Overview of CAL Types and Document CAL Restrictions

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This is an overview of all available QlikView CAL types.

The CALs described below are used to provide users access to the various QlikView Servers identified in Editions of QlikView Server. Note that when accessing QlikView, a user requires a license. These can either be Analyzer or Professional License, or legacy CALs. 

For information on which CAL type is used in what sequence, see QlikView CAL usage order.

Note! CALs are used for licensing only and they have nothing to do with user authentication for data access purposes.

Information below is extracted from Qlik's License Agreement. The up to date details for QlikView's current license agreement can be found on our official website.

CAL Type	Description
Named User CAL (an identified user on a server)	A Named User CAL is assigned to a unique and identified user (see Identification* for information on how users are identified) who may access as many QlikView documents as may reside on the server or server cluster to which the Named User CAL is assigned. A Named User CAL may be transferred to another user pursuant to the software licensing agreement, in which case there is a 7-day quarantine before the Named User CAL can be transferred to another user. There is no time limit for how long a user assigned a Named User CAL can access a QlikView document. Please note that in versions prior to QlikView 11.20 SR16/QlikView 12.00 SR 6, the quarantine period was 24-hours.
Document CAL (an identified user within a given document)	A Document CAL is assigned to a unique and identified user (see Identification for information on how users are identified) who may access only the one QlikView document to which the Document CAL is assigned. Multiple Document CALs can be assigned to a particular user. For example, if a user connects to two QlikView documents, the user will have been assigned two Document CALs. A Document CAL may be transferred to another user pursuant to the software licensing agreement, in which case there is a 7-day quarantine before the Document CAL can be transferred to another user. There is no time limit for how long a user assigned a Document CAL can access the QlikView document to which the CAL is assigned. Please note that in versions prior to QlikView 11.20 SR16/QlikView 12.00 SR 6, the quarantine period was 24-hours.
Session CAL	A Session CAL allows any user, identified or anonymous/unidentified, on one QlikView client to access as many QlikView documents as may reside on the server or server cluster to which the Session CAL is assigned for a minimum period of 15 minutes. For Session CALs, the QlikView client refers to each unique instance of the QlikView client (for example, the AJAX client, QlikView Desktop, or the Internet Explorer plugin) on the user’s machine. The minimum session time for a Session CAL is 15 minutes, which means that sessions that end in less than 15 minutes will still consume the session until the 15 minute mark is passed; those which terminate after 15 minutes will consume their actual session length. By default, there is no maximum session length, but this can be configured.
Usage CAL	A Usage CAL allows any user, identified or anonymous/unidentified, to access only one QlikView document, residing on the server or server cluster to which the Usage CAL is assigned, from one client (for example, the AJAX client, QlikView Desktop, or the Internet Explorer plugin) for a time period of 60 minutes per 28-day period. If a user exceeds the 60 minute time limitation, the user will have consumed two Usage CALs without any warning being given to the user. Every 28 days, the Usage CAL is refreshed and the user may once again view a new QlikView document for 60 minutes, using the same Usage CAL. Usage CALs are continuously recharged (at a pace corresponding to 1/28 of the total number of Usage CALs assigned to the QlikView Server per day).

*refer to the official licensing agreement document for details. 

More information on licenses can be found here: What is Client Access Licenses (CAL)?, Overview of Editions of QlikView Server

Document CAL Restrictions

A Document CAL allows one user to open one QlikView application. The license is perpetual and will allow the user to open a single QlikView application into perpetuity. One user can consume more than one Document CAL if they need to access additional QlikView applications. The combination of a user would be stored in QlikView Server like Named users but associated with a QlikView application instead of all of the applications available on the server or in the cluster. A Document CAL may be transferred to another user pursuant to the software licensing agreement, in which case there is a 7-day quarantine before the Document CAL can be transferred to another user. To use a Document CAL, the client user must be identified via an authenticated user name (Windows Active Directory or through a ticket exchange between the web server and QlikView Server).

The purpose of the Document CAL is to provide a mechanism by which licensees can license the use of a single QlikView application. To prevent the combination of many data models in a single application, there are restrictions in the QlikView applications that can be used with the Document CAL. The Document CAL can only be used with applications that have a single contiguous data model and do not contain any chasm traps between tables. QlikView applications with multiple logical islands are normally not allowed. Multiple logical islands are only allowed, if the additional tables are unconnected and contain only few records or a single column. In addition, the QlikView application may not contain any loosely coupled tables where there are circular references between the tables in the data structure.

Identification:

To use a Named User CAL or a Document CAL, the client user must be identified via an authenticated user name (Windows Active Directory or through a ticket exchange between the web server and QlikView Server). An IP address is not a valid form of identification for a Named User CAL. The two methods of identification cannot be mixed on the same instance of QlikView Server. Note that the user name identification requires Windows authentication on AJAX clients, since machine name identification cannot be used for these clients.

Any CAL used by an identified user may not be transferred to another user, unless the transfer is due to a change in the employment status or work duties of the prior user, in which case there is a 7-day quarantine before the CAL be transferred to another user.

Document CAL Restrictions:

The purpose of the Document CAL is to provide a mechanism by which licensees can license the use of a single document. To prevent the combination of many data models in a single document, there are restrictions in the documents that can be used with the Document CAL. However, the Named User CAL, the Session CAL, and the Usage CAL can be used to open any functional QlikView document. The Document CAL can only be used with documents that have a single contiguous data model and do not contain any chasm traps between tables.

Most common data models used in QlikView documents can be used for Document CALs. For instance, proper star schemas and snowflake schemas typically have the field with the highest cardinality in the fact table and the keys in dimensional tables have a lower cardinality. For snowflake schemas, the cardinality decreases further when moving away from the fact table. Documents containing such models typically fulfill the above demands and are well-suited for Document CALs.

Documents with multiple logical islands are normally not allowed. Multiple logical islands are only allowed, if the additional tables are unconnected and contain only few records or a single column.
In addition, the document may not contain any loosely coupled tables.

Finally, the cardinality (that is, the number of distinct values) of the key fields must decrease when moving away from the fact table.