Accessing large data sets with Direct Discovery

Direct Discovery enables you to load big data sets from certain SQL sources that have simple star schema structures and combine them with in-memory data. Selections can be made on in-memory and Direct Discovery data to see associations across the data sets with the Qlik Sense association colors--green, white, and gray. Certain visualizations can analyze data from both data sets together, though there are a number of limitations with this approach. It is not designed to be a real-time solution.

See: Limitations when using Direct Discovery

Qlik Sense on-demand apps provide a more flexible approach to loading and analyzing big data sources.

See: Managing big data with on-demand apps

Data is selected for Direct Discovery using a special script syntax, DIRECT QUERY. Once the Direct Discovery structure is established, Direct Discovery fields can be used along with in-memory data to create Qlik Sense objects. When a Direct Discovery field is used in a Qlik Sense object, an SQL query is run automatically on the external data source.

On-demand apps provide another method for accessing large data sets. In contrast to Direct Discovery, on-demand apps provide full Qlik Sense functionality on a latent subset that is hosted in memory.