatively, click Browse and navigate to your data files.

4. Under Path, you can choose where in the space's folder structure to add the file.

   To add the file to a specific folder, click the path bar and select the folder from the drop down menu. Alternatively, type the path of the specific folder.

5. Click Upload.

Alternatively, click next to a folder in the table and select Upload file to folder.

For additional ways to add data files, see Adding data files.

Performing cut, copy, and paste actions on a file or folder

Do the following:

1. In a space, click Space details and select Data files.

2. In the table, click next to a file or folder.

3. Click Cut, Copy, or Paste.

   Tip noteAlternatively, you can select a file and use common keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl+C (Windows) and command+C (macOS).

To perform these actions on more than one file or folder at a time, see Performing actions on multiple files and folders.

Renaming a data file or folder

Do the following:

1. In a space, click Space details and select Data files.

2. In the table, click next to a file or folder.

3. Click Rename.

4. Enter the new name for the file and click Save.

Any load scripts that reference the original file or folder name will need to be updated.

Duplicating a data file or folder

Do the following:

1. In a space, click Space details and select Data files.

2. In the table, click next to a file or folder.

3. Click Duplicate.

Moving a data file or folder

You can move files and folders. Files and folders can be moved to different spaces, or to different locations within the same space.

Do the following:

1. In a space, click Space details and select Data files.

2. In the table, click next to a file or folder.

3. Click Move.

4. Under Path, select a space. This can be the current space or a new space.

5. Reselect the path bar, or click , to define a specific folder within the selected space.

   Alternatively, type the path to define a specific folder.

6. To open to the new location after moving the data file, select Navigate to path.

7. Click Move.

You can also move multiple items at a time. To do this, use the Cut and Paste actions. See Performing actions on multiple files and folders.

Implications of moving data files used in load scripts

If you move a data file to a new location within a space, any load scripts that reference that data file need to be updated to reference the new file path. The same consideration applies for files that are moved from one space to another.

For example, suppose the load script of your app or script references the following file in a personal space:

Now, suppose that you move the data files to the space TeamSharedSpace and move orders.csv into a new folder in the space, named Sales Analysis. All apps and scripts that load data from orders.csv need to have the file reference updated to the following in the load script:

Otherwise, reloads will fail.

For more information about how to refer to space folder locations in load scripts, see Referencing space folder structure in app and script development.

Deleting a data file or folder

Do the following:

1. In a space, click Space details and select Data files.

2. In the table, click next to a file or folder.

3. Click Delete.

   Tip noteAlternatively, you can select a file and enter Delete on your keyboard.
4. In the dialog, click Delete to confirm the deletion.

You can also delete multiple items at a time. See Performing actions on multiple files and folders.

Performing other actions on a data file

In the Data files interface, you can also navigate directly to other tools for performing analysis of a specific file. The following options are available when you use the menu on a file:

• Impact analysis: Investigate the potential effects of making changes to data in the dataset.

  Analyzing impact analysis for apps, scripts, and datasets

• Lineage: Understand more about the history of the dataset.

  Analyzing lineage for apps, scripts, and datasets

• Open dataset: Open the dataset, where you can access an overview and profile information for the file.

  Managing dataset metadata

Space permissions

Data files are a type of data source in Qlik Cloud Analytics.

Shared space members with any of the following roles can manage data sources in that space:

• Owner

• Can manage

• Can edit

• Can edit data in apps

Managed space members with any of the following roles can manage data sources in that space:

• Owner

• Can manage

• Can operate (with Professional or Full User entitlement)

Space members with the Can consume data role can view data sources in the space, and they can consume the data sources where they have permission to create apps.

For more information about the space role requirements for data source actions, see:

• Shared space permissions for users with Professional or Full User entitlement

• Shared space permissions for users with Analyzer entitlement

• Shared space permissions for administrators

• Managed space permissions for users with Professional or Full User entitlement

• Managed space permissions for users with Analyzer entitlement

• Managed space permissions for administrators

Referencing space folder structure in app and script development

Rules for valid space folder paths

Loading data from files

In Qlik Cloud Analytics, when loading data from a data file within a load script, you can use a LOAD statement or insert QVS code. In both cases, hierarchical space folder structures can be referenced in your script statement. Follow the rules for valid space folder paths. Additionally, the file and all referenced folders need to already exist in the specified location. Otherwise, the reload fails.

LOAD statements in the load script

LOAD * FROM [lib://DataFiles/orders.csv];

LOAD * FROM [lib://TeamSharedSpace:DataFiles/orders.csv];

LOAD * FROM [lib://DataFiles/Orders By Region/orders_Europe.csv];

LOAD * FROM [lib://SalesSpace:DataFiles/Orders By Region/orders_Europe.csv];

Inserting QVS code

$(Must_Include=lib://TeamSharedSpace:DataFiles/test.qvs)

$(Must_Include=lib://TeamSharedSpace:DataFiles/SalesData/test.qvs)

Storing data into files

Store * from mytable into [lib://TeamSharedSpace:DataFiles/myfile.qvd];

Store * from mytable into [lib://TeamSharedSpace:DataFiles/SalesData/myfile.qvd];

Administering data files

Tenant administrators and analytics administrators can manage all data files in the space from the Administration activity center. For more information, see Managing data files for tenant and analytics administrators.