Dashboard and Mobile Developer - Data Tutors

REPORT DEVELOPER
Table of Contents Dashboard and Mobile Developer
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
Introduction to Report Outline:......................................................................................11
Services and Dynamic
MicroStrategy Web Interface ....................................................... 12
Dashboards
Projects Page ........................................................................ 12
Login Page............................................................................. 13
Project Home Page................................................................ 14
MicroStrategy Objects ................................................................. 17
Report .................................................................................... 18
Intelligent Cube Reports ........................................................ 19
Data Sources ......................................................................... 21
What is a Dashboard? ................................................................. 22
Document Display Modes and Export Formats ........................... 24
Display Modes ....................................................................... 24
Export Formats ...................................................................... 26
Document Subscriptions.............................................................. 27
Document Subscriptions to History List ................................. 27
Document Subscriptions to Email, File, and Printer............... 28
Summary ..................................................................................... 29
2
Visual Insight Outline:......................................................................................31
Introduction to Visual Insight........................................................ 32
What Is a Visual Insight Dashboard?..................................... 32
Using Visual Insight ............................................................... 34
Visualizations ......................................................................... 36
Visual Insight Manipulations ........................................................ 38
Filtering .................................................................................. 38
Sorting ................................................................................... 39
Page-by ................................................................................. 40
Drilling .................................................................................... 41
Thresholds ............................................................................. 41
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Subtotals ................................................................................ 44
Derived Metrics ...................................................................... 44
Summary ..................................................................................... 47
Exercises: Visual Insight
2.1 Creating a Visual Insight Dashboard ............................... 49
2.2 Visual Insight Manipulations ............................................ 64
3
Creating Documents Outline:......................................................................................73
Introduction to the Document Editor ............................................ 74
Accordion ............................................................................... 75
Grouping Panel ...................................................................... 75
Layout Area ........................................................................... 77
Creating Documents .................................................................... 83
Creating Documents from a Document Template.................. 83
Document Objects ....................................................................... 87
MicroStrategy Grid/Graphs .................................................... 87
Images ................................................................................... 88
Text and Auto Text ................................................................ 88
Document-level Data Manipulations ............................................ 92
Summary Metrics ................................................................... 92
Derived Elements .................................................................. 92
Summary ..................................................................................... 96
Exercises: Creating Documents
3.1 Basic Document............................................................... 97
3.2 OLAP Services .............................................................. 114
4
Creating Dynamic Outline:......................................................................................127
Dashboards
Dashboard Templates ............................................................... 128
Dashboard Layering .................................................................. 129
Panels and Panel Stacks ..................................................... 129
Inserting and Defining Panel Stacks .................................... 131
Panel Stack as Information Window .................................... 133
Selectors.................................................................................... 135
Panel Selector ..................................................................... 136
Attribute Elements Selector in a Graph................................ 137
Metric Selector in a Grid/Graph ........................................... 138
Metric Condition Selector..................................................... 139
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Targeting a Dynamic Text Box Using a Selector ................. 140

Selector Targeting Another Selector.................................... 141
Analytic-Based Selector....................................................... 142
Report Condition Selector.................................................... 142
Grouping and Selectors ....................................................... 143
Automatically Apply Selector Changes ................................ 144
Automatically Maintain Targets for Selectors....................... 144
Summary ................................................................................... 149
Exercises: Creating Dashboards
4.1 Panels and Selectors ..................................................... 151
4.2 Panel and Metric Slider Selectors.................................. 176
5
Linking From Documents Outline:......................................................................................191
Document Links ......................................................................... 192
Linking Document to a Web Page ....................................... 192
Linking to a Static Report or Document ............................... 193
Linking From a Prompted Document to a Prompted Target 194
Linking from a Dynamic Text Box to Simulate Drilling ......... 195
Linking from a Document to Multiple Targets ...................... 198
Linking with a Button Object ................................................ 200
Summary ................................................................................... 202
Exercises: Linking From Documents
5.1 Linking from a Document ............................................... 203
6
MicroStrategy Widgets Outline:......................................................................................215
Widgets in MicroStrategy........................................................... 216
Inserting Widgets ................................................................. 216
Time Series Slider Widget ................................................... 217
Using the Time Series Slider Widget as a Selector ............. 218
Microcharts Widget .............................................................. 220
Heat Map ............................................................................. 223
Interactive Stacked Graph ................................................... 226
Image Layout ....................................................................... 228
Summary ................................................................................... 231
Exercises: Flash Mode and Widgets
6.1 Time Series Slider and Heat Map Widget...................... 233
6.2 Interactive Stacked Graph and Interactive Bubble Graph
246
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Performance and Tuning Outline:......................................................................................261
Document Execution Flow ......................................................... 262
Improving Documents Performance.................................... 263
Selectors as Filter ...................................................................... 265
Parallel Execution ...................................................................... 267
Virtual dataset............................................................................ 268
Tuning Candidates..................................................................... 270
Best Practices............................................................................ 271
Summary ................................................................................... 272
8
MicroStrategy Mobile Outline:......................................................................................273
Architecture, Interface,
Business Application of Mobile .................................................. 274
and Apps
MicroStrategy BI Architecture .................................................... 275
MicroStrategy Mobile Architecture ....................................... 276
Analyzing Grids and Graphs...................................................... 278
Switch between View Modes ............................................... 278
Interacting with Page-by Elements ...................................... 279
Sorting Data ......................................................................... 279
Drilling .................................................................................. 280
Interacting with Documents ....................................................... 282
Switching between Panels ................................................... 282
Navigating between Layouts in Documents......................... 283
Viewing Information Windows.............................................. 283
Book-Style Page-By Navigation........................................... 284
Zoom on Reports and Documents ....................................... 284
Interacting with Mobile Applications and Tools.......................... 286
Interacting with Visual Insight Dashboards................................ 288
Interacting with Transaction Services Documents..................... 289
Summary ................................................................................... 291
Exercises: MicroStrategy Mobile Architecture, Interface, and Apps
8.1 Remote MicroStrategy Mobile Configuration ................. 293
8.2 Optional: Download the iOS MicroStrategy Apps and
Interact with MicroStrategy Mobile Features........................ 301
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Designing MicroStrategy Outline:......................................................................................323
Mobile Applications
Design Process.......................................................................... 324
Application Research................................................................. 325
Workflow of App Creation .................................................... 326
Storyboarding and Planning ...................................................... 327
Storyboarding ...................................................................... 327
Planning ............................................................................... 328
Storyboard Wireframe.......................................................... 330
Navigation Schemes on the Tablets .................................... 330
Performance Considerations ............................................... 331
............................................................................................. 332
Configuring Prompts .................................................................. 333
Attribute Element List Prompts ............................................ 333
Value Prompts ..................................................................... 334
Prompt Visualizations ................................................................ 337
Barcode Reader Prompt ...................................................... 337
Geo Location Prompt ........................................................... 338
Summary ................................................................................... 341
Exercises: Designing MicroStrategy Mobile Applications, Reports,
and Documents
9.1 Configuring Prompts ...................................................... 343
9.2 Prompt Visualization ...................................................... 355
10
Application Outline:......................................................................................363
Interconnectivity and
Linking to Other Reports or Documents .................................... 364
Linking
Links Editor .......................................................................... 364
Using the URL API............................................................... 367
Document Links ................................................................... 370
Creating Navigation Tools ......................................................... 371
Creating a Docked Panel Selector for iPad Documents ...... 371
Creating Information Windows............................................. 372
Considerations for Hyperlinks on Images ............................ 373
Summary ................................................................................... 374
Exercises: Application Interconnectivity and Linking
10.1 Using URL API............................................................ 375
10.2 Creating Link Using Link Editor.................................... 381
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11
Designing Widgets Outline:......................................................................................387
Applying Widgets ....................................................................... 388
Widgets in Document........................................................... 390
Report as Widget ................................................................. 391
Data Cloud Widget..................................................................... 393
Date Selection Widget ............................................................... 395
Heat Map Widget ....................................................................... 397
Image Viewer Widget................................................................. 399
Interactive Grid Widget .............................................................. 400
Microcharts Widget .................................................................... 402
Multimedia Widget ..................................................................... 404
Network Visualization Widget .................................................... 405
Timeline Widget ......................................................................... 407
Time Series Widget ................................................................... 409
Summary ................................................................................... 414
Exercises: Designing Widgets
11.1 Create Document for iPad ........................................... 415
12
Apple User Guide for Outline:......................................................................................435
Designing Effective Apps
Best Practices for Designing Effective Apps.............................. 436
Fonts .................................................................................... 436
Colors .................................................................................. 436
Placement of Objects........................................................... 437
Transparent Image Tricks .................................................... 437
Positioning ........................................................................... 438
Thumb Zones....................................................................... 438
System Prompts Demo.............................................................. 442
Transaction Services Demo....................................................... 447
Summary ................................................................................... 450
Configuration and Outline:......................................................................................451
Security
Configuring the MicroStrategy Mobile Apps .............................. 452
Remote Configuration .......................................................... 452
Manual Configuration........................................................... 455
Mobile Security .......................................................................... 456
Network Communication Security........................................ 456
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Dashboard and Mobile Developer Table of Contents
Authentication ...................................................................... 456

Enterprise Deployment .............................................................. 459
Workshop
Creating a Sales Analysis App for iPad ............................... 461
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CHAPTER
1
1 Introduction to Report
Services and Dynamic
Dashboards
Outline:
Overview of MicroStrategy Web Interface
Reports, Cube Reports, Attributes, Metrics, and Filters
What is a Dashboard?
Document Display Modes and Export Formats
Document Subscriptions
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CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to MicroStrategy Business Intelligence
MicroStrategy Web Interface

MicroStrategy Web provides a highly interactive, easy-to-use interface for reporting and data
analysis. It groups together several web pages like the welcome page, login page, project home
pages, and pages that allow you to browse folders, reports, or documents and view results.
Projects Page
The projects page displays the names and descriptions of projects for which the administrator
has granted you permission.
Projects Page
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Login Page
Before you can access a project in MicroStrategy Web, you generally have to log in to the project
with a valid user name and password.
Login Page
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Project Home Page

The Project Home Page displays icons to browse to various folders, create different objects,
change preferences at project level, and search for already existing objects.
Project Home Page
The options displayed on the project home page vary based on the license of the end
user. The above image displays options available to MicroStrategy Web Professionals.
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Project Home Page Options
Option Description
Shared Reports Contains public reports, documents, and other objects

that are shared with other users.
My Reports Enables you to run your own reports. Only you can
access this folder.
History List Enables you to display messages about the reports and
documents that you have scheduled to run.
My Subscriptions Enables you to view and modify report and document

subscriptions
New Dashboard Enables you to create a dashboard from scratch or from a

template
New Report Enables you to create a grid or graph report from scratch
or from a template
New Document Enables you to create an enterprise report, scorecard, or

dashboard with the help of predefined templates
New Prompt Enables you to create a prompt to ask for user input, at
the run time
New Filter Enables you to create a qualification to narrow down your

result set
Import Data Enables you to imports external data into MicroStrategy

from a local file, relational database, or by joining multiple
tables from different sources
New Custom Group Enables you to create a Custom Group object, which
allows you to qualify your report on a row-by-row basis
New Metric Enables you to create a metric to analyze the data
Search Helps you to locate folders, reports, documents, and

other objects
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Project Sidebar
The project sidebar is displayed on the left side of the screen. This feature allows you to access
the functionality of the project home page on all the screens.
Project Sidebar
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MicroStrategy Objects
There are three categories of objects in MicroStrategy:
Configuration objects Configuration objects stores connection information, project
configuration parameters, and security settings. They are managed by the administrators.
Schema objects Schema objects map directly to information in a data source. Facts,
attributes, and hierarchies are schema objects. They are managed by the architects.
Application objectsApplication objects can be created by using schema objects, other
application objects, or some combination of the two. Metrics, templates, filters, and
prompts are application objects. The developers and power users manage them.
All these objects are stored in the MicroStrategy metadata. The following sections describe each
of these object categories in detail.
MicroStrategy Objects
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Report
A report is a request for a specific set of data that we want to display in the document. For
example, the Yearly Category Sales report below, displays the revenue for all the categories,
across all the years:
Yearly Category Sales Report
We may use this report, later on, to create a pie chart visualization on the dashboard. However,
at the report level, we just need to make sure the right data is included, so that we can place it
on the dashboard.
A report relies on other underlying objects created by architects or other developers. The main
components that make-up a report are attributes, metrics, and filters.
Attributes are the descriptive data in the data source, that you want to display on a report or
document. Year and Category are examples of attributes, in the report displayed above.
The quantitative and numeric objects on the report are called Metrics. In the Yearly Category
Sales report, Revenue metric is displayed.
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Filters allow users to set conditions that the data must meet to be included in the report results.
The following image displays the Yearly Category Sales report, after applying a filter on 2011 and
2012 Year attribute elements:
Yearly Category Sales Report with Filter
If you wish to use this filtered Yearly Category Sales report as a source, the dashboard will
display data only for 2011 and 2012 years.
For more information on reports and report development, refer to the Report Developer
course.
Intelligent Cube Reports

You can use Intelligent Cubes or Intelligent Cube reports directly as datasets, with OLAP
services.
Intelligent Cubes are the sets of data that are stored within the MicroStrategy Intelligence
Servers memory.
A good practice is to use an Intelligent Cube as the dataset for a document, as it would result
in faster document execution.
Intelligent Cube reports and documents that use an Intelligent Cube as the dataset, run
50%-100% faster, because they execute directly against the Intelligent Cube rather than
against the data warehouse.
A document can include only one Intelligent Cube as a dataset.

The following image displays a document that uses the Intelligent CubeGeography as the
dataset. When the document is executed, the data is retrieved from the memory of the
Intelligence Server machine, if the Intelligent Cube is published.
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Document with Intelligent Cube as the Dataset
The following image displays a view report, that runs against the Intelligent CubeGeography.
The Report Objects window shows the contents of the Intelligent Cube. The view report,
however, shows a subset of information from the data warehouse.
View Report from Intelligent Cube
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Data Sources
The data that you use in your application to perform analysis comes from various datasources.
Companies may use different platforms such as Teradata, SQL Server, Sybase, Open Source,
Netezza, CSV files, Excel files, Text files, or online storage like Salesforce.com to store the data.
Integration of data from various sources to do the analysis, could be a challenging job. However,
with MicroStrategy Data Import and Multisource Option, you can gather data from any type of
datasources and meet your requirements.
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What is a Dashboard?
A dashboard focuses on the graphical representation of data for any type of business user.
It offers a unified view of data from multiple data sources.
Dashboards make use of tables, graphs, gauges, dials, and other graphical indicators;
conditional formatting; text labels; borders; and background colors. Thus, they appeal
equally to technical and non-technical users.
Few characteristics of dashboards are:
Focus on graphics
Highlight key performance indicators (KPIs)
Use of a single screen
Point-out summary level data and exception reporting
Stress on customization
An example dashboard is displayed in the image below:

Support Center Operations Dashboard
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Business Use Case
In the Health Industry, Hospital Information Dashboards empower the hospital executives and
administrators with real-time financial, operational, and clinical intelligence and reporting.
These dashboards provide a unified view of the hospital across all the departments, service
lines, and functional lines such as quality compliance, bed management and utilization
management. In addition, the dashboards capture and highlight trends or patterns derived from
the historical, current or predictive data, thus empowering you to focus on the right issues at the
right time and take quick, informed decisions.
Hospital Information Dashboard
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Document Display Modes and Export

Formats
Display Modes
MicroStrategy offers following display modes for Desktop and Web interfaces:
Display Modes
Desktop Interface Web Interface
PDF DHTML modes (Express Mode, Interactive Mode,

Export to Microsoft Excel and Editable Mode)
Design Mode Flash Mode
Desktop interface offers basic HTML and Flash preview modes.

The following illustration briefly describes document display modes:
Document Display Modes
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Export Formats
The following table describes the document export formats:
Export Formats
Export Format Description
PDF In Desktop:
- Executing a document, automatically renders the
output in PDF format in Adobe Acrobat Reader
- The client machine generates the PDF output
In MicroStrategy Web:
- Users can export documents to PDF
- The Intelligence Server generates the PDF output
Excel Exporting to Microsoft Excel, sends the document data

to an Excel spreadsheet, retaining the data and
formatting
Document graphs are exported as Microsoft Excel
graphs
You can select the Excel format for export (Excel 2003,
2007, and so on) from Preferences
Exporting single grid You can export a single grid/graph instead of exporting
or graph the entire document
The document must be running in Express Mode
For dashboards/VI, you can also export single
grid/graphs from Flash Mode
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Document Subscriptions
You can create subscriptions to receive Report Services documents to your History List, an email
address, a file server, or a printer.
Document Subscriptions to History List

You can subscribe to a document by choosing a schedule as defined in Intelligence Server. When
the schedule is triggered, Intelligence Server executes the document to your preferred output
format and places a message in your History List.
The following image shows the subscription options available when you subscribe to a
document in MicroStrategy Web.
Subscribe to History List
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Document Subscriptions to Email, File, and Printer

If MicroStrategy Distribution Services is installed and configured on your system, you can
schedule subscriptions to the following outputs:
Email
File server
Printer
You can also set up an immediate email delivery of a document and email delivery notifications
for your History List subscriptions.
When you subscribe to receive a document by email, you can choose from the following delivery
formats:
Flash
HTML
Excel
PDF
Business Use Case
The Operations Manager of a bank has to analyze and compare the Revenue report from that of
the previous day and then email the latest report to the Area Manager of the bank. He also
needs to distribute the hardcopy of the banks Customer Turnover report to the Branch
Manager on a quarterly basis. He achieves these tasks, with the help of MicroStrategy
Distribution Services. He has subscribed the Revenue report to his History List, so that he can
compare the ups and downs in the everyday revenue and draw patterns to analyze trends. He
has also subscribed the Revenue report to the Area Managers email, to keep him updated on a
daily basis. Distribution Services also made it easy for the Operation Manager to just subscribe
the Customer Turnover report to the printer and get a hardcopy sent to the Branch Manager.
Tasks that would have taken a lions share of your time can now be easily accomplished in a
click.
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Summary
In this lesson, you learned the following:
The projects page displays the names and descriptions of all the available projects.
Before you can access a project in MicroStrategy Web, you have to log in to the project with
username and password using the login page.
The project home page displays several options, including Shared Reports, My Reports,
History List, My Subscriptions, Create New Report, Create New Dashboard, Create New
Document, and so on.
Objects in MicroStrategy:
Configuration objects stores connection information, project configuration
parameters, and security settings.
Schema objects map directly to information in a data source. Facts, attributes, and
hierarchies are schema objects.
Application objects can be created by using schema objects, other application objects,
or some combination of the two. Metrics, templates, filters, and prompts are
application objects.
You can view documents in the following display modes:
Design Mode
DHTML modes (Express, Interactive, and Editable)
Flash Mode
PDF
Export to Microsoft Excel
You can create document subscriptions to go to your History List.
With MicroStrategy Distribution Services, you can create document subscriptions to:
Email
File servers
Printers
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CHAPTER
2
2 Visual Insight
Outline:
Introduction to Visual Insight
Using Visual Insight
Visual Insight Manipulations
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CHAPTER 2 | Visual Insight
Introduction to Visual Insight

Visual Insight, or VI, is designed and aimed towards business users who wish to perform a quick
analysis on their data without requiring any aid from their developers or IT department. Users
can perform deep analysis and explore their data to answer questions, which were difficult to
solve previously.
Few key features of Visual Insight are:

VI is fast and can translate data into usable visualizations in minutes.
The entire platform is operated using drag and drop functionality making it extremely
intuitive for users to get started in creating visualizations and dashboards.
Visualizations update on the fly, as and when you drag objects into the workspace.
It is a Flash based technology and thus provides remarkable interactivity speed and offers
bright and vivid interface.
VI is included with the MicroStrategy Report Services product and is accessed in the
MicroStrategy Web interface. Thus, no additional software is needed.
You can also use VI in MicroStrategy Mobile for iPad and MicroStrategy Desktop. However,
in these interfaces, you only have a limited range of interactivity and cannot create new VI
dashboard.
What Is a Visual Insight Dashboard?

A VI dashboard is a type of document, that utilizes VI technology to create instant visualizations.
By default, a VI dashboard opens in Visual Insight mode. Any user can create a VI dashboard to
suit their business needs, as it focuses on immediate and graphical representation of the data.
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A VI dashboard contains of six different panes as illustrated in the image below:

VI Dashboard Panes
Analysis Panes
Pane Description
1. The Dataset Objects Enables you to see the data available for Analysis
pane
2. The Filters pane Enables you to apply conditions to filter the data
3. The Edit Visualization Enables you to control the data displayed in the
pane Visualization pane
4. Layout tabs Enables you to create new layouts, navigate between

layouts or delete the layouts.
5. The Page-by pane Enables you to dynamically page through the data in your
visualization
6. The Visualization This is the main area of the Analysis, where the data is
pane displayed
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You can choose either the dark theme or the light theme to display a VI dashboard. To
view the dashboard in dark theme, on the Tools menu, point to Themes, and select Dark.
Using Visual Insight
Using the Edit Visualization Pane

The Edit Visualization pane is broken into different zones where you arrange the dataset
objects that you want to include in your visualization.
Few most common zones in the Edit Visualization pane are Categories, Series, Metrics, X
Axis, Y Axis, Color By, Size By, and so on.
The zones in the Edit Visualization pane change based on the visualization.
Dataset objects are placed in the zones by dragging them from the Dataset Objects pane to
the Edit Visualization zones.
Placing an object in an incorrect zone in the Edit Visualization pane, displays a red x over
the object.
When a change is made in the Edit Visualization pane, the Visualization pane automatically
refreshes itself and displays the change.
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The following image displays various zones in the Edit Visualization pane:
Edit Visualization Pane
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Visualizations
Visual Insight offers insightful and attractive displays in the Visualization pane. When you create
a new analysis or visualization, the Select a Visualization window enables you to choose the
visualization you want to use. It also suggests a visualization that may be best suited for the
data, by displaying a green thumb over it.
Recommended Visualizations
VI offers a variety of visualizations, and most of them have more than one display style. Thus, it
is easy to find an intuitive and interactive visualization that best suits your business analysis
needs.
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Business Use Case
According to the Head of Business Intelligence Solutions of a company, which is a global provider
of secure financial messaging services to more than 10,000 financial institutions and
corporations in 212 countries - MicroStrategy Visual Insight helps them improve time to market
and test different views on a single screen at the same time. They can also analyze the patterns
and the trends, and provide the most critical business data to the customers, to visualize it in an
intuitive way. All this happens without the support of IT, which not just makes them self-reliable
but also reduces the time consumption in creation of dashboards.
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Visual Insight Manipulations
Filtering
Filter specifies the condition, that the data must meet to be included in the report. You are able
to filter on both attributes and metrics. To apply filters, drag and drop attributes or metrics from
the Dataset Objects pane to the Filters pane.
Filters Pane
The Filters pane header drop-down, lets you control the settings for:
Filtering
Show/hide filters
Display
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Sorting
Sorting lets you specify the order in which the data in a particular row or column is presented. It
can be done by selecting either ascending, descending, or advanced options, from each objects
drop-down menu, in the Edit Visualization pane. Some visualizations offer sorting options in the
object drop-down menu within the visualization.
Sorting in VI
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Page-by
Page-by enables you to select and display subsets of your report results as separate pages. To
display the page-by pane, click Show menu on the toolbar, and select Page-by.
Page-by
When you drag and drop an attribute into the Page-by pane, it will display the attribute
elements as a button bar. You can set the attribute elements to display as a slider or a
drop-down list as well.
The following image displays Year attribute in the Page-by field:

Page-by in a Dashboard
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Drilling
Drilling enables you to see data at levels other than that of the original grid or graph. Drilling is
available in the Grid, Graph Matrix, and Heat Map visualizations. The drill option is available
from the attribute's drop-down menu in your visualization. You can drill to only the dataset
objects that are listed in the Dataset Objects pane.
Drilling
A VI dashboard is unable to retain the parent attribute when drilling.

Thresholds
Thresholds enable you to format report values based on a condition. In an analysis, you can
access thresholds through the drop-down menu of the metrics. With the Thresholds pane, you
can choose how the threshold will be applied to the metric using the following methods:
Value
Highest
Lowest
Highest%
Lowest%
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Thresholds in VI
The following image displays the thresholds formatting window:

Threshold Formatting Window
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The following image displays a grid visualization after applying thresholds to the Handle metric.
Grid Visualization with Thresholds
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Subtotals
Subtotals reflect accumulations at selected attribute levels and can be applied dynamically to
any report. You can access subtotals from each object's drop-down menu, in the Edit
Visualization pane. You can choose to display subtotals at the individual attributes level or even
display a grand total.
Subtotals
Derived Metrics
Derived metrics are built-in metrics that you can create within an analysis, using the objects in
the Dataset Objects pane. Derived metrics are only available in the analysis in which you create
them. You can create derived metrics from attributes, a simple metric, or more than one metric.
For an attribute, you can create a derived metric based on its count, max value, min value, sum,
or average by hovering over Insert Metric in the attributes drop-down menu.
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The following image displays how to create derived metric for the year attribute:
Creating a Derived Metric for an Attribute
You must have MicroStrategy OLAP Services to create derived metrics.
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Business Use Case
A government Unemployment Agency is responsible for all aspects of unemployment in a

country, especially to help job seekers get a job and ensure that they get the payments as per
the law. According to the Head of Unemployment Statistics - with the easy-to-use features and
the flexibility to play with various manipulations in Visual Insight, it becomes easier for them to
support 60 different organizations and above 900 users, with centrally defined KPIs, in top 3
official languages of their country.
They can filter the data for individual users, sort it by the organization, drill to see the lowest
level of KPI data, highlight exceptional data with thresholds, and derive new KPIs on the fly with
derived metrics. They can then present the same to their users.
MicroStrategy Visual Insight satisfies their requirements of a flexible tool, fast answers,
innovative ways of combining the data, and attractive ways of presenting the data.
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Summary
Visual Insight is a powerful tool that lets you explore the data quickly and easily.
An analysis is a type of document that enables you to utilize VI technology to create instant
visualizations.
The different panes that make up an analysis are:
The Dataset Objects pane
The Filters pane
The Edit Visualization pane
Layouts tab
The Page-by pane
The Visualization pane
You place dataset objects you want to display in the visualization in the Edit Visualization
pane.
Visual Insight offers insightful and attractive displays in the Visualization pane.
VI manipulations include the following:
Filtering
Sorting
Page-by
Drilling
Thresholds
Subtotals
Derived Metrics
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CHAPTER 2 | Visual Insight - Exercises
Exercises: Visual Insight
2.1 Creating a Visual Insight Dashboard
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to analyze the category profit and profit margins for
various customer regions, and study the units received by suppliers by creating a Visual
Insight dashboard. At a high level, you will perform the following steps:
Use the Detailed Analysis for Top Selling Products report located in Shared
Reports\Subject Areas\Inventory and Supply Chain Analysis, to create a dashboard
with Vertical Bar-Stacked in Matrix of Bar graphs visualization
The dashboard should display as shown below:
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In a new panel, use the Grid visualization as shown below:
Use the Inventory Received from Suppliers by Quarter dataset, located in Shared
Reports\Subject Areas\Inventory and Supply Chain Analysis, with Grid as shown
below:
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In a new panel, use the Ring in Pie visualization as shown below:
In Panel 1, use the Heat Map visualization as shown below:
Change the Theme to Dark, and save this dashboard as Inventory and Supply Chain
Analysis in My Reports\Exercises
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At the end of this exercise, your dashboard should look like the image below for the Top
Selling Products by Income Bracket layout:
You can use the step-by-step instructions if you need help.
Procedure:
Create Folder
1. On the Windows desktop, click the Start menu, point to All Programs, click
MicroStrategy Products, and click Web.
OR
Type the URL provided by your instructor, in your Internet browser.

2. On the Projects page, click MicroStrategy Tutorial.
3. On the Login page, enter the User name as Administrator, and leave the Password
blank.
OR
On the Login page, in the User name and Password box, type the credentials assigned
to you by your instructor.
4. Click Login.
5. On the project home page, click My Reports.
6. On the project sidebar, click Create, and select New Folder from the drop-down.
7. In the Create Folder window, in Name box, type Exercises.
8. Click OK.
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Create VI Dashboard
9. On the project sidebar, click Shared Reports.

10. Browse to Subject Areas/Inventory and Supply Chain Analysis.
11. Right-click the Detailed Analysis for Top Selling Products report, and select Create
Dashboard as shown below:
12. In the prompt window, keep the default selections.

13. Click Run Dashboard.
Add Vertical Bar - Stacked Visualization
14. In the Select a Visualization window, click Vertical Bar - Stacked.
You can hover your mouse over the visualization to see the name.
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The visualization should display as shown below:
15. On the Show menu, select Dataset Objects.
Visual Insight creates a Row Count summary metric, whenever a dataset is added.
This summary metric counts the number of rows in the dataset.
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16. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Category attribute to the Edit Visualization pane
Columns drop zone.
17. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Income Bracket attribute to the Edit
Visualization pane Columns drop zone.
18. In the Layout 1 tab, click the down arrow, and select Rename.
Hover your mouse on top left of Layout 1 to see the down arrow.
19. Rename the layout as Top Selling Products by Income Bracket.
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You will get the following visualization:
Add Panel
20. On the Tools menu, select Add Panel.
Add Grid Visualization
21. In the new panel, in the visualization pane, click Select a Visualization.
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22. In the Select a Visualization window, click Grid.
23. In the Edit Visualization pane, in the Rows drop zone, click Item.
24. Under Replace With, select Customer Region.
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The grid should display as shown below:
Add Layout
25. In the Layouts tab, click Add Layout.
26. Click the down arrow for Layout 1, and select Rename.
27. Rename the layout as Inventory Received by Supplier.
Add Dataset
28. On the toolbar, click Add Dataset.
29. In the Select Dataset window, from the drop-down, select Shared Reports.
30. Navigate to Subject Areas\Inventory and Supply Chain Analysis.
31. Select the Inventory Received from Suppliers by Quarter report.
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32. Click OK.
Add Grid
33. In the Visualization pane, click Select a Visualization.
34. In the Select a Visualization window, select Grid.

35. Remove the Row Count metric from the metrics drop zone as shown below:
You need to hover your mouse over the Row Count metric.
36. In the Rows drop zone, replace Category with Subcategory.
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Add Panel and Pie Visualization
37. On the Tools menu, select Add Panel.

38. In the new panel, in the Visualization pane, click Select a Visualization.
39. In the Select a Visualization window, click Pie.
40. Click Ring.
41. In the Edit Visualization pane, in the Graph zone, under Series, click Category.
42. Under Replace With, select Supplier.
43. Remove the Row Count metric from the metrics drop zone.
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44. Click the Top Selling Products Analysis layout.

45. Click Panel 1.
Add Heat Map Visualization
46. On the toolbar, click Insert Visualization.
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47. In the new visualization, click Select a Visualization.

48. In the Select a Visualization window, click Heat Map.
49. In the Edit Visualization pane, point to the Heat Map title bar, and click the down
arrow.
50. On the menu, select Remove All Objects.
51. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Category attribute to the Edit Visualization pane
Grouping drop zone.
52. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Customer Region attribute to the Edit
Visualization pane Grouping drop zone.
53. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Revenue metric to the Edit Visualization pane
Size By drop zone.
The above step adds Revenue metric to the Color By drop zone as well.
54. Similarly, drag Profit to the Color By drop zone.
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Profit metric will replace the Revenue metric in the Color By drop zone.
55. To give the Visualization pane more room, on the Show menu, select Dataset Objects.
Change Theme
56. On the Tools menu, point to Theme, and select Dark.
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57. Press and hold the Vertical Bar - Stacked graph title bar, and drag it below the Heat
Map.
You should see a horizontal blue colored line below the heat map indicating the
placement.
58. On the toolbar at the top of the VI dashboard, click Save.

59. In the Save As window, save the VI dashboard in the My Reports folder, under
Exercises as Inventory and Supply Chain Analysis.
60. Click OK.
61. In the Dashboard Saved window, click Run newly saved dashboard.
The Top Selling Products by Income Bracket layout should display as shown below:
2.2 Visual Insight Manipulations
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to analyze the supplier data, and identify exceptions by
performing visual insight manipulations on the Visual Insight dashboard created in the
previous exercise. At a high level, you will perform the following steps:
In the Top Selling Products by Income Bracket layout, use subtotal on the grid
visualization to see the Total for Profit and Profit Margin.
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In the Inventory Received by Supplier layout, derive the Percent to Total (Units
Received) metric in the Grid visualization.
Define conditions on the Percent to Total (Units Received) derived metric in the grid,
as shown below:
0%-20% red
20%-80% yellow
80%-100% green
In the Inventory Received by Supplier layout, drill from Subcategory to Quarter, and
add Category to the page-by pane.
Filter on the pie visualization to see the units received for the Books category.
Procedure:
Open Inventory and Supply Chain Analysis
1. On the MicroStrategy Web home page, click the MicroStrategy Tutorial project.
2. Log in using the login name as Administrator, and a blank password.
3. Navigate to the following path: My Reports\Exercises.
4. Click Inventory and Supply Chain Analysis.
7. Optionally, on the Tools menu, point to Theme, and select Light.
Add Subtotals
8. On the Top Selling Products by Income Bracket layout, select Panel 2.
9. In the Edit Visualization pane Rows drop zone, click the down arrow for Customer
Region, point to Show Totals, and select Total.
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10. Click OK.
Add Derived Metric
11. Click the Inventory Received by Supplier layout.
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12. In Panel 1, in the Dataset Objects pane, click the down arrow on Units Received, point
to Insert Metric, point to Percent to Total, and select Grand Total.
IfObjects
the Dataset Objects pane is hidden, you may click on Show, and select Dataset
to display the above pane.
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Add Thresholds
13. Click the down arrow on the Percent to Total(Units Received) derived metric, and
select Rename.
14. Rename the derived metric %Units Received.
15. Drag %Units Received to the Metrics drop zone.
16. In the Edit Visualization pane, hover your mouse on the %Units Received metric, click
the down arrow, and select Thresholds.
17. In the Thresholds: %Units Received window, ensure that the following settings are
selected:
18. Click OK.
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Drill to Quarter
19. On the Grid, click the down arrow on Subcategory.

20. Select Drill to Quarter.
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Add Filter
21. In the Inventory Received by Supplier layout, and select Panel 2.
22. In the Filters pane, under Category, clear the All check box.
23. Select the Books check box.
The visualization should now display as shown below:
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Insert Page-by
24. On the analysis toolbar, on the Show menu, select Page-by.
25. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Category attribute to the Page-by, and in the
Filters pane, under Category, select the All check box.
26. On the toolbar, click Save As.

27. In the Save As window, save the VI dashboard in the My Reports\Exercises as Supplier
Analysis for Books Category.
28. Click OK.
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CHAPTER
3
3 Creating Documents
Outline:
Introduction to the Document Editor
Creating Documents
Document Objects
Grouping, Section Headers and Behavior
Document-level Data Manipulations
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CHAPTER 3 | Creating Documents
Introduction to the Document Editor

To create a new document or edit an existing document in MicroStrategy Web, you use the
Document Editor in Design Mode. This document display mode shows the following sections:
Accordion with the Dataset Objects pane, the Document Structure pane, Notes pane, and
the Related Reports pane
Depending on your privileges, you may see some or all of the above panes.
Grouping Panel
Layout Area
The following image displays various sections in the Document Editor:

Document Editor
The Document Editor displays different sections and objects in the Layout area,
depending on the document template you select.
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Accordion
Dataset Objects Pane
The Dataset Objects pane displays existing MicroStrategy reports available as source
data for the document.
You can add a standard report, view report, or an Intelligent Cube as a dataset by
clicking Add Dataset
If you add multiple datasets to a document, the Intelligence Server performs a
compound join between the datasets to produce the final document.
Document Structure Pane
The Document Structure pane makes it easier to select individual objects as it displays
content of each document section, in a tree view.
You can right-click any object and choose from a variety of placement and formatting
options.
Notes Pane
Notes enable document designers and end users to add comments to the documents.
Related Reports Pane
The Related Reports pane lets you access additional reports or documents that are
stored in the same folder as, the document you are viewing.
Grouping Panel
If the source report has an attribute in the page-by section, this attribute becomes a
grouping object in the document.
The document automatically displays a header and footer section of the grouping object.
In addition, a dynamic text box containing the objects name, such as {Region}, displays in
the custom header section.
This happens only when you right-click the report, and select create document.
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The following image displays both, the Call Center Performance report, and document:
Call Center Performance Report and Document
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Layout Area
The following table describes various sections in the Layout area:
Layout Area Sections
Section Name Description
Page Header This section is displayed at the top of each page in the
document
Document designers use it to show page numbers,
corporate logos, company name, and so on
Document Header This section displays once, on the first page of the
document, below the Page Header section
It is used extensively for the cover page of the
document, and to display grand totals and summary
level data
Detail Header This section displays once, above the detailed data, on
every page
It is very useful for adding column headers to Detail
Section data and to display MicroStrategy grids/graphs
Detail This section displays the detailed level information on

the document by showing one row for each row of data
in the dataset
Mostly used to display attribute elements and metrics
information
Detail Footer This section displays once, directly below the detailed
data on every page
It is extensively used to display subtotals
Document Footer This section displays once, on the last page of the
document
It is mostly used to display summary or the filter details
of the document
Page Footer This section displays at the bottom of each page of the
document
It is mostly used to show page numbers, copy right
information, and so on
Custom Headers and Custom sections are created when you add objects to the
Footers Grouping panel of the document
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The following image shows different sections in the Layout area:

Layout Area
Detail Section Behavior
When you place attributes and metrics in the detail section, the document displays data for each
row that exists in the dataset. The Detail section is the only section in the layout area, where you
cannot add grid or graph objects.
Consider a report having two attributes, Region and Year, and a Revenue metric, which serves as
a dataset for the document.
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The following image displays the original report which is used as dataset and repetition of the
data after placing Year and Revenue in the Detail section:
Repeating Data in the Detail Section
The data repeats because the revenue values display for each Year and Region, even though
Region is currently not in the Detail section. To avoid this type of repetition, a good practice
would be to do one of the following:
Place all other attributes into the Detail section.
Group by all attributes not placed in the Detail section.
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The image below displays the view after placing the Region attribute in the grouping panel:
Document Using Custom Grouping Section
Grouping, Section Headers and Behavior

Report Services adds a custom header and footer for each attribute that is placed in the
grouping panel.
Important factors about grouping:
The order in which you place attributes into the Grouping panel impacts the order of
the output.
It is a good practice to group on attributes that are at a higher logical level than those
used in the Detail section.
The grouping and sorting dataset controls how data is grouped for a banded
document and also how the data is sorted within the document.
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Grouping Properties enable you to control the layout and display of your document. To access
these properties, right-click the attribute in the Grouping panel, and select Grouping Properties.
Grouping Properties
Headers and Footers
The header and footer sections are useful for:

Labeling columns of data that display in the Detail section
Displaying grids or graphs
Displaying totals and subtotals
The following image displays the behavior of attribute dynamic text boxes and metric dynamic
text boxes when placed in the Page Header / Footer or Document Header / Footer:
Page Header/Footer or Document Header/Footer Behavior
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The following image displays the behavior of attribute dynamic text boxes and metric dynamic
text boxes when placed in Detail Header / Footer:
Detail Header/Footer Behavior
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Creating Documents
You can create documents using existing reports or by using out-of-the-box document
templates.
Creating Documents from a Document Template

MicroStrategy offers a variety of out-of-the-box templates that help speed up the document
creation process. These dashboard and document templates are displayed on the Create
Document page.
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The following images display dashboard and document templates that come in a variety of
formats:
Dashboard and Document Templates
Business Use Case
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The Director of Maintenance in the Aerospace and Defense sector is responsible for
analyzing enterprise reports related to the operations of the Avionics department. The
Avionics Manager manages the routine maintenance and troubleshooting done by the
Avionics Technicians. He supervises and reviews the operations of the Avionics department
and sends detailed reports to the Director of Maintenance on a monthly basis. The Avionics
Manager uses MicroStrategy Report Services to create powerful, interactive, and intuitive
classic and operational enterprise reports.
He has a customized document template created for his department that reflects the
company logo in every page of the document, using the Page Header.
He uses the Detail Header to show the number of maintenance tasks accomplished by each
Avionics Technician in a month, in a grid view. In the same section of the document, he uses
the graph view to show the number of call logs by customers, in a quarter.
He uses concatenating text in the Document Footer to display total number of call logs and
summarize the exceptional data displayed on the document.
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He then uses MicroStrategy Distribution Services to send the document to the Director of
Maintenance, who can then share it across the Enterprise.
MicroStrategy Report Services ensures that your documents are future-proof, that the same
platform can meet your requirements, as your needs change and expand over time.
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Document Objects
MicroStrategy Grid/Graphs
After you add a dataset in the Dataset Objects pane, you can add it to the Layout area. When
you drag a dataset into the Layout area, it becomes a grid/graph object. The following image
displays a grid report in Design Mode and Express Mode:
Grid Object
Grid/Graph objects allow you to include data from only one dataset at a time.
MicroStrategy recommends using one of the dashboard templates, to design documents
containing grid/graphs, as these templates use the detail header section by default. In addition,
the placeholders make the positioning and placement of these objects, easier.
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With the shortcut to dataset, after you change the formatting of the original report and run the
document again, the document automatically displays the changes.
Images
You can insert images into any section of a document. The image must be available to both, the
Intelligence Server, and the document designers. If the designers do not have access to the
image, they cannot see the image while creating the document.
To make the image available as needed, use any of the following options:
An http reference to a central Web server machine, such as
http://microstrategy/Test/myimage.jpg.
Use this type of reference for documents that display in Flash Mode.
A full path to the image on a shared network drive, such as
\\my_computer\shared\myimage.jpg.
A partial or relative path, such as images\myimage.jpg. Make sure the image is copied in all
of the following folders:
Desktop\images
Intelligence Server\images
Web ASPx\images
Text and Auto Text

You can insert text into any section of a document using text boxes. You can also specify the
size, transparency, borders, font, and many other formatting features for these text boxes as
well.
You can concatenate static and dynamic text to create dynamic sentences. When the text is
surround with braces {}, the text is treated as data, if an object in the dataset matches the
text in braces.
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For example, if your dataset contains the Year attribute and the Revenue metric, you can
insert a text box that dynamically populates the {Year} and {Revenue} text with data, as
shown in the following image:
Static and Dynamic Text
Auto text fields are variables that can be inserted into a document to dynamically display at
run time. They are reserved words and are preceded with an ampersand (&).
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You can create calculation on the fly with the help of Calculated Expressions. For example, the
image below displays a calculated expression, which sums the current revenue and last years
revenue:
Calculated Expression
The following table lists the auto text codes for a document:
Auto Text Codes
Auto Text Description
{&PAGE} Inserts the current page
{&NPAGES} Inserts the total number of pages into a document or in

the groups section before page numbering restarts
{&DATETIME} Inserts the current date and time of the client computer
when the document executes
{&USER} Inserts the full name, not the login, of the MicroStrategy
user who executes the document
{&DOCUMENT} Inserts the saved name of the document
{&DESCRIPTION} Inserts a documents description
{&PROJECT} Inserts the name of the MicroStrategy Project where the

document is saved
{&EXECUTIONTIME} Inserts the time the document executes
{&NOTES} Inserts notes
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Auto Text Codes
Auto Text Description
{&REPORTNAME: Inserts the description of the specified dataset

DESCRIPTION}
{&REPORTNAME: Inserts the filtering criteria (report filter and report limit)
FILTERDETAILS} used in the dataset
{&REPORTNAME: Inserts prompt information for all prompts in the specified

PROMPTDETAILS} dataset
{&REPORTNAME: Inserts as many report details as you want to include,

REPORTDETAILS} such as filter details, template details, and prompt details,
for the specified dataset
{&REPORTNAME: Inserts the filtering criteria for the report filter used in the
REPORTFILTERDETAILS} dataset
{&REPORTNAME: Inserts the report limit details for the dataset

REPORTLIMITDETAILS}
{&REPORTNAME: Inserts the complete template details, including attributes

TEMPLATEDETAILS} and metrics, for the specified dataset
{&REPORTNAME: Inserts the date and time the dataset was executed
EXECUTIONTIME}
Attributes, Metrics, Custom Groups, and Consolidations

You can add attributes, metrics, custom groups, and consolidations from one or more
datasets to any section of the document.
After adding, these objects are denoted by braces { }. For example, dynamic text like
{Employee} would render employees name such as Doe, John, when the document is
viewed in interactive or express mode.
Objects that contain spaces or special characters must be surrounded by square brackets [].
For example, {[Employee Age]}.
To display attribute form, suffix @attribute_form after the object name, within the braces.
For example, {Employee@[Last Name]}.
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Document-level Data Manipulations

Generally, when you perform manipulations, it affects the SQL of the report. However, if you
perform manipulations like, create a summary metric, or create derived elements, this will not
generate a new SQL. These manipulations are performed at document level, without altering the
underlying report or its SQL.
Tolicense.
perform document level data manipulations, you need MicroStrategy OLAP services
The analytical engine of the intelligence server is responsible for these document
level calculations.
Summary Metrics
Summary metrics enable you to control the aggregation function used to calculate a subtotal for
any given metric.
The following document displays the Max (Revenue) summary metric:

Summary Metric
The Max (Revenue) summary metric uses the MAXIMUM aggregation operator and calculates
the highest revenue figure.
Derived Elements
Derived elements help you to create custom groupings of attribute elements.
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You can also create new calculations that display in addition to the elements that comprise
them.
The following image displays the original report, custom grouped report, and report displaying a
new calculation:
Derived Elements
The custom grouped report, groups Northwest and Northeast regions and displays them as a
single element North. The next report, creates a new calculation, North+Central, and displays it
as an element in the grid report, in addition to the elements that comprise them.
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A Filter derived element uses a filter qualification to determine which combination of attribute
elements to include in the derived element. For example, if you want to filter the regions in a
report into geographical groups based on the region names, you can create a Filter derived
element called South, which groups together attribute elements whose names begin with South:
Filter Derived Element
Business Use Case
The Sales and Production Manager in a Garment Industry, needs to send an Enterprise Reporting
Document to the Investors. This document should contain information about the new products,
which the company is planning to launch and the estimated revenue turnover. Company has
proposed to launch a series of special products for each season. The manager is using a report
with Month, Products, Cost Price, and Estimated Unit Sold, as the dataset to create a document.
The objective of this document is to attract the investors by promoting the seasonal sales offer.
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Hence, the manager used the Derived Elements functionality of MicroStrategy Report Services
to group months to form seasons. He grouped December, January, and February to create
Winter Season, and so on. Using the Summary metric, he calculated the Maximum Estimated
Unit Sold. He then used the Pie graph to depict the estimated revenue turnover for every
season.
MicroStrategy helps you promote your ideas in the most simple, lucid, yet elegant way.
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Summary
You use the Document Editor in Design Mode, to create a new document or edit an existing
document in MicroStrategy Web.
Design mode shows the following sections:
Dataset Objects pane, Document Structure pane, Notes pane, and the Related
Reports pane
Layout area
Grouping panel
The Layout area window is where you define the content for a document. It consists of the
following sections:
Page Header and Page Footer
Document Header and Document Footer
Detail Header and Detail Footer
Detail
Custom headers and footers
You can create documents using existing reports or by using out-of-the-box document
templates.
In a document, you can insert objects such as, individual attributes, metrics, custom groups,
and consolidations from MicroStrategy reports; text boxes; Auto texts; and images.
Summary metrics enable you to control the aggregation function that calculates a subtotal
for any given metric on a document.
Derived elements are custom groupings of attribute elements that aggregate at the group
level. You can group multiple elements on a grid to display as a single element, replacing its
individual components.
You can use Intelligent Cubes as well as reports based on Intelligent Cubes as datasets in
Report Services documents.
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CHAPTER 3 | Creating Documents - Exercises
Exercises: Creating Documents
3.1 Basic Document
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to create an enterprise reporting document to analyze the
profit earned by various brands across different customer regions. At a high level, you will
perform the following steps:
In the Exercises folder, create a document using the Brand Performance by Region
report located in Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Sales and Profitability Analysis.
Save the document as Regional Sales by Brand.
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CHAPTER 3| Creating Documents - Exercises
In the design mode, the document should display as shown below:
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Procedure:
Create Document
1. On the MicroStrategy Tutorial project home page, under Create, click New Document.
2. In the Create Document window, under Document Templates, click Blank Document.
3. In the Dataset Objects pane, click Add Dataset.
4. In the Select Dataset window, navigate to Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Sales and

Profitability Analysis, and select the Brand Performance by Region report.
5. Click OK.
Insert and Format Auto-text in the Page Header
6. In the Layout area, expand the Page Header section.

7. On the Insert menu, point to Auto-text, and select Date/Time.
8. In the Page Header, right-click the auto-text: {&DATETIME}, and select Properties and
Formatting.
9. In Properties and Formatting window, under Format, click Number.
10. Under Number, select Date.
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11. Under Type, select April 7, 1998.
12. Click OK.

13. Drag the text box to the extreme right of the document canvas.
You
box.
can also use the Right Arrow navigation key in the keyboard to move the text
Add and Format Title
14. In the layout area, expand the Document Header section.

15. On the Insert menu, click Text.
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16. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position a text box in the Document Header such
that, it takes up the width of the section.
17. In the text box, type Brand Performance by Region.
18. Right-click the text box, and select Properties and Formatting.
19. Under Format, click Colors and Lines.
20. Under Fill, in the Color drop-down, select Grey-25%.
21. Under Format, click Font.

22. Under Font, select Tahoma, and under Size, select 20.
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23. In the Properties and Formatting window, under Format, click Alignment.
24. Under Text Alignment, in the Horizontal drop-down, select Center.
25. Click OK.
The Document Header should display as shown below:
Save the Document
26. On the toolbar, click Save.
You
lost.
must save your work often, in order to avoid loss of work in case the session is
27. In the Save As window, save the document in the My Reports\Exercises folder, as
Regional Sales by Brand.
28. Click OK.
29. In the Document Saved window, click Return to Design Mode.
30. Click the Detail Header section.
31. Right-click the white space, and select Properties and Formatting.
32. In the Properties and Formatting window, under Properties, select Layout.

33. Under Size, select the Height can shrink check box.
34. Click OK.
Add Grid to Layout Area
35. In the Dataset Objects pane, right-click the Brand Performance by Region dataset,
and select Add to Section without Formatting.
The grid is added to the Detail Header section.

36. In the Detail Header section, drag the Profit and Revenue Rank by Region metrics
from the grid to the Dataset Objects pane.
Alternatively, you can also right-click the metric, and select Remove from Grid.
Format Grid
37. In the layout area, right-click the grid, and select Properties and Formatting.
39. Under Size, under Width, in the Fixed at text box, type 6.8750.
40. Under Height, in the Fixed at text box, type 3.1250.
41. Click OK.
Switch the Grid to a Graph
42. Right-click on the grid, point to View Mode, and select Graph View.

Add a Section to the Detail Header
43. Right-click the blank space in the Detail Header section below the graph, and select
Insert Section Below.
Add Static Text Box to the Detail Header Section
44. Click the Detail Header section.

45. In the Dataset Objects pane, pressing CTRL, select Customer Region, Brand and Profit.
46. Right-click the selections, and select Add to Section as Static Text.
The selections are added to the newly created sub-section.

47. On the Format toolbar, click Bold.
Todemand.
see the Format toolbar click on the Format menu. This toolbar is loaded on

48. Position the Customer Region, Brand, and Profit labels to display as shown below:
49. Position and resize the Detail Header section as shown below:

Add Dynamic Text Box to the Detail section
50. Select the Detail section, if not already selected.

51. In the Dataset Objects pane, pressing CTRL, select Customer Region, Brand, and
Profit.
52. Right-click the selections, and select Add to Section as Dynamic Text.
53. Position the dynamic text boxes, so that they line up under their labels.
54. In the Format toolbar, change the alignment of {Profit} to Left.
55. Click the Detail section.

56. Right-click the white space, and select Properties and Formatting.
58. Under Size, select the Height can shrink check box.
59. Click OK.
Add Text Box to the Detail Footer Section
60. Click the Detail Footer section header bar.

61. On the Insert menu, select Text.
62. Using cross-hairs cursor place and position the text box towards the left, in the Detail
Footer section.
63. In the text box, type Total Profit.
65. Add another text box, and type {Profit} as shown below:
Add Objects to the Grouping Pane
66. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Category attribute to the Grouping section.

67. Similarly, add the Customer Region attribute to the Grouping section.
68. Collapse the Category and Customer Region header and footer sections.
69. Right-click the Customer Region static text in the Detail Header section, and select
Delete.
70. Right-click the {[Customer Region]} dynamic text in the Detail section, and select Cut.
71. Right-click in the Detail Header section, and select Paste.
72. In the Format tool, select Bold.
These steps have been added to make you familiar with copy\cut paste of objects
across sections.
Customer Region dynamic text should be positioned where Customer Region

static text was located.
Add Auto-text to the Page Footer Section
73. Expand the Page Footer section.

74. On the Insert menu, point to Text.
75. Using the cross-hairs cursor, position the text box to the extreme right of the Page
Footer section.
76. Double-click the text box, and type Page {&PAGE} of {&NPAGES}.

Add Lines
77. Add two lines, and using cross-hairs cursor, place and position two lines at the end of
the Detail Header, and at the beginning of the Detail Footer sections as shown below:
Format in Editable Mode
78. On the toolbar, select Editable Mode.

79. Click the Brand Performance by Region graph.
80. On the Format menu, select Graph.
81. In the Format: Graph window, under Format, select Format.
82. In the Format drop-down list, select Titles.
83. In the All Titles drop-down list, select Title.
84. Under Format, clear the Show check box.

85. In the Titles drop-down list, select Axes.
Axes.
Selecting Axes in the first drop-down list, changes the second drop-down to All
86. Under Style, select Bold.

87. Under Size, select 7.
88. In the Axes drop-down list, select Format.

89. In the All Text drop-down list, select Legend.

92. Click OK.

93. Under Grouping, select Electronics from the Category drop-down.
94. Under Grouping, select Northeast from the Customer Region drop-down, if not
already selected.

The document should display as shown below:

Export to PDF
95. On the Home menu, point to Export, and select PDF.
Iftheyourmenudocument/dashboard is in the full screen mode, you will not be able to see
options. You may toggle out of the full screen mode by the clicking the
full screen mode icon in the toolbar.
96. On the PDF window, select the Expand Page-by check box, if not already selected.
97. Click OK.

A snippet of the PDF should display as shown below:
98. Close the browser tab with PDF, without saving it.
99. Save the document, replacing the earlier version of it.

3.2 OLAP Services
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to further study the regional sales by brand document at a
higher level using summary metrics. You will also derive new profit calculations by
grouping already existing regions into new zones. At a high level, you will perform the
following steps:
Derive the average and maximum profit figures in the Regional Sales by Brand
document.
In a new layout use a grid to compare the Revenue with Last Year's Revenue.
Save the document, replacing its earlier version.
Procedure:
Open Regional Sales by Brand
1. Navigate to the path: My Reports\Exercises.

2. Right-click the Regional Sales by Brand document, and select Edit.

Create Summary Metrics
3. In the Dataset Objects pane, right-click the Profit metric, point to Insert Summary
Metric, and select Maximum.
4. Similarly, create a summary metric on Profit metric to calculate averages.
The Dataset Objects pane should display as shown below:
5. On the Insert menu, point to Shape, and select Rectangle.

6. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position a rectangle in the Customer Region
Header such that, it takes up the width of the section.
7. Right-click the rectangle, and select Properties and Formatting.
8. Under Format, click Colors and Lines.
9. Under Fill, select Grey-25% from the Color drop-down.
10. Click OK.
11. In the Dataset Objects pane, right-click Customer Region, and select Add to Section as
Dynamic Text.
13. In the Dataset Objects pane, pressing CTRL, select Average (Profit), and
Maximum (Profit).
14. Right-click the selections, and select Add to Section as Static Text.
16. In the Dataset Objects pane, pressing CTRL, select Average (Profit) and Maximum
(Profit).
17. Right-click the selections, and select Add to Section as Dynamic Text.
18. Position the Customer Region, Average (Profit) and Max (Profit) labels as shown
below:

A snippet of the document should display as shown below:
Create Layout
20. On the Insert toolbar, select Layout.

21. On the Insert Layout window, click the Document Layouts tab, and select Blank
Document.
22. Click OK.

23. Right-click Layout 1, and select Rename.

24. In the Rename Layout window, type Brand Performance by Region.
25. Click OK.

26. Similarly, rename Layout 2 as .
27. Click OK.
Add Title
28. Switch to Design Mode.

29. In the Brand Performance by Region layout, under Layout Header, right-click the text
box, and select Copy.
30. Click the Regional Performance layout.
31. Under Layout Header, right-click the text box, and select Paste.
Expand the Layout Header section in the Regional Performance layout if not
already expanded.
32. Double-click the section text box, delete the text, and type Regional Performance.

Add and Format Grid
33. Click the Detail Header.

34. In the Dataset Objects pane, right-click the Brand Performance by Region dataset,
and select Add to Section without Formatting.
35. In the Detail Header, drag Brand, Category, Profit, Revenue Rank by Region,
Average (Profit), and Maximum(Profit) from the grid to the Dataset Objects pane.
Alternatively, you can insert a new grid and add objects Customer Region, Last
Year's (Revenue), and Revenue.
36. In the layout area, right-click the grid, and select Properties and Formatting.
38. Under size, under Width, in the Fixed at text box, type 6.8750.
39. Under Height, in the Fixed at text box, type 3.1250.
40. Click OK.
41. Right-click the grid, point to View Mode, and select Grid and Graph View.
Format Graph in Editable Mode

43. Click the grid-graph.
44. On the Format menu, select Graph.
45. Under Format: Graph window, under Format, select Format.


52. In the Axes drop-down list, select Format.


56. Click OK.
Create Derived Elements
57. Pressing CTRL, select Northeast and Southeast rows in the grid.
58. Right-click the selections, and select Create Group.

59. On the Create Group window, in Group Name text box, type East.
60. Click OK.

61. Right-click the Customer Region header in the grid, and select Derived Elements.
62. In the Derived Elements window, click New, and type West in the text box.

63. On the Create Group window, in the Group Name text box, after typing West, and
click the green check mark.
64. From the Available box, select Northwest and Southwest and move them to the
Selected box.
65. Click OK.

Save the Document

67. In the Confirm Save window, click OK.


CHAPTER
4
4 Creating Dynamic
Dashboards
Outline:
Dashboard Templates
Dashboard Layering
Panels and Panel Stacks
Panel Stack as Information Window
Selectors
2013, DataTutors
CHAPTER 4 | Creating Dynamic Dashboards
Dashboard Templates
Dashboard templates speed up the document creation process, as they contain predefined
zones to add document objects. When you begin creating a new document, the dashboard
templates display as shown in the image below:
Dashboard Templates
Few default characteristics of the dashboard templates are:

The panel stack displays with a grey background fill color, rounded edges, a drop shadow,
and no borders. Only one panel is displayed by default.
The default display mode is the Interactive Mode.
Available export formats include Excel, PDF, HTML, and Flash.
When you switch from Design Mode to Express Mode, Interactive Mode, Editable Mode, or
Flash Mode, the document displays in Full Screen Mode by default.
Objects that you add to the predefined zones of the dashboard template, automatically take
up the entire width and height of the panel stack.
Title bars are enabled by default and display with a grey gradient fill color.
Dashboard templates have a single layout.

Dashboard Layering
Panels and Panel Stacks

Panels and panel stacks are essential building blocks of interactive dynamic dashboards. A panel
is a predefined portion of the document canvas that contains any content, such as grids, graphs,
text boxes, images, and so forth. Panel stack act as a container for panels. Multiple panels can be
stacked on top of each other.
You can organize dashboards in two ways:

Layers of dashboard panelUse a large panel stack as the basis for a multilayered dashboard
Layers of analytic panelLayer grids and graphs on a single panel stack within a larger
dashboard
The following image displays layers of dashboard panel and analytic panel:
Dashboard Layers

The Support Center dashboard displays the general overview, support region performance, and
the production adoption views to analyze the customer support performance:
Dashboard Panel Selector
Apanel
panel can contain a panel stack which in turn may hold various other panels. Such
stacks are called 'Nested Panel Stacks'.

You will use the analytic panel method to layer two (or more) panels, each containing a different
grid or graph, within a single panel stack:
Analytic Panel Selector
Selectors displayed in various styles, such as radio buttons, drop-down lists, sliders, list boxes,
check boxes, button bars, and link bars.
Inserting and Defining Panel Stacks

The following steps outline the procedure for inserting and defining panels:
When you insert a panel stack, a single panel is automatically added to it.
You may display the panel name in the title bar.
If needed, insert additional panels to hold the layers of data.
Add objects like graphs, text boxes, images, and so forth to each panel.

Specify an order for the panels. By default, panels display in the order in which they were
added.
Choose a panel to display when users initially view the document.
Format the panel stack, panels, and title bar.
Add a selector to enable users to switch between panels.

Panel Stack as Information Window

Information windows let users view additional information about an attribute element. When a
user taps on a particular attribute element, a window is displayed besides it, displaying
additional information. For example, when a user clicks the Northeast region corresponding to
the Electronics category, an information window is displayed as shown below:
Information window
You can hide the information window by clicking anywhere outside of the grid.

To use panel stacks as information windows, set the panel stack property as shown below:
Use as Information Window
MicroStrategy 9.3.1 enables selectors, text boxes, images, and buttons to control the
information windows. In the previous versions, it was only limited to widgets, grids, and
graphs.

Selectors
Selectors allow the users to flip through the panels in a panel stack, or display different
attribute, custom group, or consolidation elements or metrics in a Grid/Graph.
For more information on Consolidations and Custom Group objects, refer to the Report
Developer course.
The following table describes the properties, you need to specify while defining a selector:
Selector Components
Component Description
Selector style Determines the display style of the selector
Action type Determines whether a selector displays elements,

metrics, or panels
Source Source can be an attribute, custom group, or

consolidation whose elements display in the selector. It is
defined only when the selector displays elements.
Target(s) Determines which grids, graphs, selectors, or panel

stacks the selector affects
Note that a selector can only target another selector, a panel stack, or a grid/graph object.

Panel Selector
A panel selector is used to switch between multiple panels in a panel stack. The following image
shows the panel selectors properties, and the corresponding document using that selector:
Panel Selector
In the above example, the panel stack contains two panels. The selectors action type is to select
a panel, and its target is the panel stack on which the Regional Revenue Report and the Growth
Graph panels are placed.
Ensure that you place the selector outside the panel stack. If placed inside, while
switching between the panels, the selector may disappear.

Attribute Elements Selector in a Graph

The attribute element selector allows you to choose which attribute elements should be
displayed in a Grid/Graph. For example, in the image below, the selector lets the user select
years for which they wish to view the data:
Attribute Element Selector

Metric Selector in a Grid/Graph

The Metric selector allows users to choose which metrics they want to display in a Grid/Graph.
The selector lists all of the metrics contained in the grid report. You can select the metrics of
your interest on the selector and they will show up, on the target grid report. For example, the
user selects the Revenue and Last Year's (Revenue) metric on the selector, as shown below:
Metric Selector on a Grid
Multiple metrics can be selected by holding the CTRL key on your keyboard. This is
possible only if allow multiple selections check box is selected in the selector properties.

Metric Condition Selector

You can create a metric condition selector that allows users to filter data based on the value of a
metric. For example, in the image below, the Revenue slider allows you to filter the target report
data, based on the slider range you select:
Metric Condition Selector
A metric slider has only two display styles metric slider and metric qualification.

Targeting a Dynamic Text Box Using a Selector

You can create a selector that controls the dynamic text on a panel stack. For example, as shown
in the image below, a user selects the Mid-Atlantic region and the dynamic text box below it,
automatically displays the selected region along with its revenue value:
Selector Controlling Dynamic Text on a Panel Stack
Adynamic
selector cannot target a dynamic text box directly. The work around is, to place the
text box on the panel, targeted by the selector.

Selector Targeting Another Selector

You can create a selector that targets another selector. In this case, the source selector filters
the options displayed in the target selector. For example, in the image below, when the user
selects a particular category from the Category selector, the Subcategory selector below it, is
updated to display only the subcategories that fall under the selected category:
Category Selector Targets the Subcategory Selector
In the above example, the user first selects the Electronics category. This dynamically updates
the subcategory selector and allows user to make their selection. The user then selects Cameras,
Computers, and Electronics - Miscellaneous subcategories, to control the elements of the grid
report.

Analytic-Based Selector
Analytic-Based Selectors lets you use a grid/graph as a source for a selector. For example, in the
below image, a user selects Northeast region in the bar graph and the pie chart below it
automatically displays the call center revenue contribution for the selected region:
Analytic Based Selector Example
Report Condition Selector

The Report Condition Selector filters from the database, in contrast to the conditional selectors,
where filtering is executed in the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server memory. Thus with this
selector, the database takes the burden of the filtering load.
Only grid selectors support the Report Condition Selector.

Grouping and Selectors

Grouping can be used to customize the output of selectors. Depending on the grouping item you
select, the elements in the selector will change. The image below uses grouping on the Category
attribute and a radio button selector on the Subcategory attribute to control the grid output.
When a user selects the Movies category from the grouping pane, the radio button selector
automatically displays, only the Movies Subcategories:
Grouping and Selectors Example
While using this option, make sure you uncheck the option apply selections as a filter
check box, from the selector properties.

Automatically Apply Selector Changes

To assist in quick document creation MicroStrategy automatically updates the target object, as
soon as the user chooses an item in the selector. However, a user may choose to manually apply
the selections. To do this, the user must clear the Automatically apply selector changes check
box in the Document Properties window as shown below:
Automatically Apply Selector Changes Check Box Property
Disabling this option enables the user to choose when to update the target. This way, the user
can select a single item or multiple items before clicking an Apply button on a floating toolbar to
update the target.
The Automatically apply selector changes option applies to an entire document or

dashboard, not to individual selectors.
Automatically Maintain Targets for Selectors

To simplify the design process, dashboards are configured to automatically define and maintain
the targets for all selectors in the document.
If targets are automatically maintained:

MicoStrategy facilitates that all attribute and metric selectors will automatically target all
panel stacks and grid/graphs, that are in the same panel or document section as the selector.

Target of an attribute or metric selector cannot be changed, except by moving controls to

different document sections.
If a new grid/graph or panel stack is added, it automatically becomes the target of all
attribute and metric selectors in the same panel or document section.
You always have to manually define the targets for panel selectors.
The following image displays the Properties and Formatting window for a metric selector, with
automatic target maintenance enabled:
Automatic Target Maintenance Enabled

To disable the automatic target maintenance for an entire document layout, set the property as
shown in the image below:
Automatic Target Maintenance Property for Entire Document
Business Use Case
In a Food and Beverage company, a Dashboard developer needs to prepare a dashboard to be

presented in the Board of Directors' meeting. This dashboard should contain the List of
Countries where the company operates, List of Customers by Age, Income, and Customer
Satisfaction Score, Revenue generated by all brands, Latest Share Prices and Stock Chart, and the
Company Rating as per the latest survey. This information is a lot to fuse on one single screen.
MicroStrategy Report Services enables them to create a dashboard with multiple panels, nested
panel Stacks, and value-added selectors, which make the dashboard even more dynamic and
interactive.

The Dashboard developer created two Dashboard Panels to show Corporate View and Brand
View, respectively. In the Corporate View panel, he included a selector for countries, targeting
the bubble graph showing the customer information.
He also inserted an analytic panel, to show the Share Prices and the area graph for Stock Chart.

On the Brand View panel, he included the revenue generated by brands and the Company Rating
as per the latest survey.
Analyzing the present and planning the future based on forecasts and historical trends, is the
story behind the success of any company. One platform that makes everything possible for you
is - MicroStrategy.

Summary
Dashboard templates help you speed up the document creation process.
A panel is a predefined portion of the document canvas that contains any content, such as
grids, graphs, text boxes, images, and so forth.
You can organize dashboards in two ways:
Layers of dashboard panel
Layers of analytic panel
Information windows let users view additional information about an attribute element.
Selectors allow a user to flip through the panels in a panel stack, or display different
attribute, custom group, or consolidation elements or metrics in a Grid/Graph.
A panel selector is used to switch between multiple panels in a panel stack.
The attribute element selector allows you to choose which attribute elements should be
displayed in a Grid/Graph.
The Metric selector allows users to choose which metrics they want to display in a
Grid/Graph.
You can create a metric condition selector that allows users to filter data, based on the value
of a metric.
You can create a selector that controls the dynamic text on a panel stack.
You can also create a selector that targets another selector.
Analytic-Based Selectors lets you use a grid/graph as a source for a selector.
Grouping can be used to customize the output of selectors.
To simplify the design process, dashboards are configured to automatically define and
maintain the targets for all selectors in the document.


CHAPTER 4| Creating Dashboards - Exercises
Exercises: Creating Dashboards
4.1 Panels and Selectors
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to create a dashboard that analyzes the sales
performance by selecting individual regions and comparing revenues with forecast
values. At a high level, you will perform the following steps:
In the Exercises folder, you will create a dashboard using the following datasets:
Quarterly Profit Margins report located in Shared Reports\Subject
Areas\Enterprise Performance Management
Bubble Chart - Revenue vs. Customer Satisfaction graph report located in Shared
Reports\MicroStrategy Platform Capabilities\Graph Styles

CHAPTER 4 | Creating Dashboards - Exercises
In a new panel stack titled Enterprise Sales Information, create a Sales by Category
panel, and add a pie graph visualization targeted by a Region selector, to analyze the
Category Profit Margin, as shown below:

Use a Vertical bar graph with Subcategory targeted by the Category from Pie graph,
to analyze Subcategory Profit Margin and use the Area and Line Chart combination -
Revenue vs. Forecast report to analyze the Revenue figures, as shown below:

On completion of the exercise, in the Editable mode, the dashboard should display as
shown below:
You will save this document as Enterprise Sales Performance, in the My

Reports\Exercises folder.

Procedure:
2. In the Create Document window, under Dashboard Templates, click Blank Dashboard.
Add and Format Panel Stack
3. In the Document Structure pane, expand the Body section.

4. In the Document Structure pane, right-click the PanelStack 1, and select Properties
and Formatting.

5. In Properties and Formatting window, in the Layout tab, under the Position section,
clear the Locked checkbox.
6. Click Apply.
7. Now, in the General tab, under Panel Stack section, select Show Title Bar.
8. In the Title drop-down, select Custom Title.

9. In the Custom Title text box, type Enterprise Sales Information.
10. Click Apply.

11. Under Format, in the Font tab, select Style as Bold, and Size as 12.
12. Click OK.
Rename Panel
13. On the floating tool bar, click Rename Panel.
14. In the Rename Panel window, in the Name box, type Sales by Category.

15. Click OK.
Add Dataset
17. In the Select Dataset window, browse to Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Enterprise

Performance Management, and select the Quarterly Profit Margins report.
18. Click OK.

19. On the Insert menu, point to Graph, and select Pie.
20. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the graph in the top left side of the layout
area.
21. On the graph, click the Graph Zones icon.

22. Add the Category attribute and Profit Margin metric as shown below:
23. Click the Graph Zones icon.

24. Right-click the graph, and select Properties and Formatting.
25. In the Properties and Formatting window, in the General tab, under Portal Window,
select the Show Title Bar check box.
26. In the Title box, type Profit Margin by Category.
27. Click OK.
Save the Document

29. In the Save As window, save the document in the My Reports/Exercises folder as
Enterprise Sales Performance.
30. Click OK.

31. In the Document Saved window, click Return to Design Mode.
32. Click the Editable Mode.
The Editable Mode helps in viewing the changes made instantaneously along with
data, thus proving to be helpful in formatting the dashboard.
33. In the Editable Mode, right-click the graph, point to Line, and select No Fill.

34. Right-click the graph, point to Fill, and select Grey 25%.
35. Right-click the graph, and select Format.

36. In the left pane, click Format.
38. In the Position drop-down list, select Bottom.
39. Click Apply.
40. Select Font, Style, and Size as shown below:


44. Click Apply.

47. Click Apply.

48. In the Axes drop-down list, select Series Values.

50. Click Apply.

51. Click OK.
In the Editable Mode, the pie chart should look like below:
Add and Format Element Selector

53. In the Dataset Objects pane, right-click the Region attribute, and select Add Element
Selector.

To add an element selector based on Region, select the graph first.
54. Right-click the Region element selector, and select Properties and Formatting.
55. Under General, in the Name box, type Region Selector.
56. Under Selector, clear the Show Title Bar check box.
57. In the left pane, click Layout.

58. Under Selector, in the DHTML Style drop-down list, select Radio Buttons.
59. Click OK.

60. Place and stretch the selector above the pie graph, and below the panel stack title.
61. Switch to Editable Mode.
You may resize the selector if all the regions are not displayed.
The Region selector should display as shown below:
62. Switch back to Design Mode.

63. On the Insert menu, point to Graph, and select Vertical bar.
64. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the graph in the top right side of pie in the
layout area.
66. Add the Subcategory attribute and Profit Margin metric as shown below:
67. On the Format menu, click Properties and Formatting.
Ensure that the Vertical Bar graph is selected.

68. In the Properties and Formatting window, in the General tab, Under Portal Window,
select the Show Title Bar check box.
69. In the Title box, type Profit Margin by Subcategory.
70. Click OK.


76. In the Position drop-down list, select Bottom.

78. Click Apply.

82. Click Apply.


85. Click Apply.

86. Click OK.
In the Editable mode, the Vertical Bar graph should display as shown below:
87. Right-click the pie graph, point to View Mode, and select Graph View, if not already
selected.
Add Dataset

90. In the Select Dataset window, browse to Shared Reports\MicroStrategy Platform

Capabilities\Graph Styles, and select the Area and Line Chart combination - Revenue
vs. Forecast report.
91. Click OK.

92. Click the layout area.

93. Right-click the dataset, and select Add to Section with Formatting.
94. Place and stretch it below the pie chart and vertical bar graph as shown below:

Save the Document
95. Click Save.

96. On the Confirm Save window, click OK.
Your dashboard should display as shown below in the Editable Mode:

4.2 Panel and Metric Slider Selectors
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to analyze the sales for various regions, and various
categories. At a high level, you will perform the following steps:
Open the Enterprise Sales Performance located in My Reports\Exercises, and add the
following datasets to the dashboard:
Sales by Region grid report located in Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Sales and
Profitability Analysis (select all regions and categories when prompted)
Regional Profit and Margins report located in Shared Reports\Subject
Areas\Enterprise Performance Management
Bubble Chart - Revenue vs. Customer Satisfaction graph report located in Shared
Reports\MicroStrategy Platform Capabilities\Graph Styles
In a panel named as Sales by Region, use a Combination graph with subtype Dual Axis
Bar Line, to analyze the revenue and units sold by regions.
Use a grid in the Information window, targeted by the Region attribute from the
Combination graph, and use the Bubble Chart - Revenue vs. Customer Satisfaction
data

On completion of the exercise, in the Flash mode, the dashboard should display as shown
below:
Save the document as Enterprise Sales Information, in My Reports\Exercises folder
Procedure:
Open Dashboard
1. Browse to My Reports\Exercises, and select the Enterprise Sales Performance

dashboard.
2. Click the Design Mode.
Add and Rename a Panel
3. In the floating toolbar, click Add Panel.

4. On the panel stack toolbar, click Rename Panel.

5. In the Rename Panel window, in Name box, type Sales by Region.
6. Click OK.
7. In the Document Structure pane, right-click the panel stack, and select Properties and
Formatting.
8. In Properties and Formatting, under Properties, in the General tab, deselect the Show
Title Bar checkbox.
9. Click OK.
11. Place and Position the text box outside the panel stack on top left hand side.
12. In the text box, type Enterprise Sales Information.
14. Under Format, in the Font tab, format the text box as below:
Style: Bold
Font Size: 12
15. Click OK.
Create Panel Selector
16. In the Document Structure pane, right-click the panel stack, and select Create Panel
Selector.
17. Place and position the panel stack selector outside the panel stack on top right hand
side.
18. Right-click the panel selector, and select Properties and Formatting.
19. Under General, in the Name box, type Panel Selector.

21. In the left pane, select Layout.

22. Under Selector, in the DHTML Style drop-down list, select Radio Buttons, keeping the
Orientation as Horizontal.
23. Click OK.
The positioning of the objects should display as shown below:
24. In the Document Structure pane, click the Sales by Region panel.

Add Sales by Region Dataset
26. In the Select Dataset window, browse to Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Sales and
Profitability Analysis, and select the Sales by Region grid report.

27. Click OK.

28. In the prompt window, select all the regions and categories, and click Edit in Design
Mode.
29. On the Insert menu, point to Graph, and select Combination.

30. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the graph on the top side of the layout
area.
32. Add the Region attribute to the CATEGORIES, and Unit Sold and Revenue metrics to
the SERIES.
The objects from the Sales by Region dataset are to be added.

33. On the Graph toolbar, select the graph sub type as Dual Axis Bar Line.

34. On the Format menu, select Properties and Formatting.
Ensure that the Combination graph is selected.

35. In the Properties and Formatting window, under Portal Window, select the Show
Title Bar check box.
36. In the Title box, type Revenue by Region.
37. Click OK.


43. In the Position drop-down list, Select Bottom.

45. Click Apply.

49. Click Apply.
52. Click Apply.

53. In the Axes drop-down list, select Series shapes.

54. Keeping the Line for Units Sold selected in the second drop-down, in the Thickness
drop-down, select 1.5.
Set the color and style parameters as well, if they do not match the above image.
55. Click OK.
In Editable Mode, the Combination graph should display as shown below:
Inwhole
order to see a graph as shown above, resize the combination graph to take the
width. Also to see a smooth effect for the Revenue metric, you may alter
the graph properties and select Curved Lines.

Information Window
57. On the Insert menu, select Panel Stack.

58. Position the Panel Stack overlapping the Combination graph.
59. Right-click the panel stack, and select Properties and Formatting.
60. Under General, in the Name box, type Information Window.
61. Select the Use as Information Window check box.
62. Click OK.
Add Dataset

64. In the Select Dataset window, browse to Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Enterprise
Performance Management, and select the Regional Profit and Margins report.
65. Click OK.
Add Grid to Panel Stack
66. On the Insert menu, point to Grid.

67. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the grid in the Information Window.
68. Add Call Center to the row, and Profit to the column of the grid.
69. The objects needs to be added from the Regional Profit and Margins dataset report.
70. In the Combination graph, switch to Grid View.

71. Right-click Region, and select Select Targets.

72. Select the Information window, and click the green check.
73. Click OK on the message shown.
74. Switch the grid of the Combination graph, back to Graph View.
75. Switch to Flash Mode.
On clicking the Central region, the Information window should display as shown below:
Information window is only displayed in the Express and the Flash mode.
Add Dataset



Capabilities\Graph Styles, and select the Bubble Chart - Revenue vs. Customer
Satisfaction and Income report.
79. Click OK.

80. Click the Layout Area.
81. Right-click the dataset, and select Add to Section with Formatting.

82. Place and stretch it below the Combination graph as shown below:
83. Switch to the Editable Mode.

The graph should display as shown below in Editable Mode:
Optionally, you can work on the Formatting for the Bubble graph, and change the
look and feel.
Save the Document
84. Click Save.

85. On the Confirm Save window, click OK.
86. Click the Flash Mode.

On completion of the exercise, in the Flash mode, the dashboard should display as shown
below:


CHAPTER
5
5
Linking From
Documents
Outline:
Linking Document to a Web Page, Static Report or a Document
Linking from a Prompted Document to a Prompted Target
Linking from a Dynamic Text Box to Simulate Drilling
Linking from a Document to Multiple Targets
2013, DataTutors
CHAPTER 5 | Linking From Documents
Document Links
Document link enables users to navigate to websites, static documents, and reports, or
prompted documents and reports. A link functions in all web document display modes, except
for the Design mode. Links do not work for a MicroStrategy desktop user. However, they can
consider creating a hyperlink.
Linking Document to a Web Page

In a document, you can associate a text box or an image to point to a web page. For example,
the documents title text box leads users to the MicroStrategy's corporate website as shown
below:
Link a Text Box to a Web Page
Select the Open in new window option, to open the website in a new window.
Linking to a Static Report or Document

You can link a document to a related or completely different report or document. For example,
the Supply Chain Management Report shown below, links to an unrelated document called
Category Performance Dashboard:
Link Document to a Specific Report or Document

Linking From a Prompted Document to a Prompted

Target
You can link a prompted document to a prompted report or document and pass the source
prompts to the target. The following image displays the Revenue vs. Forecast document, when a
user selects the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Central regions, the Books and Electronics category,
and four quarters in 2012 as prompt answers. With the link defined on the Region attribute, a
user can navigate to the Sales by Region prompted report that contains prompts for region and
category:
Linking Prompted Document to a Prompted Target
Observe that, when a user clicks the link, the original prompt answers are passed to the Sales By
Region target report.

The following image displays the Links editor window, for the Sales By Region link:
Links Editor
The source and the target document or report must use the same prompt object.
Linking from a Dynamic Text Box to Simulate Drilling
You can pass the attribute element as the prompt answer to another prompted report or
document. Thus to simulate drilling between a source document and a target report or
document, the target must contain an element prompt for the same attribute for which you are
passing the element answer from the source document.

For example, when a user clicks a specific attribute element, such as the South region, the
selection gets passed as a prompt answer to the Sales By Region target document:
Source Document and Target Report

The following image displays the Links window properties for the Region attribute:
Links Editor
Prompt Answer Methods
In the bottom drop-down list, you can select one of the following prompt answer methods:
Answer with the same prompt from the source the target document uses the prompts
answered in the source document.
Prompt User when the target executes, prompts are displayed to the user.
Answer with an empty answer no prompt answer is provided from the target to the
source and the user is not prompted.
Answer dynamically prompts in the target are answered by the object selected in the
source.
Use default answer the default prompt answers are used by the target.

Linking from a Document to Multiple Targets

You can define a link to multiple target reports or documents. For example, the grid in the
document below contains links to Store Performance Management Dashboard and the Yearly
Category Sales report.
Link to Multiple Target Reports Example

The following image displays the Links editor window properties to add a new link:
Links Editor

Linking with a Button Object

The button object can be configured to execute documents, execute reports, or link to external
URLs. The below image displays the Supply Chain Management Report with the Home button
object and its properties and formatting window:
Linking with a Button Object
If you choose to display a button as an icon or a custom image, then the normal state or the
highlighted state of that button can be specified by different images. The normal state image is
displayed before the user taps the button, while the highlighted (or selected) state image is
displayed after the user taps the button.

Business Use Case
A global pharmaceutical company uses MicroStrategy for reporting and creating intuitive,
appealing, and interactive dashboards. The documents created are mostly based on detailed
reports pulled from the salesforce.com portal.
The Dashboard Developer of the company needs to create a dashboard showing the company
turnover across various Countries, Regions, Managers, Employees, and Years. This dashboard
will be used in a meeting between the CEO and the Investors.
The Dashboard Developer is able to fuse all data on a single screen, with the help of
MicroStrategy Links. He uses the Corporate Logo image to link to the Official website of the
company.
He uses a prompted Regional Sales Report as the dataset for the dashboard and links it' s data to
another prompted report that contains last year's regional sales information. He smartly
manages to pass the prompt answers in such a way that when a specific region is clicked on the
source document, the target report would show the sales information for only that region.
He links the dynamic text box for Managers to simulate drilling to Employees on the Employee
Performance Report. Finally, he uses a text box to link to the Supplier Sales document and
Inventory Management Report.
Thus, with the help of links, the Dashboard Developer is able to extend the limits of analysis
beyond the single screen of the dashboard, without consuming any additional space.

Summary
You can link a document to a:
Web page
Specific report or document
You define links on attributes, metrics, static and dynamic text boxes, and so on in a
grid/graph.
You can link a document to a prompted report or document and pass element answers from
the document to answer the prompted report.
You can link a prompted document to a prompted report or document and pass the source
prompts to the target.
You can define a link to multiple target reports or documents.
MicroStrategy Web 9.3.1 allows users to define links for the attributes listed in the Page-By
section of a report.

CHAPTER 5| Linking from Documents - Exercises
Exercises: Linking From Documents
5.1 Linking from a Document
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to define links on the Regional Sales by Brand document,
to give end users access to additional information, without occupying much of valuable
space on the document canvas. At a high level, you will perform the following steps:
Use MicroStrategy's corporate logo to link it to the corporate website

www.microstrategy.com
Use the Brand Performance by Region static text box to link to the Brand
Performance by Region report located in Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Sales and
Profitability Analysis, to allow the end users to access the source dataset
Use the Customer Region dynamic text box to link the Performance Management
dashboard located in Shared Reports\Dashboards and Scorecards, to let the viewers
review the enterprise performance
Use the Customer Region column header to link to the Sales by Region report located
in Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Sales and Profitability Analysis and give the end
users flexibility to keep the prompt answers dynamic
Use a button object to link to MicroStrategy Web home page, so that the users could
open a new web interface in a different window
Save the document as Brand Performance by Region with Links, in the My
Reports\Exercises folder.

CHAPTER 5 | Linking from Documents - Exercises
On completion of the exercise, in the Interactive Mode, the document should display as
shown below:

Procedure:
Run the Predefined Document
1. In the My Reports\Exercises folder, right-click the Regional Sales by Brand document,

and select Edit.
2. Click the Brand Performance by Region layout, if not already selected.
Add Image
3. On the Insert menu, select Image.

4. Using cross-hairs cursor place and position the image below Date Time textbox.
5. On the Properties and Formatting window, in the Image tab, in the Source box type
Images\125msi.gif.

6. Click OK.
The newly added image should display as shown below:
Link to a Web Page
7. In the Page Header, right-click the newly added image, and select Edit Links.
8. In the Links editor, in the URL display text box, type MicroStrategy.
9. With Navigate to this URL selected, type http://www.microstrategy.com.

10. Select the Open in new window check box.
11. Click OK.
Link to a Report
12. In the Layout Header, right-click the Brand Performance by Region static text box,
and select Edit Links.
13. In the Links editor, in the URL display text box, type Brand Performance by Region.
14. Under When this link is clicked, click Run this report or document.

15. Under Run this report or document, click Select Target.
16. Navigate to Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Sales and Profitability Analysis, select the
Brand Performance by Region report, and click OK.

18. Click OK.
Saving Document
19. On the Home menu, click Save As.

20. In the Save As window, name it as Brand Performance by Region with Links and save
it in the My Reports\Exercises folder.
21. Click OK.
22. In the Document Saved message, click Return to Design Mode.
Alternatively, you can browse to the location of the document and open it in Edit
mode to continue working on the document.
Link to Multiple Targets
23. Right-click the Brand Performance by Region static text box, and select Edit Links.
24. Click New to add a new link.
25. In the Links editor, in the URL display text box, type Performance Management.
28. In Shared Reports\Dashboards and Scorecards, select the Performance Manage-
ment dashboard, and click OK.
Ensure that the Open in new window check box is selected.

29. Click OK.
30. Switch to the Interactive Mode.

31. Right-click Brand Performance by Region, point to Links, and select Performance
Management.
The Performance Management dashboard is displayed in a new browser window

or a new browser tab.
32. Close the browser window/ tab with the Performance Management dashboard.
Link to a Prompted Report
33. In the Brand Performance by Region document, switch to Design Mode.

34. Click the Regional Performance layout.
35. In the Detail Header section, right-click the Customer Region column header in the
grid-graph, and select Edit Links.
36. In the Links editor, in the URL display text box, type Sales by Region.
38. In Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Sales and Profitability Analysis, select the Sales by
Region report.

39. Click OK.

40. In the Links editor, with Region selection selected, in the prompt behavior drop-down
list, select Answer dynamically.
41. In the Links editor, with Category selection selected, in the prompt behavior
drop-down list, select Use Default Answer.

43. Click OK.
45. Right-click Customer Region header in the grid-graph, point to Links, and select Sales
by Region.
The Sales by Region report will be executed in a new window. The prompt on
Region displays at run time and the user is able to select the prompt answer.
The Category prompt does not display at run time because the default prompt
answer is used to resolve the prompt.

Link on a Button Object
47. On the Insert menu, point to Button, and select Caption only.
48. Using cross-hairs cursor place the button on the left side of the Page Header section,
and type Home Page.
49. Right-click the button, and select Properties and Formatting.

50. In the Properties and Formatting window, under Properties, in the Button tab, under
Actions, click the highlighted icon shown below:
51. Name the link as Web Home Page.

52. In the Links editor, under Navigate to this URL, type the MicroStrategy Web Home
Page link, http://localhost/MicroStrategy/asp/Main.aspx. Alternatively, you can ask
your instructor for the home page link.
Ensure that Open in new window is selected. Displaying the link in a new window
allows the user to easily traverse back to the previous dashboard.
53. Click OK.

54. Under Format, in the Font tab, select Style as Bold, and size as 12.
55. Click OK.

On completion of the exercise, in the Interactive Mode, the document should display as
shown below:

CHAPTER
6
6
MicroStrategy Widgets
Outline:
Inserting Widgets
Time Series Slider
Using Time Series Slider Widget as a Selector
Microcharts Widget
Heat Map
Interactive Stacked Graph
Image Layout
2013, DataTutors
CHAPTER 6 | MicroStrategy Widgets
Widgets in MicroStrategy
Widgets are Flash-based graphs that update dynamically, when a user selects a new set of data
to view. They present data in a visual and interactive way. MicroStrategy offers a variety of
widgets, such as Gauge, Time Series Slider, Heat Map, Microcharts, Interactive Bubble Graph,
and so on. Each of these widgets can be used to present the business data in a unique way.
You can define the widgets in either Design Mode or Editable Mode. However, you will
use the Flash Mode to interact with the documents that use them.
Inserting Widgets
You can include a widget in a document, using one of the following ways:
On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Flash, and select the appropriate widget.
Define a widget in the Properties and Formatting window of existing grid/graph.
The following image displays the Properties and Formatting window of a grid, that you want to
display as a widget:
Properties and Formatting Window of a Grid

Time Series Slider Widget

The Time Series Slider widget is an area graph that allows you to choose, which section of
the graph to view at a time.
This widget consists of two related graphs, one positioned above the other. The top graph is
the controller, and contains a slider. The bottom graph is the primary graph.
You use the slider on the controller to select the range of data visible in the primary graph.
To work with this widget, you require one attribute (preferably time-based) in the rows and
minimum one metric in the columns.
You will typically use this widget to show the trend of a metric over time.
The below image displays the historical stock price data using the Time Series Slider widget, with
the timeframe(4/6/2006 to 3/9/2007) defined on the controller:
Time Series Slider Widget
No separate selector is required for interactivity.

Ifasthea stacked
widget grid contains more than one metric along the columns, the graph displays
area chart.

Using the Time Series Slider Widget as a Selector

You can use some widgets to act as selectors for grid/graphs or panel stacks. For example, the
Time Series Slider widget shown below, acts as a selector for the horizontal bar graph below it.
When a user clicks a specific data point on the graph, say, August 2011, the Music subcategory
bar graph below it, updates to display the profit forecast for the selected month:
Time Series Slider Widget as Selector
The selector and the target must have a common attribute.

The widget in this example targets a single grid. However, it may target multiple
grid/graphs, panel stacks, or selectors.

For the example cited above, the Month attribute is configured as a selector in the Configure
Selector window, as shown below:
Configure Selector Window for Month Attribute
Business Use Case
A Health and Beauty retailer has approximately 1500 stores across various regions, where it
serves 8 million customers every week. This retailer uses MicroStrategy Business Intelligence
Platform to deliver improved analysis and reporting of loyalty data to a wide range of users. The
company utilizes MicroStrategy for market basket analysis, customer segmentation, and direct
marketing.
The Area Manager of the company is responsible to manage 150 different stores in his area, with
all the Store Managers reporting to him. He wants to analyze the Revenue generated by various
Customer Segments like Female Professionals, Male Professionals, Retirees, and Students,
across various Months of Year based on the revenue reports sent to him from different stores.
He uses the Time Series Slider widget to present the consolidated data on a MicroStrategy
dashboard and study the revenue data across time. Also, he targets a grid report showing the
Customer Segment Revenue, using the Primary Graph in the widget as the selector.

This way he can see the Revenue generated by individual customer segments for the selected
month, as shown below:
After analyzing the data, he concludes that the Revenue shoots up drastically between
September and December, due to season festivities and continues to do well till February.
However, the Revenue is comparatively low in other months of the year and hence strategies
need to be devised, to target and attract customers with new offers in these months. Also, he
finds out that the Female Professionals are the highest contributors of Revenue, when
compared to others.
MicroStrategy not just extracts insights from the data, but also empowers a wide range of
business users with critical information to help them make the customer propositions more
focused and deliver competitive advantage in the market.
Microcharts Widget
The Microcharts widget displays the Bar chart, Sparklines, and the Bullet chart together, in a
compact layout. The Sparkline and Bar microcharts display a metric's current and historical
values with respect to time. While the Bullet microcharts compare the value of one metric
against a target metric value.

The following image displays the Case Trends By Region data using the Microcharts widget:
Microcharts Widget
Depending on the number of metrics you include in the Microcharts widget template, you have
the following display options:
Display a bar or a sparkline (or both)
Display only a bullet
Display all three microcharts (sparkline, bar, and bullet)
You must meet the following data requirements for Bar or Sparkline Microcharts:
At least two attributes in the rows:
Attributes in the first, second, third, and so on, rows determine the total number of
rows that would be displayed.
The right-most attribute determines the X-axis values.
At least two metrics:
The left-most metric on the columns determines the bar size and fluctuations in the
bar and sparkline graphs, respectively.
The second metric creates the horizontal reference line that displays in the sparkline
and bar microcharts.
If third, fourth, fifth, and sixth metrics are placed, they display as individual columns in
the widget.
As soon as you place a seventh metric on the columns, a bullet Microchart is produced. In a
bullet microchart, the horizontal performance bar shows the status of the metrics performance
against the vertical target line. The different color bands correspond to poor, average, and good
thresholds. Thus analyst can see, at a glance, the KPIs that are performing well and exceeding
targets versus the KPIs that need improvement.

The operation modes for Microcharts widgets include the following:

Grid
Vertical Scroll
Ticker
KPI List
Business Use Case
In the Retail sector, an authentic full-line goods retailer offers a broad assortment of branded
equipment, apparel, footwear, music, and so on. All the employees of the company, including
the store managers, the merchandising analysts, and the senior management, use
MicroStrategy software to perform sales, product, and inventory management, to effectively
track product sales, product mix, and inventory levels.
The CEO of the company has held an emergency meeting with the Product Managers, to
highlight, understand, and overcome the slow growth rate in the last financial year. He has a
dashboard with him that reflects various Revenue values across all months, for the most-selling
products. Using MicroStrategy's out-of-the-box Microcharts widget, the analysis of huge
revenue data becomes simple yet interactive.
By analyzing the grid view of the Microcharts widget, he concludes that though the Revenue has
exceeded the forecasted Revenue in later half of the year, still the Revenue Target did not meet
the Maximum Revenue figures for any of the product.
To focus on each product individually, he enables the vertical scroll mode, so that everyone in
the meeting could focus on one product at a time.

In addition, for a quick comparison he enables the ticker mode to show the textual and graphical
representation of the Revenue data.
Valuable insights could be extracted from huge data, within minutes with the help of advanced
visualizations. This is why, the leading retailers choose MicroStrategy's industrial-strength
platform to gain visibility into their operations and make revenue-generating decisions that
please the management, shareholders, and most importantly, a discerning customer base.
Heat Map
Heat maps display each attribute element as a colored rectangle of different size. The below
Heat Map, displays the revenue and profit margin data for all the regions and their
corresponding call centers:
Heat Map
In the above example, each rectangle represents individual call centers. The large rectangles
represent the region to which those call centers belong. The rectangle size is governed by the
revenue value, while its size is governed by profit margin. Thus, we can interpret that the New
York call center in the Northeast region, has highest revenue numbers while Memphis call
center has lowest profit margin.

You must meet the following requirements to use the Heat Map widget:
Two metrics along the columns
One or more attributes along the rows
Attributes with a parent-child relationship work best, because they are nested within
one another on the Heat Map.
The interactive pane enables users to format colors, pivot or completely remove attributes, view
deleted items, and so forth. The following image displays the interactive pane of the above Heat
Map:
Interactive Pane of Heat Map
Heat Maps are also called Treemaps.

Business Use Case
In the Pharmaceutical industry, a drug dealer chain with 900 stores and 18,000 employees,
installed a MicroStrategy business intelligence solution to gather data for marketing and
accounting departments.
The IT department produces more than 25,000 reports every month. The Deputy Manager of
the company wants to compare the Profit generated by various stores across different regions.
He uses the extranet to seamlessly create a document based on the regional store profit reports.
He then extracts and combines the required data into a heat map widget, thus highlighting the
exceptional performances and the areas of improvement.
In a quick glance he concludes that in the Central Region, the Drugmart store did good in terms
of Profit, but dipped in attainment of the Profit Margin, whereas the Cure store did exceptionally
well in both the Metrics. Similarly, the Mediplus store excelled and created a landmark, in the
South region. The entire analysis is based on the size and the color of the rectangles and hence,
is very quick and time-saving.


The Interactive Stacked Graph widget enables users to quickly analyze, the contribution of
individual member element to the total. The Interactive Stacked Graph widget contains its own
built-in selector, which controls the series display.
For example, in the image below, the category check box selector on the left of the chart
controls the series that display in the area graph:
You must meet the following requirements to use the Interactive Stacked Graph widget:
One metric along the columns (graphs Y-axis)
One attributes along the rows (graphs X-axis) along with one attribute along the columns
(for the check-box selector)
Bytheselecting the check-boxes for the attribute elements in the legend, you can represent
contribution from each individual element. While selecting the categories, enables
you to see how the individual parts make up the whole.
Use the CTRL key to multi-select the categories.

Business Use Case
An Investigation Bureau is responsible to protect and defend a country against terrorist and
foreign intelligence threats. The Bureau deploys MicroStrategy to support requirements across
various programs within the Bureau. MicroStrategy application supports information sharing
among law enforcement, intelligence, and homeland security agencies.
The Chief Intelligence Officer is liable to collect, compile, and analyze intelligence information
useful for the Bureau. He is asked to study the crime ratio in various regions, to find out the
region contributing the most to the crime in the country, and devise strategies to reduce them.
He uses the intuitive MicroStrategy Web interface to seamlessly bring data from the Crime
report he received in his email, into an Interactive Stacked Graph widget.
After studying the data, he concludes that various regions are contributing to various crime
types. In general, almost every region has high number of Rash Driving and Assault cases
reported. On a detailed review, he finds out that the South region is reporting highest number of
Rash Driving and Burglary cases, whereas the West Coast has highest number of Assault and
Murder cases reported.
MicroStrategy services business intelligence in not just the private sector, but is also confidently
used by the government agencies because of its reliability, security, scalability, and intuitive
interfaces, with a flexibility to analyze data from any platform.

Image Layout
The Image Layout widget, uses the HTML map technology to display maps with colored areas or
bubbles. The value of the metric decides the color of the area or bubbles.
In the image below, the elements of the Customer State attribute have been automatically
matched with area names in the States of USA map, and the bubble size corresponds to the
Revenue metric value:
Image Layout with Bubbles
Corresponding to the geographical locations, a unique name is assigned to each area on a map,
defined in the shape file. Make sure that the attribute element names in the template match the
names defined for individual map areas.
You do not need a Google Maps API to use this widget.

If the display mode is set to Bubble, colored circles are displayed. While Area display mode
causes the map to color states, countries, and so on. You will use the widgets properties
window to change the display mode to areas or bubbles as shown below:
Image Layout Properties
Business Use Case
In the Insurance sector, an Insurance provider offers auto, home, life, business, and farm
insurance protection through various insurance policies. According to the Data Warehouse
Project Manager of the company, MicroStrategy gives them a comprehensive view of their
business and enables them to better serve their customers by running the operations efficiently.
More than thousand insurance associates, including the territory manager, the portfolio
manager, and the customer management personnel, use MicroStrategy to identify areas of
improvement in product design, customer management, and to recognize cross- and up-sell
opportunities.
The Portfolio Manager has been asked to devise strategies to increase the customer base of the
company. He uses MicroStrategy's Web-based reports to assist in increasing the profitability of
each product, region, and agent.

Hence, he first finds out the number of customers in every Customer State.
He notices that it's difficult to study large volumes of data in a simple grid format. Hence, using
the pixel-perfect features of report services and the flexible web interface, the Portfolio
Manager, simply switches this grid into an Image Layout widget.
He notices that Texas, despite being large in area, has a small customer base. Since the state has
people from various other regions and has a good service population, devising strategies to
expand in Texas would prove beneficial for the company.
Thus, with MicroStrategy's sophisticated capabilities, including its user-friendly Web interface,
data scalability, and advanced analytics, growing volumes and complexity of data over time
could be easily handled. This provides the companies with analytically based and actionable
insight to take more effective decisions that positively impact the bottom line.

Summary
Widgets are Flash based graphs that update dynamically when a user selects a new set of
data to view.
The Time Series Slider widget is an area graph that allows you to choose, which section of
the graph to view at a time.
You can use some widgets to act as selectors for grid/graphs or panel stacks.
The Microcharts widget displays the Bar chart, Sparklines, and the Bullet chart together, in a
compact layout.
Heat maps display each attribute element as a colored rectangle of different size.
The interactive pane enables users to format colors, pivot, or completely remove attributes,
view deleted items, and so forth.
The Interactive Stacked Graph widget enables users to quickly analyze the contribution of
individual member element to the total.
The Image Layout widget, uses the HTML map technology to display maps with colored areas
or bubbles.


CHAPTER 6 | Flash Modes and Widgets - Exercises
Exercises: Flash Mode and Widgets
6.1 Time Series Slider and Heat Map Widget
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to use a Time Series Slider widget to study the profit
margin values across months, and use a Heat Map widget to quickly analyze the profit and
revenue values for various regions and call centers. At a high level, you will perform the
following steps:
Build a new report with Year, Month of Year, Region, Call Center attributes and
Profit, Profit Margin, Order Count, and Revenue metrics. Save it as Yearly Regional
Sales in the Exercise folder.
Use this report as a dataset to build a dashboard, with a Time Series Slider and a Heat
Map widget, such that the regional sales data in the Heat Map changes with the
month of year selected in the Time Series Slider.

On completion of the exercise, the design mode of the dashboard should display as
shown below:
On completion of the exercise, in the flash mode, the dashboard should display as shown
below:
Save the dashboard as Flash Widgets Dashboard, in the My Reports\Exercises folder.

Procedure:
Create Dataset
1. On the MicroStrategy Tutorial project home page, under Create, click New Report.
2. In the Create Report page, select Blank Report.
3. In the Design Mode, in the All Objects pane, browse to Schema Objects\
Attributes\Time, right-click the Year attribute, and select Add to Grid.
4. Right-click the Month of Year attribute, and select Add to Grid.

5. Click the Up One Level icon.
6. Click Geography.
7. Pressing CTRL, select Region and Call Center attributes.
8. Right-click the selections, and select Add to Grid.
9. In the All Objects pane, select Metrics from the drop-down.
10. Click Count Metrics.

11. Right-click Order Count, and select Add to Grid.
12. Click Up One Level icon.
13. Click the Sales Metrics.
14. Pressing CTRL, select Profit Margin, Profit, and Revenue.

15. Right-click the selections, and select Add to Grid.
16. Save the report as Yearly Regional Sales, in the My Reports\Exercises folder.
Create Dashboard
17. Click the Home icon.


19. In the Create Document window, under Dashboard Templates, click Blank Dashboard.
Format Panel Stack
20. In the Document Structure pane, expand the Body section.

21. In the Document Structure pane, right-click PanelStack 1, and select Properties and
Formatting.
22. In Properties and Formatting window, in the Layout tab, under the Position section,
clear the Locked checkbox.
23. Click Apply.
24. Now, in the General tab, under Panel Stack section, select Show Title Bar.
25. In the Title drop-down, select Custom Title.

26. In the Custom Title text box, type Regional and Customer Sales Analysis.
27. Click Apply.

28. Under Format, in the Font tab, select Style as Bold, and Size as 12.

29. Click OK.
Rename Panel
30. On the floating toolbar, click Rename Panel.
31. In the Rename Panel window, type Monthly and Regional Profit Analysis.
32. Click OK.
Giving meaningful names to objects in a dashboard helps in quickly tracking them

in the Document Structure pane, and work on them.
Add Dataset

34. In the Select Dataset window, browse to My Reports\Exercises, and select the Yearly
Regional Sales report.
35. Click OK.

Insert Time Series Slider
36. On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Flash, and select Time Series Slider.
37. Using the cross-hairs cursor, place and position the widget grid on top of the layout
area to take up the entire width.
38. Add Month of Year attribute to the Row, and Profit Margin metric to the Column.
39. Right-click the Time Series Slider widget grid, and select Properties and Formatting.
40. In the Properties and Formatting window, under Properties, in the General tab, under
Portal Window, in the Title box, type Monthly Profit Margin Analysis.
41. Click OK.

Insert Heat Map
42. On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Flash, and select Heat Map.
43. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the widget grid below the Time Series
Slider, to take the same width as that of the Time Series Slider on top.
44. Add the Region and Call Center attributes to the Rows, and Profit, Revenue metrics to
the Column.
45. Right-click the Heat Map widget grid, and select Properties and Formatting.
46. In the Properties and Formatting window, under Properties, in the General tab, under
Portal Window, in the Title box, type Regional Profit Margin Analysis.
47. Click OK.
The Design Mode of the dashboard should display as shown below:

48. In the Time Series Slider widget grid, right-click Month of Year header, and select
Select Targets.
49. Click the Regional Profit Margin Analysis grid, and then click the green check mark on
the MicroStrategy Web window.
50. In the message window, click OK.

51. On the Tools menu, select Document Properties.
52. In the Properties window, under Document Properties, in the Document tab, under
Run Modes, in the Run by default as drop-down, select Flash.
53. Click OK.
Save the Document

55. In the Save As window, save the document in the My Reports\Exercises folder as Flash
Widgets Dashboard.
56. Click OK.
57. In the Document Saved window, click Run newly saved document.

below:
Selecting any point in the TSS accordingly modifies the heat map to show profit
and revenue values for those month.

6.2 Interactive Stacked Graph and Interactive

Bubble Graph
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to use the Interactive Stacked Graph to study the units
sold by various suppliers. Also, use the Microcharts to analyze various profit and revenue
KPIs across different customer regions and months. Similarly, use the Interactive Bubble
Graph to study the order amount, revenue, and profit for months of year across call
centers. At a high level, you will perform the following steps:
In the Flash Widgets Dashboard from the previous exercise, add the following
datasets:
Supplier Sales report located in Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Supplier Analysis
Customer State Summary report located in Shared Reports\MicroStrategy
Platform Capabilities\MicroStrategy Report Services\MicroStrategy Widget
Library\Datasets
In a new panel named as Regional and Customer Sales Analysis, insert Interactive
Stacked Graph, Microcharts, and Interactive Bubble Graph, with a Year selector
targeting the Customer State attribute in the Microcharts widget. The Microcharts
widget will be displayed in Ticker Mode.
The Design Mode for the Regional and Customer Sales Analysis panel should display as
below:

below:
Procedure:
Open the Flash Widgets Dashboard
1. Browse to My Reports\Exercises folder, right-click the Flash Widgets Dashboard, and

select Edit.
Add and Rename Panel
2. Hover your mouse on top left of the panel stack until you see the floating toolbar, and
click Add Panel.

3. On the floating toolbar, click Rename Panel.
4. In the Rename Panel window, type Regional and Customer Sales Analysis.
5. Click OK.

Create Panel Selector
6. Right-click the layout area, and select Create Panel Selector.
7. Right-click the panel selector, and select Properties and Formatting.

8. Under Properties, in the General tab, in the Name box, type Panel Selector.
10. Click OK.

11. Place and stretch the selector outside the panel stack as shown below:
Add Supplier Sales Report Dataset

13. In the Select Dataset window, browse to Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Supplier
Analysis, and select Supplier Sales Report.
14. Click OK.
Insert Interactive Stacked Graph
15. On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Flash, and select Interactive Stacked
Graph.
16. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the widget grid at the top of the layout
area in the newly added panel.

17. Add the Supplier attribute to the Rows, the Customer Region attribute and the Units
Sold metric to the Columns.
18. Right-click the widget grid, and select Properties and Formatting.
19. In the Properties and Formatting window, under General, in the Name box, type
Supplier Sales Report.
20. Click OK.
Add Dataset


Capabilities\MicroStrategy Report Services\MicroStrategy Widget Library\Datasets,
and select the Customer State Summary report.
23. Click OK.
Insert Microcharts Widget
24. On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Flash, and select Microcharts.
25. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the widget grid below the Interactive
Stacked Graph widget.
26. Add the Customer State and Month attributes to the Rows, and the Profit, Profit
Margin, Revenue, Revenue Forecast, YTD Revenue, YTD Rev. Forecast, and Last
Months Revenue metrics to the Columns.

27. Click the Flash Mode.

28. Right-click the Microchart, and select Properties.
29. In the Microcharts window, on the Sparkline tab, select the All points check box.

30. In the Microcharts window, in the Options drop-down, select Mode.
31. In the Operation mode drop-down, select Ticker.
32. In the Microcharts window, on the Ticker tab, under Title, type Revenue vs. Last
Years Revenue.

33. In Ticker 1 (M3<M7) text box, type {&bullet} {[Customer State]} generated a Reve-
nue of {Revenue}, which is less than Last Year's Revenue {&sparkline}.
34. In Ticker 2 (M3>=M7) text box, type {&bullet} {[Customer State]} generated a
Revenue of {Revenue}, which is greater than or equal to Last Year's Revenue
{&sparkline}.
35. In Ticker 1 color, select the red color with hexadecimal code FF0000.
36. In Ticker 2 color, keeping the default green color selected, click OK.
Create Year Selector and Add Text

38. Resize the Microcharts widget grid such that it takes space as required by the ticker
mode of Microcharts.

39. In the Dataset Objects pane, right-click the Year attribute of Yearly Regional Sales
dataset, and select Add Element Selector.

41. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the text box and the selector overlappping
the gray title area of the Microcharts widget grid, as shown in the image below, and
type Select Year in the text box.
This selector will control the Microcharts, you can use the Editable Mode to
ensure that it does not hide the Microchart widgets data.

Insert Interactive Bubble Graph
42. On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Flash, and select Interactive Bubble
Graph.
43. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the widget grid below the Microcharts
widget.
44. From the Yearly Regional Sales dataset, add the Month of Year and Call Center
attributes to the Rows, and the Year attribute, Order Count, Revenue, and Profit
metrics to the Columns.

The design mode of the newly added panel should display as shown below:
45. Right-click the Year selector, and select Select Targets.
46. Click Microcharts, and click the green check mark on the MicroStrategy Web window.

Save the Document
47. Click Save.

48. In the Confirm Save window, click OK.
49. Switch to Flash Mode, and in the Interactive stacked graph, in the Customer Region
selector, holding the Ctrl key, select the elements Northeast Units Sold, Mid-Atlantic
Units Sold, and Southeast Units Sold.


CHAPTER
7
7
Performance and
Tuning
Outline:
Document Execution Flow
Selectors as Filter
Parallel Execution
Virtual Dataset
Tuning Candidates
Best Practices
2013, DataTutors
CHAPTER 7 | Performance and Tuning

A documents performance depends on a lot of factors. To improve a document's performance,
let us first understand how documents are processed. The following illustration shows the flow
of document execution:
The MicroStrategy's Intelligence Server receives the document execution request from a
user.
The Intelligence Server executes all children datasets in the document and collects the data.
The Intelligence Server creates a Virtual Dataset.
Next, the Intelligence Server proceeds to generate the XML or binary stream necessary
depending on the selected output by the end user.
For PDF documents, the Intelligence Server generates a binary stream.
For DHTML and Flash view mode documents, XML is generated.

Documents in DHTML view mode use the web server to transform the XML into HTML
viewable by the user's browser. Documents that will be viewed in PDF use the web server as
a channel to reach the end user. When viewing a document in Flash mode, the web server
sends a .swf file to the client if it has not previously been cached, and generated XML by the
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server.
Improving Documents Performance

To improve the performance of your document, you must use the following dataset
optimization techniques:
Combine datasets wherever possible, and remove unnecessary datasets, if any
Remove any unused metrics in existing datasets
Avoid lower-level attributes in the dataset, if the data is not required at that detailed level
Test datasets for performance
Enable report caching
Use Intelligent Cube as a dataset, rather than using the reports built from that particular
Intelligent Cube. Using the Intelligent Cube as the single dataset improves the documents
execution time.
The tables below displays the performance level of documents, considering the amount of data
they contain and the number of datasets used by them:
Performance Based on Dataset Sizes
Dataset Size Data Size(Cells) Performance Level
<250 KB <6,500 Optimum
250 KB to 1.5 MB 6,500 to 25,000 Acceptable
>1.5 MB >25,000 Slow
Performance Based on the Number of Datasets
Number of Datasets Performance Level
1 to 5 Optimum
5 to 10 Acceptable
> 10 Slow

The following factors affect the document preparation time:

Number and size of the datasets
Type of joins between the datasets
Number and complexity of the grid/graphs on the document
Number of selectors and their targets
Number of grouping objects
Number of panels (including nested panels)
Number of text boxes
Number of thresholds
The output format of the document also decides it's performance:

For DHTML and Flash, consider enabling browser caching in MicroStrategy Web. This will
cache files on the client browser after the document executes for the first time.
For DHTML, you could improve the render time, for documents that contain large
grid/graphs. To do this, in the Document Properties window, disable automatic sizing of the
documents width.
There are many things that can be done to simplify a documents structure and in turn, optimize
its performance. The following table lists the document objects and their impact on documents
size and performance:
Impact of Document Objects on Document Performance
Object Factors
Grouping objects / Number of elements

Selectors Elements with longer names
Number of selectors
Type of selectors (element, metric, or panel)
Panels Number of panels

Number of components on each panel and its associated data
Grid/graphs / Widgets Number of grid/graphs or widgets

Number of attributes and metrics they contain
Number of rows of data on each grid/graph
Text boxes Generally inexpensive

Number of text boxes
Type of text boxes (dynamic or static)
Thresholds Number of defined thresholds

Selectors as Filter
The initial execution time for standard selectors is long, as they retrieve and process all the slices
of data, before the user selections are made. Filtering selectors, on the other hand, reduce the
initial load time of a dashboard, by retrieving only one slice of data. Thus, each time a user
changes the selection in a filtering selector, new slice of data will be brought back from the
Intelligence Server.
The following image illustrates the difference between standard and filtering selectors:
Standard vs. Filtering Selectors
With filtering selectors, a round trip to the Intelligence Server would be required to bring
the next slice of data.

Some key differences between filtering and standard selectors are described in the table below:
Difference between Standard and Filtering Selectors
Standard Selectors Filtering Selectors
You can enable the total to be displayed as an It does not display the total as a selector item.
item in the selector
Automatically updates when there is no data This option is not available for filtering
for the current selection selectors.
In Flash Mode, the initial load time of the In Flash Mode, the initial load time of a
document can be long. document is fast.
However, the document runs faster as users When the user changes their selections,
change their selections because no separate document execution is comparatively slower as
call to the Web server is required. a call to the intelligence server is required.
When you view a document offline, only the When you view a document offline, all the
data for the current selections are included in slices of the data are included in the document.
the document.

Parallel Execution
When a document is executed, the data sets run against the data warehouse in parallel and
immediately. Parallel execution allows multiple datasets to run at the same time instead of
waiting for one to finish before the next can start. MicroStrategy uses the Intelligence Server
CPU and the Intelligence Server memory, to execute all the datasets in parallel.
The following image illustrates the parallel execution datasets:

Parallel Execution

Virtual dataset
A virtual dataset is a combination of matching and non-matching data elements from multiple
datasets. The Intelligence Server performs a compound join between the datasets, when you
create a document with two or more datasets. The compound join creates a row in the virtual
dataset for each dataset, beginning with the first row and continuing to the last.
The following image, illustrates an example of a virtual dataset:

Virtual Dataset
In the above example, attribute A exists in both datasets. Notice that, the attribute elements for
A are matched and displayed only once in the final output, when the Intelligence Server
performs a compound join.
Objects that are not common between the datasets, such as attribute B and metrics M1
and M2, are appended to the virtual dataset.
Before the virtual dataset is created, dashboard components are mapped to individual
metrics and attributes within a dataset. After the mappings take place, Intelligence Server
combines the datasets into the virtual dataset.
As a document designer, you can specify the primary and secondary datasets to control the
way datasets are combined. This helps to limit the size of the virtual dataset.

You might also consider, calculating the approximate rows and columns of the virtual
dataset.
For example, a document with 4 panel stacks x 3 panels x 100 rows x 10 years x 12
months x 4 departments can contain so many possible data combinations, that the
virtual dataset becomes rather large.
In this case, you should try to limit the amount of data or minimize the number of
selectors and panels.
You can significantly reduce the amount of data retrieved by Intelligence Server, by
including prompts on Year and Department attributes.

Tuning Candidates
You can troubleshoot document performance issues as well as apply some optimization
techniques to improve the overall performance of the documents. The image below gives some
high-level performance tuning steps, which can be followed to troubleshoot and resolve issues:
Performance Tuning Process
Quantify Performance
Measure the execution time of the documents in the desired output format.
Measure the execution time of individual datasets.
Identify Problem Datasets
Identify problem datasets or objects in the document that can be removed or
modified.
Find Tuning Candidates
Identify specific datasets or document execution phases that can be tuned to perform
better.
Propose Candidate solutions
For problem datasets, consider optimizing the SQL through VLDB properties, indexing
tables in the data warehouse or creating aggregate tables.
Consider modifying the governing settings, caching strategy, and so forth.
Test and Refine Solution
After making the proposed modifications, test the documents to measure the
performance.
Document and Implement Solution
A good practice is to document the solution for future reference.

Best Practices
Limit the use of consolidations, custom groups, ranking filters, and so on, which are
comparatively more time-consuming to be processed by the Intelligence Server than others
dataset objects.
Use text boxes instead of grids to show smaller amounts of data. Intelligence Server
processes each grid/graph, widget, selector, panel, group-by, text box, image, shape, line,
and link to construct the virtual dataset. Thus, do not add unnecessary components.
To decrease the size of the data file in flash, limit the number of group-by objects, selectors,
grids, and graphs in a document.
One way to decrease the number of grids and graphs is to combine them into advanced
visualizations or replace them with dynamic text boxes wherever possible.
For detailed reports, instead of adding more panels or more layouts, consider adding links.
Enable document caching.
If you have a large amount of data in a flash document, use filtering selectors and links to
more detailed reports.
If you have a large amount of data in a DHTML document, use multiple layouts and links to
minimize the amount of data sent in one request.
The performance can significantly degrade, while using an OLAP report as a dataset, instead
of a regular report. This is because the analytical engine needs to process extra information
and make an additional copy of the base report every time the dashboard is executed. A
workaround could be to use regular reports with view filters. The OLAP functionality will be
mimicked by the view filters and will speed up the process of data preparation.

Summary
Filtering selectors reduce the initial load time of a dashboard by retrieving only one slice of
data.
When a document is executed, all the datasets undergo parallel execution against the data
warehouse.
A virtual dataset is a combination of matching and non-matching data elements between the
datasets.
You can troubleshoot document performance issues as well as apply some optimization
techniques to improve the overall performance of your documents.

CHAPTER
8
8
MicroStrategy Mobile
Architecture, Interface,
and Apps
Outline:
Business Application of Mobile
MicroStrategy BI Architecture
MicroStrategy Mobile Architecture
Analyzing Grids and Graphs
Interacting with Documents
Interacting with Mobile Applications and Tools
Interacting with Visual Insight Dashboards
Interacting with Transaction Services Documents
2013, DataTutors
CHAPTER 8 | MicroStrategy Mobile Architecture, Interface, and Apps
Business Application of Mobile

MicroStrategy Mobile extends the reach and accessibility of the BI environment beyond the web
browser, and enables the users to review vital information, monitor KPIs, and share data in and
out of the workplace.
Mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad work seamlessly with the MicroStrategy platform to
minimize the amount of work necessary to prepare a dynamic dashboard for mobile
deployment.

MicroStrategy BI Architecture
In a MicroStrategy environment, you can create, run, and view reports in two, three, or four-tier
architectures. The illustration below shows two, three, and four-tier business intelligence
architecture:
Two, Three, and Four-tier Architectures

In a two-tier business intelligence environment, Desktop clients connect directly to the

metadata and the warehouse.
A three-tier architecture consists of the data warehouse, metadata, Intelligence Server, and
Desktop.
A four-tier architecture contains all the components of the three-tier architecture along with
MicroStrategy Web or MicroStrategy Mobile server.

The two main components of Mobile deployment are:
MicroStrategy Mobile Server: It delivers the BI data to the MicroStrategy Mobile App.
MicroStrategy Mobile Client App: It should be installed on the device you are using like
iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or BlackBerry.
These components communicate with the rest of the platform to retrieve and execute reports
and documents.
The following illustration shows MicroStrategy architecture that supports Mobile deployment:

MicroStrategy Mobile Server is similar to the MicroStrategy Web Server. It connects to the
MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to retrieve the data and passes it on to the Mobile clients.
MicroStrategy Mobile clients are the apps you install on your mobile device, which enables you
to access and interact with the MicroStrategy business intelligence data.
You can install MicroStrategy Mobile on an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad with iOS 4.3.x or
later and Android OS 2.2.x, 2.3.x, 3.x, 4.0.x, or 4.1.x for certified android mobile devices.

Analyzing Grids and Graphs

You can use MicroStrategy Mobile to analyze the grid or graph data in a report or a document.
The following table describes few functionalities that are supported by Apple and Android
devices:
Functionalities Supported By Apple and Android Devices
Apple Devices Android Devices
Reports can be viewed in Grid view, Reports can be viewed in Grid view
Graph view, and Grid and Graph view and Graph view
Users can switch between view modes Switching between view modes in a
in a report report is not supported.
Users can interact with the page-by Users can interact with the page-by
elements elements
Sorting data in a grid is possible Sorting data is not supported.
Drilling is possible. Drilling is possible.
Switch between View Modes

Users can switch between the Grid and Graph view modes in a report. To switch between Grid
and Graph view modes, tap the Graph button in the top right corner of the screen, as shown
below:
Switch between View Modes

Interacting with Page-by Elements

Page-by attribute elements display at the top of the screen on the iPad and the iPhone. You can
change the page-by selection of a report by tapping the page-by attribute and selecting other
element from the drop-down menu, as shown below:
Interacting with Page-by Elements on iPad
To interact with page-by on Android devices, tap the Page-by icon on the action bar.
Byin thedefault, on iPhone, the page-by bar is displayed in the portrait view while it is hidden
landscape view.
Sorting Data
You can sort the data in ascending or descending order, when analyzing the grid data in a report
or in a document on iPad or iPhone.

To sort the data, tap and hold a column header to display the Sort menu as shown in the
following image:
Sort Data
Drilling
When you perform drilling on mobile devices, an ad hoc request for a new result set is triggered.
When you tap and hold an attribute header or an attribute element, the Drill Anywhere menu is
displayed on iPad. You can then select the hierarchy of your interest, and finally tap Update to
perform the drill action.

For example, the following illustration shows drilling in the Revenue By Region report, from
Southeast element to the Quarter level:
Drilling on iPad
Tap on the data series, to perform drilling on the graphs.

Interacting with Documents

Documents for iPad or Android tablets are optimized by providing in-document navigation
tools, pop-up information windows, and so on, on a single screen. Generally, documents
designed for iPhone or Android phones display widgets in full-screen, while documents on iPad
or tablets, display widgets next to grids, graphs, and other objects.
Switching between Panels

In Mobile documents, you can switch between panels by:
Using panel stack selectors such as buttons
Using horizontal swipe
Using docked panel selector, which displays as a dark grey bar at the bottom of the panel
stack
The following image illustrates the above methods to switch between panels:
Switching between Panels

Navigating between Layouts in Documents

To navigate between different document layouts you can use the docked layout bar at the
bottom of the document, with circles representing different layouts.
In MicroStrategy Mobile for iPhone and Android, you can navigate through multiple layouts
of a document by either tapping their names on the tab at the bottom of the screen, or by
swiping horizontally across the page indicators.
Viewing Information Windows

The Information windows enable you to view additional information about an element in
MicroStrategy Mobile. You can get this additional information by:
Tapping an element in a grid or graph
Tapping a text-based or image-based button
When you tap:

Attribute element-based information windows pop up over an element and display an
additional visualization based on the element.
Button-based information windows pop up over a button.
The following image displays the Information window, when a user taps the Video Equipment
subcategory:
Information Window

Book-Style Page-By Navigation

Book-style page-by is an incredible feature for reports with grouped data. It provides grids as
pages of a spiral bound notebook. When you tap the screen edge or swipe, it seems that you are
flipping through pages of a book, while the report data seamlessly updates to the next page-by
selection. This feature is supported only on the iPad.
Book-Style Page-By Navigation
Zoom on Reports and Documents

Zoom magnifies a portion of the screen, thus letting you easily read and interact with the
dashboards and reports on your mobile device.
Within a document, certain widgets also support zoom. Zoom-enabled widgets can be magnified
within the boundaries of their container, independent of overall document zoom. The following
widgets support component-level zoom:
Map Widget
Heat Map Widget
Image Layout
Network Widget
Graph Matrix Widget
Time Series Widget

You can enable zoom for Report or Documents, in MicroStrategy Web as shown below:
Enabling Zoom for Reports
Enabling Zoom for Documents

Interacting with Mobile Applications and

Tools
Apart from viewing reports and documents on your mobile device, you can also navigate to
related reports using links. To open an app from a document tap the image or text that is linked
to the app. MicroStrategy documents can interact with apps such as, Email, Phone, Maps, and
Web sites that play videos.
You can add annotations such as comments and freehand drawings, to your dashboard and save
that as a picture. The following image displays an annotated document:
Annotated Document

Further, you can share the annotated snapshot by either emailing or printing it. To annotate or
share a screenshot tap the Share button, as shown below:
Sharing

Interacting with Visual Insight

Dashboards
MicroStrategy enables you to interact with Visual Insight dashboards on your iPad. Thus, you can
efficiently create advanced visualizations, with minimum training and development time. Some
visualizations that are supported by iPad are, Density Map, Graph Matrix, Image Layout, Heat
Map, Grid, Graph, and so on.
The following image displays Region and Category Visual Insight analysis on iPad:
Visual Insight Report on iPad

Interacting with Transaction Services

Documents
Transaction Services enabled documents, enable you to interact with the data stored in the
existing transactional systems. Using MicroStrategy Mobile app, users can submit changes
directly to the back-end data source. For example, the following image shows a Transaction
Services document that enables regional managers to change the target Revenue value and
submit it:
Interacting with Transaction Services Document
iOS device users can also submit transactions while they are offline. A device is offline when the
network is not reachable from the mobile device or when the mobile app cannot connect to the
mobile server. For offline transactions, a message is displayed indicating that the transaction will
be queued and resubmitted when connectivity resumes.

Business Use Case
In a global retail company that operates in 60 different countries with 1500 stores on the run,
and different markets with different competitors - The Chief Information Officer says that they
beat the competition with data. With MicroStrategy Mobile they leverage the entire business
intelligence architecture on mobile and deploy products in a much faster way.
The Director of Business Intelligence deployed MicroStrategy Mobile to the company Executives
and it turned out to be one of the best achievements in delivering actionable, accessible, and
visually compelling information. The mobile app designed for the company is one of the most
data rich apps put together and accommodates contents of about 15 dashboards.
The Senior Merchandise Planner works with the buying team for accessories and footwear and
manages more than 1000 different skews. The mobile app devised for their company helps her
pull up the best-sellers and the pictures of each item, along with the sales information.
MicroStrategy Mobile lets you access the data in the most disruptive way. It not just changes the
way you access the information, but also how you think of accessing the information.

Summary
In a MicroStrategy environment, you can create, run, and view reports in two, three, or
four-tier architectures.
The two main components of Mobile deployment are:
MicroStrategy Mobile Server
MicroStrategy Mobile Client App
You can use MicroStrategy Mobile to analyze the grid or graph data in a report or document.
Users can switch between the Grid and Graph view modes in a report.
Page-by attribute elements display at the top of the screen on the iPad and the iPhone.
You can sort the data in ascending or descending order, when analyzing the grid data in a
report or in a document on iPad or iPhone.
When you perform drilling on mobile devices, an ad hoc request for a new result set is
triggered.
Documents for iPad or Android tablets are optimized by providing in-document navigation
tools, pop-up information windows, and so on, on a single screen.
In Mobile documents, you can switch between panels by:
Using panel stack selectors
Using horizontal swipe
Using docked panel selector
To navigate between different document layouts, you can use the docked layout bar at the
bottom of the document
The Information windows enable you to view additional information about an element in
MicroStrategy Mobile.
Book-style page-by navigation provides grids as pages of a spiral bound notebook.
Zoom magnifies a portion of the screen, thus letting you easily read and interact with the
dashboards and reports on your mobile device.
Apart from viewing reports and documents on your mobile device, you can also navigate to
related reports using links.
You can add annotations such as comments and freehand drawings, to your dashboard.
MicroStrategy enables you to interact with Visual Insight dashboards on your iPad.
Transaction Services enabled documents, enable you to interact with the data stored in the
existing transactional systems.


CHAPTER 8 | MicroStrategy Mobile Architecture, Interface, and Apps - Exercises
Exercises: MicroStrategy Mobile

Architecture, Interface, and Apps
8.1 Remote MicroStrategy Mobile Configuration
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to create a remote MicroStrategy Mobile configuration. At

a high level, you will perform the following steps:
Open the Mobile Administrator
On the Mobile Configuration page, define new configuration, and select a device
On the Ipad Settings, Connectivity Settings, and Home Page tabs, provide all the
necessary information
Procedure:
Create a Remote MicroStrategy Mobile Configuration
1. On the Start menu, select All Programs, select MicroStrategy Tools, and select Mobile
Administrator.

2. On the Mobile Administrator page, in the left pane, click Mobile Configuration.
3. On the Mobile Configuration page, in the right pane, click Define New Configuration.
4. In the Device drop-down list, select iPad.

5. Click OK.
6. In the Configuration name box, type My Configuration.
7. On the iPad Settings tab, provide all the necessary information.

8. Click Save.
Onvarious
the Mobile Configuration page, the iPad Settings tab enables you to define
settings.
9. Click the Connectivity Settings tab.

10. Click Configure New Mobile Server.

11. In the Mobile Server name box, type the server name as localhost.

12. Click Configure New Project.

Each mobile configuration may contain connectivity information for multiple

mobile servers. Projects available on the mobile server are automatically
recognized and made available.
13. Click the Home Screen tab.

14. On the Home Screen tab, click Save.
15. On the Mobile Configuration page, click Generate URL.
16. On the Generate Configuration URL window, in the Server name field, type an IP
address or a domain name of the machine.

17. Click Generate URL.
18. Click Save.
Use the generated URL on the iPad browser to remotely access the project.

8.2 Optional: Download the iOS MicroStrategy Apps

and Interact with MicroStrategy Mobile Features
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to download the MicroStrategy app from the Apple App
Store and interact with MicroStrategy features. At a high level, you will perform the
following steps:
On your iPad or iPhone, launch the App Store
Search for MicroStrategy
Install MicroStrategy Mobile for iPhone or MicroStrategy Mobile for iPad
Tap Explore the Product window, and navigate through different key features
Procedure:
Download MicroStrategy Apps
1. On your iPad or iPhone, launch App Store.

2. In the App Store app, tap on Search Store.
3. In the Search box, type MicroStrategy.

4. In the list of apps, tap MicroStrategy Mobile for iPad.
5. On the MicroStrategy Mobile for iPad screen, tap Install.

Open the App
6. On your iPad, tap MicroStrategy Mobile.
Interact with Graphs
7. On the top right corner, tap Explore the Product.

8. In the Explore the Product window, tap Graphing.
You can either swipe through the different graph styles, or on the bottom bar,
select one of the graph types.

9. On the Graphing window, select Lipstick.

It should display as shown below:
You can interact with each of the graph types by tapping a data point (such as a
slice on a pie graph or a bubble in a bubble graph), to view a tooltip with more
information.
Sorting, Drilling, and Page-By
10. On the Graphing window, tap back icon.

11. On the Explore the Product window, tap Sorting, Drilling, Page-By.
You can either swipe through different manipulations, or on the bottom bar,
select one of the manipulation.

12. On the Sorting, Drilling, Page-By window, select Sorting.

13. Tap and hold GDP ($US Billions), and select Sort Ascending.
14. Swipe right.

15. Tap and hold Category, and select Drill Anywhere.

16. Select Subcategory, and tap Update.
17. Tap Back.

18. On the Sorting, Drilling, Page-By window, select Page-By.
19. Tap the icon shown below:
You can swipe left or right to change the first Region page-by, and swipe up or
down to change the second Books page-by.
Rapid Reporting
20. Tap Back.

21. On the Sorting, Drilling, Page-By, select Rapid Reporting.

22. Tap the icon shown below:
23. Tap the edge of the page.
You can navigate through the pages of a sample report by tapping on the edge of
the page.
Information Window
24. Tap Back to return to the Rapid Reporting page, and then tap Back again to return to
the Explore the Product page.
25. On the Explore the Product page, select Interactivity.
26. On the Interactivity page, on the bottom bar, tap Info Windows.

27. Tap Movies category.

28. Tap outside the Information window.
Slider
29. On the Interactivity page, on the bottom bar, tap Slider.

30. Select Jan 2008 to Dec 2008 in Select Time Range slider.
31. Tap Back.

Mapping
32. On the Explore the Product window, tap Mapping.

33. On the Mapping window, tap Network Visualization.

34. On the Mapping window, tap the highlighted icon below, and tap node.
35. On the Mapping window, tap Image Layout.

36. Tap on the visualization.
37. Tap Back.

Transaction Services
38. On the Explore the Product window, tap Transaction Services.

39. On the Transaction Services window, tap Demos.
40. Tap Pharma Sales Analytics.

41. On the tab bar at the bottom, tap Call Log.

42. Using drop-down lists, make selections for each field, as shown in the image below:
43. Under Comments, type Test.

44. Tap Submit.
45. Tap Continue.
Visual Insight
46. Tap Back.
You need to tap Back a couple of times till you reach the Explore the Product
screen.

47. On the Export the Product window, tap Visual Insight.
48. On the Visual Insight window, tap Maps you can Manage.

49. Tap Airline On-Time Analysis.
Toandreturn to the Explore the Product page, tap Minimize at the top right corner,
tap Back.

CHAPTER
9
9 Designing
MicroStrategy Mobile
Applications
Outline:
Design Process
Application Research
Storyboarding and Planning
Configuring Prompts
Prompt Visualizations
2013, DataTutors
CHAPTER 9 | Designing MicroStrategy Mobile Applications, Reports, and Documents
Design Process
Any app design process starts with:
Meeting the business users to determine their expectations and thus decide the scope of the
app.
Creating storyboard mock-ups of the app by combining user prerequisites, navigation
strategies, document design best practices, and data organization methods.
Creating prototypes of the app and then testing them.
The storyboarding and prototyping phases are iterative. They include getting constructive
feedback from the clients, and implementing them in the next round of revisions and
prototypes. This iterative process ensures that the apps improve quickly and meet the client's
expectations.

Application Research
You will perform application research to understand the requirements, context, and the
expectations of your audience. You must first understand the current system, to identify the
primary users, tasks, and the areas of improvement. You should also try to gather answers for
what, who, when, where, and how type of questions, before you start the design process of your
application.
What
features you want to see in the app?
business process is currently followed?
information is most often accessed?
methods have been tried before?
Who
will use the app?
will be observed or affected by the app?
How
the information is currently accessed?
is the data used?
is the data currently stored?
Why
certain features have been requested?
information is accessed in this order?

Answering these questions will help you decide the scope of your app, and decide if the
requested features are feasible.
Workflow of App Creation

The following illustration displays the app creation process:
App Creation Workflow
1 Evaluate the organizations needs by understanding the type and order of information
they want display.
2 Design a wireframe storyboard.
3 Design the required documents.
4 Link all the designed documents together, using buttons or tab bars.
5 Define an entry point in a document, which will contain links to rest of the documents.
6 While deploying the app, create a configuration link that will load the entry point of the
app to a users device.

Storyboarding and Planning

Storyboarding is the second step in the design process of a mobile product. Storyboarding is the
process of telling a story through static images. While planning involves, ensuring that the
necessary objects are present. Storyboarding and planning become an iterative process, with
regular reviews from the business users.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding puts different screens together and identifies actions that users take to interact
with the app. The following illustration displays a sample storyboard:
Storyboarding
The following steps should be adhered to, while creating a storyboard:

Design the home screen such that, it gives access to the key information or user's prime
navigational choices.
Place data and documents in the order users would need them.
Organize the data in the hierarchy of importance.
Create a workflow that feels familiar to the end user.
Use arrows and symbols to signify gestures, taps, or other interactions, while arranging
documents in the storyboard.

Use a piece of paper, word, or any image-processing program to quickly build flowcharts and
mock-up screens for your storyboard.
Planning
You must ensure that the navigation scheme of your app is intuitive and useful. Any Smartphone
has three primary navigation styles: flat pages, tab bar buttons, and tree structure. The following
image displays these navigation styles:
Navigation Styles
Flat Pages
Useful for apps that require few documents and reports
Pages can be accessed using horizontal swipe
Flat page flow does not cater to drilling
Avoid using flat page navigation for a large collection of pages, as it would require
multiple swipes to navigate between pages far apart.

Tab Bar
Displays a persistent set of buttons on all the documents
Generally placed at the bottom of a page
Tapping a tab bar button sends users to a root page of the app
Suitable for apps with several different main pages
Limit the maximum number of buttons to five.

Tree Structure
Resembles hierarchy as that for computers, wherein low-level folders are stored
within a higher-level folder.
Used when you want to guide a user through a flow of screens that correspond to
successive steps in a business process.
Keep the tree structure shallow (up to four levels), to avoid users from getting lost in
your app.

Storyboard Wireframe
Storyboard wireframe enables you to create a blueprint or prototype of your app. The
wireframe is a mock-up that displays where each screen or link will go. The image below shows a
storyboard wireframe mock-up example:
Storyboard Wireframe Mock-Up
Navigation Schemes on the Tablets

Decide the navigation scheme for your tablet app, using the following guidelines:
Avoid using a variety of navigation controls, as this can be distracting for the user.
Label buttons, arrows, page-by bars, and other controls.

Do not place controls too close to each other.

Use images to hyperlink other documents and reports.
Ensure that the hyperlinked images fit the size of a fingertip.
Use button-based Information Windows to collapse navigation controls into a
small-footprint button.
Performance Considerations
To improve the performance of your Mobile app, consider the below guidelines:
Use group-by (page-by) feature instead of prompts. A cached multi-page document can be
accessed faster, compared to a prompted document where re-submitting the prompt
answers to the Intelligence Server is required.
Combine multiple datasets into one report or use Intelligent Cubes.
It is advised to use views instead of layouts.
When displaying graphs ensure that the graph is generated as a vector graph and not as a
bitmap graph.
Business Use Case
An international retail company operating in 30 countries with a headcount of 300,000

employees uses MicroStrategy Mobile's disruptive technology, to encompass merchandising,
marketing, market basket analysis, category management, and strategic business planning. The
company understands that to reap the benefits for the organization, all the operation systems
should be mobilized.
The Mobile App Developer of the company is responsible to lead the design, development, and
maintenance of Android and iPhone apps, right from the concept stage until delivery, and post
launch support. He is asked to design an app for iPhone to mobilize the point-of-sale and
marketing.
He first conducts a research to understand the purpose of the Mobile app and finds out that, this
app would be used by the store managers and the merchandise planners to drive the
point-of-sale and marketing. This app needs to be connected to the live database and should
have the write-back capability for data transactions, to the data warehouse.

He then creates a workflow from design to deployment of mobile app. His next task is to identify
the actions that the users will take to interact with the app. Once done, he designs an intuitive
navigation scheme for the app. Finally, he creates a blueprint of the app.
In the entire process, the Mobile App Developer ensured that he follows the best practices
keeping in mind the performance considerations. The process of creating powerful, captivating,
and enterprise-class mobile apps is time-consuming and costly. However, with MicroStrategy's
software platform you can build, deploy, and maintain mobile apps in the most cost-effective
way possible.

Configuring Prompts
MicroStrategy Mobile supports value prompts and attribute element list prompts.
Attribute Element List Prompts

You can change the display style of a prompt, while creating it in MicroStrategy Web. The
following image shows the calendar display style for the attribute elements of date or datetime
datatype:
Creating Calendar Prompt

The following image displays a calendar prompt on iPhone:

Calendar Prompt
Other prompt styles display as a list of values on the Mobile device.

Value Prompts
The display styles for value prompts include: slider, stepper, wheel, text box, single-select
calendar, Boolean switch, and date and time prompt displayed as a date and time picker. A text
box style value prompt is shown in the following image:
Value Prompt

The following image displays the Prompt Editor in MicroStrategy Web, to select a particular style
for the value prompt. The image also shows the General tab of the Prompt Editor, where you
can specify the minimum and maximum values displayed to the user (for numeric, date, and
time value prompts):
Creating a Value Prompt

You can define the values that control the on/off behavior for the switch style. You can also
specify the increments or decrements, for the slider, stepper, and wheel style prompt controls
as follows:
Specifying Prompt Controls

Prompt Visualizations
You can use the native capabilities of mobile devices, such as geo location services and camera,
to create barcode reader and geo location prompts.
Barcode Reader Prompt

You can define the display style for the barcode reader prompt as a value prompt, as shown
below:
Creating Barcode Reader Value Prompt
When viewed this prompt on a mobile device, it automatically displays as a barcode

scanner or a keypad.

You can also create a barcode reader prompt as an element list prompt. Using this prompt you
can narrow down the list of attribute elements based on the barcode of an item. The following
image displays the barcode reader element list prompt editor window:
Creating Barcode Reader Element List Prompt
Geo Location Prompt

The geo location prompt requires you to specify your current location to determine what data is
displayed on the report.
To work with geo location prompt as a value prompt, you need to create two separate value
prompts (each for latitude and longitude values). Only when you place both these value prompts
in the filter of a report, they display together as a single geo location prompt.

You define the geo location prompt as a value prompt in MicroStrategy Web, as shown below:
Creating Geo Location Value Prompt
When you create a geo location prompt as an element list prompt, you can narrow down a list of
attribute elements based on your current location.

The following image shows you how to create geo location element list prompt:
Creating Geo Location Element List Prompt
As you can see in the above image, you need to define two location parameters:
Location mapping levelThis parameter is retrieved from the geo location services of your
mobile device. It can be either current country, city, state, or zip code.
Location mapping attributeThis is the geo location attribute in your project with which the
geo location parameter is compared.

Summary
You will perform application research to understand the requirements, context, and
expectations of your audience.
Storyboarding is the process of telling a story through static images.
Planning ensures that the navigation scheme of your app is intuitive and useful.
Storyboard wireframe enables you to create a blueprint or prototype of your app.
MicroStrategy Mobile supports value prompts and attribute element list prompts.
You can use the native capabilities of mobile devices, such as geo location services and
camera, to create barcode reader and geo location prompts.
You can create a barcode reader prompt as a value prompt or attribute element list prompt.
Similarly, you can create a geo location prompt as a value prompt or attribute element list
prompt.
The geo location prompt requires you to specify your current location to determine what
data is displayed on the report.


CHAPTER 9 | Designing MicroStrategy Mobile Applications, Reports, and Documents - Exercises
Exercises: Designing MicroStrategy

Mobile Applications, Reports, and
Documents
9.1 Configuring Prompts
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to learn how to create an Attribute Element List prompt
and use it in a report. At a high level, you will perform the following steps:
Create a new folder in Shared Reports, and name it Mobile Exercises. (You will be
saving all the mobile exercises here. Also, on the basis of your privileges, you might
not have folder creation privileges)
Create an attribute element list prompt using Day attribute and Calendar style. Save
the prompt object in Shared Reports\Mobile Exercises folder.
Create a report using Day, and Distribution Center attributes and Item Count metric.
Add Element of the Day prompt in the filter. Save the report as Report_Attribute
Element List prompt in the Shared Reports\Mobile Exercises folder.
View the report in an iPad.
343 2013, Nice Educons

When you select the days 01/16/2012 and 02/22/2012 and switch the report to
Graph, the report should display as shown below:
Procedure:
Folder Creation
1. Browse to Shared Reports, on the Project sidebar, click Create, and from the
drop-down, select New Folder.
2. In the Create Folder window, in the Name box, type Mobile Exercises.
3. Click OK.
2013, Nice Educons 344

Create an Attribute Element List Prompt
4. On the MicroStrategy Tutorial project home page, under Create, click New Prompt.
5. In the Create Prompt window, select Attribute Element List.

6. In the New Prompt window, click the Select Attribute button.
7. In the Select an Object window, browse to Attributes\Time, and select Day.
8. Click OK.
9. Click the General tab.
10. Select the Prompt answer is required check box.

11. In the Personal answers allowed drop-down, select Multiple.
12. Click the Style tab.

13. In the Display style drop-down, select Calendar.

14. Click Save.
15. Save the prompt as Elements of Day in the Shared Reports\Mobile Exercises folder.
Create Report

17. In the Create Report window, select Blank Report.
18. In the Design Mode, in the All Objects pane, browse to

Schema Objects\Attributes\Time, right-click Day attribute, and select Add to Grid.
20. Click Geography.
21. Right-click Distribution Center, and select Add to Grid.
22. Move Distribution Center attribute to the columns.
24. Click Count Metrics.
25. Right-click Item Count, and select Add to Grid.
26. In the All Objects pane, select My Personal Objects from the drop-down.
27. Click Shared Reports.
28. Click Mobile Exercises, right-click Elements of Day prompt, and select Add to Filters.

29. Click Run icon.

30. On the Prompts page, answer the prompt as 1-1-2010, click Run Report.
31. Save the report, as Report_Attribute Element List prompt, in the Shared Reports
\Mobile Exercises folder.
32. Click OK.

Configure and Open Report in iPad
33. On the iPad, browse to, and select Report_Attribute Element List prompt.
34. Tap View.

Select Days
35. Select the Days as shown in the image given below:
36. Tap Apply.
Your grid should display as shown below:

37. On the top-right, tap the Graph icon.
Your report should display as shown below:

9.2 Prompt Visualization
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to analyze the regional revenue and cost of an item whose
barcode is provided at run time. At a high level, you will perform the following steps:
Create a report using Region, Subcategory, and Brand attributes and Cost and
Revenue metrics. Save it as Regional Item Details in the Exercises folder.
In the report, create a prompt on the Item attribute, to qualify on the Barcode form
using a value prompt.
Configure the iPad, and open the report.
When you enter the barcode 795819215201, your report should display as shown below:

Procedure:
Create Report
2. In the Create Report window, select Blank Report.

3. In the Design Mode, in the All Objects pane, browse to Schema Objects\Attri-
butes\Geography, right-click Region attribute, and select Add to Grid.

5. Click Products.
6. Pressing CTRL, select Subcategory, Brand, and Item.

7. Right-click and select Add to Grid.

9. Click Sales Metrics.
10. Pressing CTRL, select Cost, and Revenue.
11. Right-click, and select Add to Grid.
Create Filter with Value Prompt
12. In the All Objects pane, select Attributes from the drop-down.
13. Click the Products folder.
14. Right-click Item, and select Add to Filter.

15. In the Report Filter window, in the DESC drop-down, select Barcode
16. Click Create Value Prompt.
17. Click Item Value.

18. In the Prompt window, select the Prompt answer is required check box.
19. On the Style tab, in the Display Style drop-down, select Barcode Reader.
20. Click OK.

21. In the Report Filter pane, click Apply.
Save the Report
22. Click Save.

23. On the Save As window, in the Name box, type Regional Item Details.
24. Click OK.
Open Report in iPad
25. On the iPad, browse to Shared Reports\Mobile Exercises, and select Regional Item
Details.
26. Tap View.

Enter the Barcode
27. In the value prompt, type the barcode as shown in the image below:
28. Tap Apply.
You can use the camera to click the barcode in an iPhone.

Your grid should display as shown below:

CHAPTER
10
10
Application
Interconnectivity and
Linking
Outline:
Linking to Other Reports or Documents
Links Editor
Using the URL API
Document Links
Creating Navigation Tools
2013, DataTutors
CHAPTER 10 | Application Interconnectivity and Linking
Linking to Other Reports or Documents

A link is a connection in a document to another document or a report. You can use links in a
document displayed on your mobile device to run other reports, documents, screens, or even
other apps.
Links Editor
Using the Links Editor, you can create simple links to reports and documents:
Links Editor
Similar to documents, MicroStrategy Mobile supports all prompt-passing methods in the link
editor.

For more information on prompt-passing methods, see the Prompt Answer Methods
appendix starting on page 197
Passing Selector Values
Linking enables the users to pass the selector values from the source to the target document. To
pass the selector values, both the source and the target documents must either use the same
selector or both must contain a selector that uses the same object. The following image shows
the different options available in the Links Editor, while passing the selector values:
Pass All Selector Values
Buttons and Tab Bar
Using buttons, users can navigate to various screens, run a particular report or document, or
even open a web page or an Information Window.

The following image shows a Wealth Manager app, which uses buttons to access different links
within the app:
Buttons in a Demo App
Following are the possible components of each button:

Icon
Caption
Custom Image
Actions
To create a tab bar, you must first create a navigation document which only contains the tab bar.
Passing selector values and Buttons and Tab Bar features are only available for iPhones
and iPads.

Using the URL API

You can embed links in images or text boxes using the URL API syntax. To add a hyperlink to an
image, use the image with an HTML code and select its Is hyperlink property.
Is Hyperlink Property
The following link parameters can be used to produce useful hyperlinks, specific to your needs:
Event ID (evt)
Event ID defines the type of event that the URL performs.
There can be several different types of events, like executing another report or
document, open email, open help screen, and so forth.
To execute a report, the event ID is 4001. To execute a document, the event ID is
2048001.
Syntax evt=4001 or evt=2048001

ID of a report or document
Each report or document has a reportID or a documentID, which uniquely identifies it.
If the target report is a dataset of the source document, you can use
reportID={&ReportName:GUID}syntax to retrieve the report ID at run time.
You can obtain this ID from the properties window of that particular report or
document, as shown below:
Report Properties Window
viewMode and currentViewMedia

You can specify the view mode and the view media for a particular report or
document, using these parameters
You should always use viewMode=0&currentViewMedia=2 syntax, while creating
hyperlinks for apps
When you combine all the above parameters, you produce a hyperlink as shown below:
Main.aspx?evt=4001&reportID=913F458647C9BB1627623E90A53D9009
&viewMode=0&currentViewMedia=2
Passing Page-By Elements
You can create hyperlinks that pass selected page-by elements to the destination report or
document.

Append the following syntax to pass the page-by elements for reports
&pageByElements=[pageByUnitID];[pageByUnitType];[pageByElementID]
Append the following syntax to pass the page-by elements for documents
&groupByElements=[groupByUnitID];[groupByUnitType];[groupByElemen
tID]
In the syntax above, replace the parameters with the values described in the table below:
Parameters with Corresponding Values
Parameter Replace with
pageByUnitID or {&Attribute@GUID}
groupByUnitID
pageByUnitType or 12 for attributes, 47 for consolidation

groupByUnitType
pageByElementID or {&Attribute@LongElementID}
groupByElementID
This feature is specific to apps and not supported in MicroStrategy Web interface.
For example, the following syntax passes a region as a group-by selection to a target document:
&groupByElements={&Region@GUID};12;{&Region@LongElementID}
Thus, the complete syntax for passing the page-by selection to a report is:
Main.aspx?evt=2048001&documentID=ID of
document&viewMode=0&currentViewMedia=2&groupByElements={&Attribut
e@GUID};12;{&Attribute@LongElementID}
Specifying Which Layout to Open
While creating hyperlinks, you can specify the layout that should open in the target document.
Simply append the following syntax:
&layoutIndex=n
Here, n specifies the layout index. For example, to open the first layout, use the &layoutIndex=0
syntax. To open the second layout, use the &layoutIndex=1 syntax, and so on.

Document Links
You can define document links to:
Change document properties
Open other MicroStrategy Mobile screens
Open external mobile apps
Document link syntax for iPhone: mstr://?evt=event_number
Document link syntax for iPad: mstripad://?evt=event_number

Creating Navigation Tools

To enable users to navigate within and between the documents, you can create docked panel
selectors, Information Windows, and define links on images.
Creating a Docked Panel Selector for iPad Documents

A docked panel selector appears as a dark grey bar at the bottom of a panel stack. It can be used
to switch panels as shown below:
Docked Panel Selector
A row of circles is displayed in the center of the selector, each circle representing a panel. The
current panel is marked with a dark circle.

The following image shows the Properties and Formatting window for the selector:
Properties and Formatting Window
Creating Information Windows

Information Windows let users view additional information about an attribute element by
tapping the element in a grid or graph. The Information Window pops up over the element,
displaying an additional visualization, based on the element.
Attribute element-based Information Windows dynamically display additional information
about an element on a grid/graph.
Button-based Information Windows enable you to view additional information in a pop-up
window. They are typically used to display navigation buttons or educational information.

Considerations for Hyperlinks on Images

When defining hyperlinks on images, consider using the following techniques:
Create a separate image for each link or button
Create a single master image for the document background and place transparent images
defined as separate hyperlinks over the master image
Place transparent images defined as hyperlinks over other objects in the document
MicroStrategy provides two out-of-the box transparent images:

1ptrans.gif and spacer.gif
These files are located in the following directories:
<MicroStrategy installation directory>\Intelligence Server\images
<MicroStrategy installation directory>\Web ASPx\images
<MicroStrategy installation directory>\Mobile Server ASPx\images
<MicroStrategy WAR files>\images

Summary
A link is a connection in a document to another document or a report.
You can create simple links to reports and documents using the Links Editor.
To pass selector values, both the source and target documents must either use the same
selector or both must contain a selector that uses the same object.
Using buttons, users can navigate to various screens, run a particular report or document, or
even open a web page or an Information Window.
You can embed links in images or text boxes using the URL API syntax.
You can create hyperlinks that pass selected page-by elements to the destination report or
document.
While creating hyperlinks, you can specify the layout that should open in the target
document.
To enable users navigate within and between documents, you can create docked panel
selectors, Information Windows, and define links on images.

CHAPTER 10 | Application Interconnectivity and Linking - Exercises
Exercises: Application
Interconnectivity and Linking
10.1 Using URL API
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to link a document to another report using a URL API. At a
high level, you will perform the following steps:
Open the Regional Sales Overview document located in Shared Reports\
MicroStrategy Platform Capabilities\MicroStrategy Mobile\iPad
Link the dynamic text box in the document to any prompted document (or report) and
append the syntax for passing the element prompt answer. Also, use the Home.gif
image to link to the MicroStrategy Web home page.
Save it as Regional Sales Overview using URL API in Shared Reports\Mobile
Exercises.
Open the document in an iPad.

On completion of the exercise, in the iPad, the document should display as shown below:
Procedure:
Run the Predefined Document and Add Hyperlink
1. Browse to Shared Reports\MicroStrategy Platform Capabilities\MicroStrategy

Mobile\iPad, and run Regional Sales Overview.

3. On the layout area, right-click the {Region} Region Revenue Trend dynamic text box,
and select Properties and Formatting.
4. In the Properties and Formatting window, select the Is hyperlink check box.
5. In the Hyperlink box, type
Main.aspx?evt=4001&reportID=0BA6017811D5EFDF100080B3A5E8F8A4&viewMod
e=0&currentViewMedia=2&elementsPromptAnswers={&[Region]@GUID};
{&[Region]@ElementID}^{[Region]@DESC}.

While copying the above link and using it for exercises, please manually delete the
spaces introduced by line breaks.
6. Click OK.
8. On the Save As window, browse to Shared Reports\Mobile Exercises, and save the
document as Reports Sales Overview using URL API.
Create Link on Image
9. Navigate to the newly saved document, and switch to the Design Mode.
11. Using cross-hairs cursor place and position the image on the top-right corner.

12. In the Properties and Formatting window, in the Source box, type Images/Home.gif.
13. Click OK.
14. Right-click the image, and select Edit Links.

15. In the Links window, under When this link is clicked, click the Perform this (Mobile
only) radio button.

16. Leave Go to Home screen selected in the drop-down.
You can go to Home screen, Settings screen, Status screen, Report List, Shared
Library, or Help.
17. Click OK.

18. Save the changes replacing the earlier version of the document.
Open in iPad
19. On the iPad, click the MicroStrategy icon.

20. Browse to Shared Reports\Mobile Exercises, and open Regional Sales Overview
using URL API.
21. After the selection of region and category, click the Region Revenue Trend link. The
linked report opens in a new window.
22. Similarly, click the Home icon. The MicroStrategy Web Home Page opens in same
window.

10.2 Creating Link Using Link Editor
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to link the Monthly Regional Sales Targets Planning
document to the Regional Sales Overview document, by passing selector values from
source to target. At a high level, you will perform the following steps:
Open the Monthly Regional Sales Targets Planning document, located in Shared
Reports\MicroStrategy Platform Capabilities\MicroStrategy Transaction Services.
Use a Month selector and, a text box, to create a link to open the Regional Sales
Overview.
Save the document as Monthly Regional Sales Targets Planning (linked) in Shared
Reports\Mobile Exercises.
On completion of the exercise, in the iPad, the document should display as shown below:

Procedure:
Run the Predefined Document

Transaction Services locate and, run the Monthly Regional Sales Targets Planning
document.
Add Month Selector and Text Box

4. Using cross-hairs cursor place and position a text box between the Revenue Prediction
and Trends grid and Revenue vs. Targets by Region graph, and type select month.
5. On the Dataset Objects pane, right-click Month under Chart-Revenue vs. Target by
Region, and select Add Element Selector.
7. Using cross-hairs cursor place and position a text box, and type and.
9. Using cross-hairs cursor place and position a text box, and type click here to open
Regional Sales Overview.
10. Change the color of the newly inserted text box as shown below:

Create Link on the Text Box
11. Right-click click here to open Regional Sales Overview text box, and select Edit Links.
14. In Shared Reports\Mobile Exercises, select Regional Sales Overview using URL API.
15. Click OK.
16. In the Pass all selector values drop-down, select Match selectors by source attribute.

18. Click OK.
Using the Links Editor, you can set the target documents selector values to be the
same as the source documents selector values.
Save the Document

20. Save the document as Monthly Regional Sales Targets Planning (Linked) in the
Shared Reports\Mobile Exercises folder.
21. On the Document Saved window, click Run newly saved document.
Open in iPad
22. On the iPad, click the MicroStrategy icon.

23. Browse to Shared Reports\Mobile Exercises, and open the Monthly Regional Sales
Targets Planning (Linked) document.
24. Select a month from the selector, and click the link to view the Regional Sales
Overview for the selected month.


CHAPTER
11
11
Designing Widgets
Outline:
Applying Widgets Timeline Widget
Data Cloud Widget Time Series Widget
Date Selection Widget
Heat Map Widget
Image Viewer Widget
Interactive Grid Widget
Map Widget
Microcharts Widget
Multimedia Widget
Network Visualization Widget
2013, DataTutors
CHAPTER 10 | Designing Widgets
Applying Widgets
Mobile widgets allow users to view data on their mobile devices, in an interactive and
easy-to-understand layout. You design these widgets in MicroStrategy Web, and view them in
mobile devices using MicroStrategy Mobile. You can apply mobile widgets for a grid/graph in a
document, or enable a grid/graph report as a widget.
The grid/graph must meet the dataset requirements of the widget.

Before applying widgets, let us look at some of the mobile widgets, their minimum data
requirements, and supported devices.
Widgets in Mobile Devices
Supported Mobile
Widget Minimum Data Requirements
Devices
Data Cloud One attribute on the row, iPhone, iPad

One metric in the column
Date Selection Date data type attribute on the row, iPad

Event information attribute on the row
Heat Map One attribute on the row, iPad

Two metrics in the columns
Image Viewer One attribute on the row iPhone, iPad,

First form has store image paths. Android phone,
Second form has image descriptions. Android tablet
Third form has unique store IDs for each
image
Interactive Grid One attribute on the row, iPhone, iPad,

One metric in the column Android phone,
Android tablet
Map Attribute(s) containing Latitude and Longitude iPhone, iPad,

information Android phone,
Android tablet

Widgets in Mobile Devices
Supported Mobile
Widget Minimum Data Requirements
Devices
Microcharts Grid Mode: iPad, Android tablet

Two attributes on the rows,
KPI List Mode:

One attribute on the row,
Multimedia Attributes displayed in the order shown below: iPhone, iPad

MW_URL, MW_Name, MW_ModifiedOn,
MW_ModifiedOnText, MW_DBIGUID,
MW_ThumbnailURL, MW_Description
Network Two attributes on the rows, iPad

Visualization Three metrics in the columns
Timeline Primary Dataset: iPad

One attribute on the row,
Year and Quarter on the columns respectively,
Metrics for status and event
Attribute KPI Dataset:

Main attribute for timeline on the row,
KPIs in the columns
Date KPI Dataset:

Year on the row,
KPIs in the columns
Time Series One attribute on the row, iPhone, iPad,

One metric in the column Android phone,
Android tablet

Widgets in Document
Using a widget in a document allows display of other related information like Information
Window in a Map widget, and textual information on the same screen as the widget. Mobile
widgets can be easily configured for grid/graphs in a document. You can apply a widget to a
grid/graph in a document using the Properties and Formatting window of the grid/graph.
Applying a Widget to a Grid/Graph

Report as Widget
MicroStrategy empowers you to use your reports as widgets. You can enable a report to display
as a widget, without any additional information. You can configure a report as a widget in the
Custom Visualizations Editor in the report.
Before configuring a report to display as a widget, you need to enable the Custom
Visualization Editor in the Preferences.
Custom Visualizations Setting in Preferences

You will find the Custom Visualizations option on the Tools menu of the report. You can specify
the custom visualizations for the individual devices in the Custom Visualizations editor.
Custom Visualizations Editor
Let us look at the some of the widgets in detail.

Data Cloud Widget
Purpose
The Data Cloud widget enables the business analyst to easily determine the noteworthy
differences in the metric values of the attribute elements. This widget displays the attribute
elements in different font sizes, where a bigger font size is proportional to a larger metric value.
Dataset Requirements
The grid/graph must meet the following conditions:

There should be at least one attribute on the row
There should be at least one metric in the column
You can add additional attributes; the widget will display all the combinations of their attribute
elements in various font sizes.
Example
Consider a business analyst who wishes to analyze the profit generated by various customers
based on their income brackets. The Data Cloud widget grid with Income Bracket and Profit on
the template, makes it possible for the analyst to visualize and analyze the data at a glance.

In the iPhone, the widget should display as shown below:

Data Cloud Widget

Purpose
The Date Selection widget helps the analyst to see events, in daily, weekly, and monthly views in
an interactive calendar.

A date data type attribute on the row
Followed by which an attribute containing event information
You can also add a third attribute with colors in hexadecimal values for the events to
display in a colored coded style
Example
Consider an online retail store, whose manager has to keep a track of the upcoming
appointments and events for different states. He smartly creates an activity calendar, to plan
and coordinate with resources using his mobile device.
A Date Selection widget easily helps the store manager to keep a track of all upcoming
appointments and events.

In the iPad, the Date Selection widget should display as shown below:

Heat Map Widget
Purpose
The Heat Map widget is widely used to quickly identify the status and impact of contributions by
various variables.

There should be at least two metrics on the column. Where one metric is responsible
for the size of the rectangles, and the other is responsible for the color of the
rectangles

Example
Consider, a Regional Manager who wants to quickly find out, how different categories are
performing across different regions. A Heat Map with different sized and colored rectangles
helps the Regional Manager to quickly identify that Movies and Music categories are doing
comparatively well in terms of Revenue in the Northeast region.
Heat Map Widget

Image Viewer Widget
Purpose
The Image Viewer widget extends the data presentation capability by allowing the users to view
data as images with descriptions.
The grid/graph must meet the following condition:

There should be one attribute on the row. The first form of the attribute stores the
image locations. The second form stores the image descriptions. The third form keeps
the unique IDs for each of the image
Example
Consider an analyst who wishes to see an image uploaded by the Photo Uploader widget.
He/she can do so with the help of the Image Viewer widget.

Purpose
The Interactive Grid widget enables the user to visualize the grid data in a compact tabular
format with stack of attribute or metric values.

There should be at least one metric on the column
Example
Consider a Report Analyst who wants to analyze a Subcategory Sales grid report on his iPhone.
He can use the Interactive Grid widget to stack the metrics values as shown below:
With the help of the yellow colored triangle on top of the Sales metric, the analyst can tap and
see the other metrics stacked on it.

Map Widget
Purpose
The Map widget enables the users to analyze geographical locations with the help of an
interactive map.

Attribute(s) containing geographical locations. You can have a single attribute with
the latitude and longitude information.
There should be one or more metrics on the column.
Example
Consider an Area Manager who wants to see all the stores within x miles, for holding meetings in
a certain location. The Map widget helps him quickly find out the stores within x miles, with the
location marked as pointers. In the iPhone, the widget would display as shown below:
Map Widget

Microcharts Widget
Purpose
The Microcharts widget facilitates trend analysis with the help of compact charts.

Bar/Sparkline graph: There should be two attributes on the row, and two metrics on
the column.
KPI List Mode: There should be at least one attribute on the row, and minimum two
metrics in the columns.
Bullet graph: Additionally, to display the bullet graph alongside the bar/sparkline
graph you need another 5 metrics. Where the first metric represents the
performance, second metric represents the maximum value, third represents the
minimum values, fourth metric being the medium value, and the fifth metric being
the target. The bullet graph will not display, until these requirements are met.
Example
Consider a Project Manager in a call center, who wants to investigate the monthly trend of case
logs in various regions for the fourth quarter of 2012. He achieves this task with the help of the
Microcharts widget.
MicroCharts Widget Dataset

In the iPad, the Microcharts widget would display as shown below:

MicroCharts Widget

Multimedia Widget
Purpose
The Multimedia widget enables the users to browse through and view files in a web folder.

MW_URL
MW_Name
MW_ModifiedOn
MW_ModifiedOnText
MW_DBIGUID
MW_Description
Example
Consider a dashboard displaying sales trend since the last one year. The developer needs to
insert a video in which the Area Manager gives guidelines to his Sales Executives on how to
improve sales for the next quarter. He/she can do so with the help of the Multimedia widget.

Network Visualization Widget
Purpose
The Network Visualization enables the users to quickly analyze the relationship between two
related items or clusters.

There should be two attributes on the rows
There should be three metrics on the columns
Example
Consider an Inventory Manager who wants to study the relationship between item and
suppliers. He/she uses a Network Visualization for quick analysis, in minutes.

In the iPad, the Network Visualization should display as shown below:

Network Visualization

Timeline Widget
Purpose
The Timeline widget facilitates the data view of events for a certain attribute, in a chronological
order.
There must be three datasets in all:

Primary Dataset: There should be at least one attribute on the rows, and at least two
related time-based attributes, from highest to lowest, on the columns. There should
be one metric for Status, with codes for the assets status. There should be one metric
for Event. Optionally, there should be one metric for counting of events
Attribute-KPI dataset: This must have the same attribute as in the primary dataset on
the rows so that the datasets are able to relate. The KPIs should be placed on the
columns
Date-KPI dataset: This dataset must contain the highest time-based attribute on the
rows. The KPIs should be placed on the columns

Example
An Airline company rents jets to various airlines. The Vice President of the company would like to see
the different events for the jets rented. He can analyze the different events quickly with the help of
the Timeline widget, as shown below:
Timeline Widget
In the above graph, each line represents a certain jet owned by the company. The red and green
colored markers help the Vice President in quickly identifying a purchase, lease, and so on.

Time Series Widget
Purpose
The Time Series widget enables the users to see data across different time intervals in an
interactive and easy-to-grasp form, all in one place.

There should be at least one attribute on the row for the horizontal axis
There should be at least one metric on the column
To display data for multiple series, place one attribute on the column axis
To display data for multiple intervals, specify the interval properties in the Widget Properties.
Thus enabling the Time Series widget to obtain data from multiple grids.
Example
The Manager needs to see the sales figures at the quarterly, monthly, and daily levels. A Time
Series widget showing the regional data at all these levels, facilitates the manager in analyzing
the sales figures quickly.

To do so, the mobile developer creates a document with three datasets as shown below:
Time Series Widget Dataset

Followed by which, the developer designs the Time Series widget, pulling data from all the three
grids. You can apply the widget on any one of the dataset.
In the iPad, the widget displays as shown below:

Time Series Widget - Quarter

Time Series Widget - Month

Time Series Widget - Day

Summary
Mobile widgets can be applied to reports, as well as grid/graphs in documents.
The Data Cloud widget lists out the attribute elements, with the font size of the attribute
elements proportional to the metric values.
The Date Selection widget displays events, in daily, weekly, and monthly views.
The Heat Map widget displays the attribute elements as rectangles whose sizes and colors
are relative to two different metric values.
The Image Viewer widget enables the mobile users to view images in a document and their
descriptions as well.
The Interactive Grid widget displays the grid data in a flexible, tabular format.
The Map widget displays geographical data in the form of an interactive map.
The Microcharts widget displays metric trends in the form of compact charts.
The Multimedia widget enables the user to browse through and view files in a web folder.
The Network Visualization helps in providing a quick overview of the relationship between
two related items or clusters.
The Timeline widget enables users to see events in a chronological order.
The Time Series widget displays data across different time intervals, where data is obtained
from multiple grid/graphs.

CHAPTER 11| Designing Widgets - Exercises
Exercises: Designing Widgets
11.1 Create Document for iPad
Overview:
The objective of this exercise is to allow the users to analyze the customer statistics with
the help of interactive and appealing visualizations, with an added advantage to access
the documents on their mobile devices. At a high level, you will perform the following
steps:
Use the following datasets for analysis, in a dashboard using iPad Landscape
dashboard template:
Customer State Summary report located in Shared Reports\MicroStrategy
Platform Capabilities\MicroStrategy Report Services\MicroStartegy Widget
Library\Datasets
Customer Analysis report located in Shared Reports\MicroStrategy Platform
Capabilities\MicroStrategy Mobile\iPad
Use the Image Layout, the Microcharts, and the Interactive Grid mobile widgets to
create a document for customer analysis, with the Customer State attribute in Image
Layout targeting the Microcharts

The Design Mode image for the Regional and Customer Sales Analysis panel should
display as shown in the image below:

On completion of the exercise, in the iPad, the dashboard should display as shown below:
Save this document as Customer Sales Summary for iPad in Shared Reports\Mobile
Exercises.

Procedure:
Create Dashboard
2. In the Create Document window, under Document Templates, click iPad Landscape.
Add and Format Panel Stack
3. On the Insert menu, click Panel Stack.

4. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the panel stack on the layout to take the
whole space.

5. In the Document Structure window, right-click the panel stack, and select Properties
and Formatting.
6. In the Properties and Formatting window, under General, in the Name box, type
Customer Sales Summary.
7. Select Layout.
8. Set the properties as shown in the image below:
9. Click OK.
10. On the Insert toolbar, click Text.
11. Place and position the text box on top left of the layout area, and type Customer Sales
Summary.

12. On the Format toolbar, select Style as Bold, and Size as 18.
Rename Panel
13. On the panel stack tool bar, click Rename Panel.
14. In the Rename Panel window, in the Name box, type Customer State Sales Analysis.
15. Click OK.

Add Dataset

Capabilities\MicroStrategy Report Services\MicroStrategy Widget Library\Datasets,
and select the Customer State Summary report.
18. Click OK.
Insert Image Layout Widget
19. On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Mobile, and select Image Layout.
20. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the widget grid top side of the layout area
such that it takes the whole width.

21. Add Customer State attribute to the Row, and Revenue metric to the Columns.
23. On the left pane, under Properties and Formatting, select the Widget tab.
24. Under Widget Selection, click the Widget Properties icon.

25. In the Image Layout Properties window, in the Display Mode drop-down, select Areas
and in the Shape file drop-down, select States of USA.
26. Under Formatting, select Background Color as Grey 80% and Default shape color as
White.
27. Click OK.

28. Click OK.

Apply Threshold
29. Right-click the Image Layout, point to Thresholds, and select Visual.
30. On the Visual Threshold Editor, specify the settings as shown below:
31. Click Close.
Add Text
32. Add text boxes and position them as shown below:

For the colored boxes use blank text boxes and fill them.
Insert Microcharts Widget
33. On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Mobile, and select Microcharts
widget.
34. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the widget grid below the Image Layout
widget.
35. Add Customer State and Month attributes to the Rows and Profit, Profit Margin,
Revenue, YTD Revenue, YTD Rev. Forecast, Last Months Revenue, and Revenue
Forecast metrics to the Columns.

36. Right-click Customer State header in the Image Layout widget, and select Select
Targets, and select the Microchart grid.
37. Click the green check mark in the MicroStrategy Web window.
38. In the message that follows, click OK.
Add Dataset
39. On the Dataset Objects pane, click Add Dataset.


Mobile\iPad, and select Customer Analysis report.
41. Click OK.
Run the Document
42. Click Flash Mode.

43. Right-click the Microchart, and select Properties.

44. In the Microcharts window, on the Sparkline tab, from the Choose theme (mobile
only) drop-down list, select Dark.
45. Click OK.
Insert Interactive Grid Widget
46. Click Design Mode.

47. On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Mobile, and select Interactive Grid
widget.
48. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the widget grid beside the Image Layout
widget.
49. Add Customer Region, Age Range, Customer, Gender, and Housing Type attributes to
the Rows and Profit Margin, Profit, and Revenue metrics to the Columns.
You need to add the objects from the Customer Analysis Dataset.
51. On the left pane, under Properties and Formatting, select Widget.

52. Under Widget Selection, click Widget Properties icon.
53. In the Interactive Grid Properties window, under Columns, click Add Column.

54. Drag the Attributes and re-order them, as shown in the image below:
55. Select Black as Color Theme.

56. Click OK.
57. Click OK.
Create Selectors
58. In the Dataset Objects pane, right-click Customer Region attribute of Customer
Analysis dataset, and select Add Element Selector.

59. In the Dataset Objects pane, right-click the Income Bracket attribute of Customer
Analysis dataset, and select Add Element Selector.
60. Set the Customer Analysis grid serving like an Interactive Grid widget as the target for
the Customer Region and Income Bracket Selectors.
The dashboard should display as shown below in MicroStrategy Web:

Save the Document

62. In the Save As window, save the document in the Shared Reports/Mobile Exercises
folder as Customer Sales Summary for iPad.
63. Click OK.

Open in iPad
65. Configure with iPad.

66. On the iPad, click MicroStrategy icon.
67. Browse to Shared Reports\Mobile Exercises, and open the Customer Sales Summary
for iPad document.

The dashboard should display as shown below in the iPad:
Interact with the widgets and close the dashboard.

CHAPTER
12
12
Apple User Guide for
Designing Effective
Apps
Outline:
Best Practices
System Prompts Demo
Transaction Services Demo
2013, DataTutors
CHAPTER 12 | Apple User Guide for Designing Effective Apps
Best Practices for Designing Effective

Apps
As an iPad, iPhone, or Android developer, designing effective apps for the end user could be a
challenging task. The objective of this lesson is to describe some of the best and widely used
practices for designing and developing effective and user-friendly apps for Mobile devices.
Fonts
While designing a document for iPhone or iPad, avoid using different font styles as it can be
distracting for the end user. If required, you can use a different font for headings.
It is recommended not to reduce the font size too much or squeeze the controls to fit the
content to a single screen; else youre likely to end up with unreadable content and an
unusable layout.
Consider using the below fonts for an easy-to-read user experience:
Arial, Tahoma, and Verdana (Sans Serif fonts)
Courier, Palatino, and Times New Roman (Serif fonts)
Colors
Consider using colors that match the corporate color scheme.
Try using different intensities of the same color to represent different data elements rather
than using different color hues.
Do not use too many bright colors, as it can make your dashboard look unprofessional.
Instead, consider using blues, greens, grays, browns, oranges, and other earthen colors,
which are pleasing to the eye.
It is best to avoid changing the image, color, or transparency of the navigation bar or controls
in different screens in the same orientation.
Use the same color for a single measure that displays in multiple places on the dashboard.
Use contrasting colors to enable quick comparisons. For example, you could use orange in
contrast with blue to display the actual revenue and the forecast revenue numbers.
Each alert level can be displayed using a distinct color.
Use high contrast between data and background.
Use color in thresholds such that the data is legible.

Placement of Objects
Visual experts suggest that the objects placed in the top left or center of your dashboard,
receive the most attention. Thus, you can place most important data on these sides to grab
user's attention.
Larger graphical items attract attention no matter wherever they are placed within the
dashboard.
Transparent Image Tricks

Mobile users more often tend to tap in the vicinity of, rather than, directly on the link area.
To avoid this, you can place a transparent image over an entire section related to the link.
Also, defining hyperlink on a text box, makes only the text portion as an active link. Thus
instead of setting the hyperlink property on the text box, define it on the transparent image.
The following image displays a transparent image placed in the Detail header section:
Transparent Image
Make sure you bring the transparent image to the front of your document, so that the
users can tap the entire image area. To bring the transparent image to the front,
right-click the image, point to Order, and select Bring to Front.

Positioning
For precise alignment of objects, use the Layout tab in the Properties and Formatting window.
Defining Position
Thumb Zones
Thumb Zone is the screen area that can be navigated using just a thumb. Most users can
comfortably and reliably hit a 10mm by 10mm target.
The touch screen interfaces for iPhones must be organized for the fingers, especially the
thumb.
The thumb works out the most, and thus major interface elements are located at the bottom
of the screen instead of the top.
The thumb zone is slightly less important when a mobile device is in landscape mode since
most users hold the device with two hands while the device is in this orientation.

A good practice would be to place major menu items of your app within the thumb zone, as
shown in the image below:
Thumb Zone for iPhone
For iPhones, Apple recommends the minimum size of the touch target to be 44 pixels by
44 pixels or about 8mm round.
The ergonomic considerations for tablets are quite different from Smartphones. This is
because iPads cannot be used single-handed. They either can be curled-up, or held like a
clipboard, or even propped up.
You should therefore consider users typical stance during use, and accordingly place the
primary navigation elements.

Consider providing navigation at the top and incorporating horizontal gesture controls, for
"curling up" user stance:
Curling up
For users who will often hold the iPad like a clipboard, consider placing the navigation at the
top where it's easy to see:
The Clipboard

Opt for placing the primary navigation at the top and/or at the bottom, where iPads often
rest on tables/desks/hard surfaces:
Resting iPad

System Prompts Demo

System prompts are automatically answered the by Intelligence Server.
They are located in the Public Objects/Prompts/System Prompts folder in Desktop.
This demo uses the User Login system prompt to assign a single, dynamic security filter for all
the users.
The User Login prompt is automatically answered with the login name of the user who
executes a report containing this prompt.
Follow the below high-level steps to see an actual implementation of System Prompts:
1 Log in to the MicroStrategy Tutorial project as the administrator.
2 In the folder list, expand Administration, and select User Manager.
3 Create a new user John in the Everyone group with no password:

4 Under Project Access, give John all the privileges, as shown below:
5 In the MicroStrategy Tutorial project, create a new attribute qualification filter that
qualifies on the Customer attribute. Create this filter in the Public Objects folder.
6 In the Qualify On drop-down list, select Last Name.

7 From the Public Objects/Prompts/System Prompts folder, drag the User Login prompt to
the value box, as shown below:
8 Save and close the filter, naming it Customer Last Name = User Login
9 Create a new report in the Public Objects folder with the Customer attribute in the rows
and the Revenue metric in the columns.
10 Drag the Customer Last Name = User Login filter to the Report Filter pane.
11 Save the report as Customer Last Name = User Login.
12 Run the report in grid view. The report returns no data.

13 Switch to SQL view. Notice that the SQL generated displays [CUST_LAST_NAME] =
'Administrator' in the WHERE clause:
14 Close the report.
15 Disconnect from the project source, and reconnect, as the user John.
16 Navigate to the Public Objects folder, and run the report Customer Last Name = User
Login.

The report displays as follows:
17 Switch to the SQL view of the report. Observe that the SQL now displays
[CUST_LAST_NAME] = 'John' in the WHERE clause:
18 Close the report.

Transaction Services Demo

MicroStrategy Transaction Services enables you to interact with the data stored in the
existing transactional systems. It thus allows you to initiate a transaction by enabling write
back functionality into the MicroStrategy reports and documents.
This demo illustrates the steps to interact with the Item Order Form document and submit
your transaction to the back-end data source. You will request the items as specified in the
table below:
Order Request
Number of Units Camera Subcategory Delivery Date Order Priority
6 Hitachi Hi8 Camcorder 9/15/2013 Yes
10 Minolta Maxxum Camera 9/25/2013 Yes
1 Locate and run the Item Order Form document on your iPad. This document can be found
under Shared Library/MicroStrategy Tutorial/Shared Reports/MicroStrategy Platform
Capabilities/MicroStrategy Transaction Services.
2 In the Subcategory filter, select Cameras.

3 The Item Order Form document displays as shown in the image below:
4 Set 9/15/2013 as the delivery date by tapping the calendar icon corresponding to Hitachi
Hi8 Camcorder:
5 To set the order priority, tap the Boolean switch to change its state to ON.
6 Slide your finger over the slider until you get 6 as the requested units.
7 Repeat steps 4 to 6 for Minolta Maxxum Camera. Set 9/25/2013 as the delivery date for
10 units with priority.

8 Submit your order and observe the confirmation message for your transaction:

Summary
Consider using Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, Courier, Palatino, and Times New Roman fonts for
easy-to-read user experience
Use colors that match the corporate color scheme
To grab user's attention, place the most important data in the center or to the top left of
your dashboard
You can place a transparent image over an entire section related to a link
For precise alignment of objects, use the Layout tab in the Properties and Formatting
window
Thumb Zone is the screen area that can be navigated using just a thumb
A system prompt is automatically answered by the Intelligence Server
MicroStrategy Transaction Services enables you to interact with the data stored in the
existing transactional systems

APPENDIX
A
Configuration and
Security
Outline:
Configuring the MicroStrategy Mobile Apps
Mobile Security
Enterprise Deployment
2013, DataTutors
APPENDIX A | Configuration and Security
Configuring the MicroStrategy Mobile

Apps
Mobile apps can be configured to connect to the Mobile server and rest of the BI system, using
the following three ways:
Remote configuration through administrator-generated URL
Manual configuration on the mobile device
Enterprise deployment
By default, apps from app store are preconfigured to connect to the demo server.
Multiple configurations can be created and saved, each having its own login credentials, projects,
and home screen configuration.
Remote Configuration
The administrator configures all connection parameters on the Mobile Configuration Page on
the Mobile Server Administrator.
These settings are saved in an XML file on the Mobile Server.
A link is then sent to the users in a URL, which when clicked loads the parameters, and
automatically configures the servers and projects.
Common distribution methods to distribute links are emails or secured websites.
Remote configuration is a preferred method as it cuts down errors.
A configuration for MicroStrategy Mobile for iPhone/iPad contains information about the
memory limit, network timeout, caching, and error logging, as well as what projects can be
accessed from the application and what buttons are available on the home screen.

The iPad Settings tab enables you to define the app's memory, it's network timeout, settings
related to caches, subscriptions, and other options. The following image displays the iPad
Settings tab of the MicroStrategy Mobile Administrator Page:
iPad Settings Tab

The Connectivity Settings tab lets you connect to multiple Mobile servers, multiple projects and
define default credentials for these projects as shown below:
Connectivity Settings Tab
The Home Screen tab enables you to specify the Home screen that should be displayed when
the user launches the MicroStrategy Mobile app:
Home Screen Tab
You can now generate a URL link that will automatically configure the app on users mobile
devices, by clicking the Generate URL icon .

Manual Configuration
Users can configure their app manually by typing connectivity parameters directly in the Mobile
client. The following illustration displays the Settings, Mobile Server, and Project screens for the
iPhone:
Manual Configuration for iPhone

Mobile Security
MicroStrategy Mobile apps use different network communication protocols to ensure secured
data transfer and storage on the mobile devices.
Network Communication Security

The following information transfer protocols are supported by MicroStrategy Mobile apps to
provide a foundation for security on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices:
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)
Mobile apps support the following network security protocols:

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)
WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2)
You can also secure the MicroStrategy Mobile server with a firewall and use a VPN connection to
retrieve BI data using mobile apps, regardless of the transfer protocol or wireless network.
Authentication
Secure Application Authentication
When the user initially runs the MicroStrategy Mobile App, the login credentials can be validated
using:
Standard Authentication
With standard authentication, user logins, passwords in an encrypted hashed format,
and security profiles are stored within the MicroStrategy metadata.
The login and password stored in MicroStrategy Mobile are sent to the MicroStrategy
BI platform, where they are compared to the login and password stored in the
MicroStrategy metadata repository.
If they match, the user is granted access to the BI system.

Linked Authentication
Linked authentication is often automatic, meaning the MicroStrategy system detects
the user credentials, and automatically validates those credentials against corporate
security systems, such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Microsoft
Windows Active Directory, or Windows NT LAN Manager (NTLM).
Benefits of linked authentication include reduced administration and maintenance of
users in the BI system, and increased ease of use for the end users.
Confidential Project Authentication
By default, MicroStrategy Mobile for iPhone and iPad do not require users to reconfirm their
credentials when re-entering the app. You can change this behavior and set a session expiration
time limit. At least one project must be treated as confidential for session expiration to take
effect.
The following image shows the project authentication settings:

Project Authentication Settings

HTTPS with Mutual Authentication

MicroStrategy Mobile supports two-way authentication between a mobile device and
Mobile server.
The MicroStrategy Mobile server confirms the authenticity of the MicroStrategy
Mobile clients certificate.
The MicroStrategy Mobile client confirms the authenticity of the MicroStrategy
Mobile servers certificate.
Mutual authentication uses the MicroStrategy Certificate Server component of
MicroStrategy Mobile.
Mobile devices must be enrolled with MicroStrategy Certificate Server.
Key benefits of using Mutual Authentication are:

You can easily deny access through lost or stolen devices.
You can permit access through mobile devices that are not operating on the enterprise VPN.

Enterprise Deployment
Enterprise deployment enables you to:
Distribute the app to all the enterprise users internally, without having them to log in to the
Apple App Store
Preconfigure the apps to connect to a specific project in the environment
Rebrand the app with a custom name and icon
Deploy multiple MicroStrategy Mobile apps to a single device, each with a custom icon,
name, and configuration
The following illustration describes the two Enterprise Deployment methods that can be
implemented for iOS devices:
Enterprise Deployment Methods
The following high-level steps are involved while internally deploying the MicroStrategy Mobile
apps:
Download Mobile app project from the MicroStrategy download site
(https://download.microstrategy.com)
Acquire an Enterprise Developer license from apple

Deploy the file using Apple Enterprise Developer license
In this step, you will repackage the app by generating the following items:
App ID Unique id that distinguishes your internal MSTR app from other apps
Certificate Security certificate used to digitally sign and validate the app
Distribution provisioning file Authorizes your internal app to run on a particular
mobile device and associates app id and certificate with the app (without it, the app
doesn't open).
Distribute app to users
Sync users' mobile devices with iTunes
Provide a link on a Web Server to distribute the app wirelessly
The simplest way to perform enterprise deployment for Android is to send the application as an
email attachment to your users, or store the .apk installation file on a secured server for your
users to access and download.

Workshop | Workshop - Exercises
Exercises
Workshop
Creating a Sales Analysis App for iPad
Overview
Company VMall, a global retailer operating in various places and offering best of services,
needs to take critical business decisions based on the Inventory records, Supplier details,
and Store performance. In this workshop, you will create a Sales Analysis App, that will
help the company store all the important data required for the analysis in the form of
dashboards, in a customized interface. In this workshop, you will create the Sales Analysis
App. The workshop consists of four Tasks. Create a folder in the Shared Reports folder as
Workshop to perform all tasks in this workshop.

Task 1: Creating the Sales Analysis Visualization
You will complete this task in MicroStrategy Web. You will use the Supplier Sales
report located in Shared Reports/Subject Areas/Supplier Analysis folder. You will
use a Bar Stacked visualization to show Revenue, Last Years Revenue, and Percent
to Total for various Subcategories. Also, analyze the Revenue, and Units Sold by
Customer Region for various Categories using Network visualization. Save this
visualization as Sales Visualization in the Workshop folder. Your visualization
should resemble the following:
Task 2: Creating the Store Analysis Map
You will complete this task in MicroStrategy Web. You will use Stores in current
state report as dataset located in Shared Reports\MicroStrategy Platform
Capabilities\MicroStrategy Mobile\iPhone\Component Objects\Stores - Map.
You will then use the Map Widget to analyze Profit and Revenue by Store. Save
this document as Store Analysis Map in the Workshop folder. Your document in
design view should resemble the following:

Task 3: Creating the Sales Analysis Dashboard
You will complete this task in MicroStrategy Web. You will create a document to
analyze Unit Profit, Unit Cost, and Unit Price for various Categories and
Subcategories. You will use the Bar graph and Data Cloud widget, with the Cost,
Price, and Profit per Unit report as dataset. The dataset is located in Shared
Reports\Subject Areas\Inventory and Supply Chain Analysis. Save this document
as Sales Analysis Dashboard in the Workshop folder. Your dashboard should
resemble the following:

Task 4: Creating the Home Page for App
You will complete this task in MicroStrategy Web. You will create a home page as
shown in the image below and create links for the three buttons:

The Sales Analysis App home screen should resemble the following image when viewed
on the iPad:

When you click the Sales Visualization button, the following screen is displayed:
When you click the Store Analysis button, the following Map is displayed:

When you click the Sales Dashboard button, you are directed to the following screen:
Procedure:
Task 1: Create Supplier Sales Visualization
1. In the Shared Reports folder, click the Subject Areas folder, then click the Supplier
Analysis folder.
2. Right-click the Supplier Sales Report report, and select Create Dashboard.
3. In the Select a Visualization window, click Vertical Bar-Stacked with circle markers.


5. On the Tools menu, point to Theme, and select Dark.
6. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Subcategory attribute to the Edit Visualization
pane Columns drop zone.
7. On the Show menu, select Page-by.
8. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag Category attribute to the Page-by.

9. In the Dataset Object pane, click down arrow on Revenue, point to Insert Metric,
point to Percent to Total, and select Grand Total.
10. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Percent to Total(Revenue) metric to the Edit
Visualization pane Y Axis drop zone, below Revenue.

11. On the VI dashboard toolbar, click Insert Visualization.

12. In the new visualization window, click Select a Visualization.
13. In the Select a Visualization window, click Network as shown in the image below:
14. In the Edit Visualization pane, point to the Network title bar, and click the down
arrow.

15. On the menu, select Remove All Objects.

16. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Customer Region attribute to the From Item
drop zone in the Edit Visualization pane.
17. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Category attribute to the To Item drop zone.
18. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Revenue metric to the Edge Color drop zone.
19. In the Dataset Objects pane, drag the Units Sold metric to the Edge Size, and Item Size
drop zone.
The Edit Visualization pane should display as shown below:
20. In the Network Visualization pane, select Force-directed Layout as shown in the
image below:
21. To give the Visualization pane more room, close the Edit Visualization pane.


23. In the Layout tab, click the down arrow, and select Rename.
24. Rename the layout Supplier Analysis.

26. In the Save As window, browse to Shared Reports, and create a new folder Workshop.
27. Save this visualization in Shared Reports/Workshop folder, as Sales Visualization.
28. Click OK.
29. In the Dashboard Saved window, click Run newly saved dashboard.

Task 2: Create Store Analysis Map
Capabilities\MicroStrategy Mobile\iPhone\Component Objects\Stores - Map, and
select the Stores in current state report.
5. Click OK.
6. On the prompts page, select Edit in Design Mode.
7. On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Mobile, and select Map.
8. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the Map on the top side of the Layout
area.
9. Right-click the Map, and select Properties and Formatting.
12. Click OK.

13. On the Insert menu, select text.
14. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position text box in the Layout area.
15. In the text box, type Store Analysis.
16. With text box selected, use the Format toolbar and format the text box as follows:
Font: Tahoma, 20 point, Bold, Center alignment
Text color: White
Fill Color: Black

20. From the Dataset Objects pane, drag Store attribute into the rows.
21. Drag Profit and Revenue into the columns.
22. Right-click Store, point to Attribute forms, and select Latitude.
23. Right-click Store, point to Attribute forms, and select Longitude.

24. Right-click the Grid and select Properties and Formatting.
25. In the Properties and Formatting window, under Properties, select Widget.
26. Under Widget Selection, click Widget Properties.
27. In the Map Properties window, under Select Location, in the Select latitude
drop-down list, select Latitude.
28. In the Select longitude drop-down list, select Longitude.

The Map Properties should resemble the following image:
29. Click OK.

30. Click OK.
32. Browse to the Shared Reports/Workshop folder, and save the document as Store
Analysis Map.
33. Click OK.

Task 3: Create Sales Analysis Dashboard
4. In the Select Dataset window, browse to Shared Reports\Subject Areas\Inventory
and Supply Chain Analysis, and select the Cost, Price, and Profit per Unit report.
7. In the text box, type Sales Analysis.
Text color: White
Fill Color: Black

12. Click OK.

14. Browse to the Shared Reports/Workshop folder, and save the document as Sales
Analysis Dashboard.
15. Click OK.

17. On the toolbar, select Fit Page as shown in the image below:
18. On the toolbar, click Design view icon.

19. Right-click the layout area, and select Properties and Formatting.
20. In the Properties and Formatting window, select Layout.

21. Under Size, set Height as 7.7917.
22. Under Format, select Color and Lines.
23. Under Fill, select Grey-80% from color drop-down.
24. Click OK.

25. On the Insert menu, point to Graph, and select Vertical Bar.
26. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position the graph on the top side of the Layout
area.
27. On the graph, click the Graph Zones icon.
28. Add Subcategory attribute to the CATEGORIES.

29. Add Unit Cost and Unit Profit metric to the SERIES.

31. Right-click the graph, and select Properties and Formatting.
32. In the Properties and Formatting window, under General, and clear the Show Title Bar
check box.
33. Under Properties, select Layout.

35. Click OK.

36. Click Editable Mode.
38. In the Format:Graph window, under Graph Styles, in the Graph Sub-type drop-down
list, select Stacked.
40. In the Format drop-down list, select Format.
41. In the All Text drop-down list, select All Text.
42. Select the following Font, Style, Size, and color:
Font: Tahoma, Bold, 9 point
Text color: White
43. In the Format drop-down list, select Format.

44. In the All Text drop-down list, select Background.
45. Under Fill, select Grey-80% from color drop-down.
49. Click OK.

Your screen should resemble the following image:

51. On the Insert menu, point to Widgets, point to Mobile, and select Data Cloud.
52. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position it below the graph in the Layout area.
53. Right-click the selector, and select Properties and Formatting.
54. In the Properties and Formatting window, under General, type Data Cloud in the
Name box.
55. Clear the Show Title Bar check box.
58. Click OK.

59. From the Dataset Objects pane, drag Subcategory to the rows.

60. Drag Unit Profit to the columns as shown in the image below:
61. On the Insert menu, point to Selector, and select Button Bar.
62. Using cross-hairs cursor, place and position Selector in the Layout area.
63. From the Dataset Objects pane, drag Category to the selector.
64. Right-click the selector, and select Properties and Formatting.
65. In the Properties and Formatting window, under General, under Portal Window, clear
the Show Title Bar check box.
67. Under Selector, clear Allow multiple selections checkbox.
69. Under Properties, select Selector.

70. Under Advanced, clear Show option for All checkbox.
71. Click OK.
72. With Selector selected, use the Format toolbar and format as follows:
Font: Tahoma, 12 point, Bold

Text color: White
Fill Color: Black

74. In the Confirm save dialog box, click OK.
75. Click Flash Mode.
76. Right-click Data Cloud widget, and select Properties.
77. In the Data Cloud window, Select Center from Alignment drop-down.
78. Set Minimum Font Size(1-15) as 10.

79. Select Background Color as shown in the image below:
80. Click OK.

81. Click Save.
Your dashboard should resemble the following image:

Task 4: Create Home Page for App
4. Using cross-hairs cursor place and position the image.
5. On the Properties and Formatting window, type Images/VMall.jpg
6. Under Properties, click Layout and set the properties as shown in the image below:

9. In the text box, type Sales Analysis.
Text color: White
11. Right-click the text box and select Properties and Formatting.

Your document should resemble the image below:
14. On the Insert menu, point to Button, and select Caption Only.
16. In the Button, type Sales Visualization.
17. With Button selected, use the Format toolbar and format the text box as follows:
Text color: White
Fill Color: Grey-50%
18. Right-click the button and select Properties and Formatting.

21. Under Color and Lines, select Glossy from Style drop-down.
22. Click Apply.
23. Under Button, click the below icon:
24. In the Links window, select Run this report or document.

25. Browse to Sales Visualization located in Shared Reports/Workshop folder.
26. On the Links window, Click OK.

27. Click Close.

28. Right-click the Sales Visualization button, and select Duplicate.
29. In the Button, type Store Analysis.

33. Click Apply.

34. Under Button, click the icon shown below:

36. Browse to Store Analysis Map located in Shared Reports/Workshop folder.
37. Click OK.

38. Right-click the Store Analysis button, and select Duplicate.
39. In the Button, type Sales Dashboard.

43. Click Apply.

44. Under Button, click the icon shown below:

46. Browse to Sales Analysis Dashboard located in Shared Reports/Workshop folder.

47. Click OK.

49. Using cross-hairs cursor place and position the image.
50. On the Properties and Formatting window, type Images/airport/
Tokio - Haneda.jpg.
51. Under Properties, click Layout and set the properties as shown in the image below:
52. Click OK.

The home page should resemble the following image in design view:

54. Browse to the Shared Reports/Workshop folder, and save the document as Sales
Analysis App for iPad.
55. Click OK.
56. In the Document Saved window, click Run newly saved dashboard.
57. Close the Document.
58. Run this App in an iPad.

The Sales Analysis App should resemble the following image on the iPad:


Dashboard and Mobile Developer Index
INDEX
A Distribution Services
subscriptions 27
analytic based selector 142
docked panel selector 371
application
document execution flow 262
design process 324
document links 370
requirements 325
Document objects
storyboard 327
attributes 91
consolidations 91
B custom groups 91
images 88
Barcode Reader Prompt 337
metrics 91
best practices for dashboard design 271
MicroStrategy grd/graph 87
best practices for iOS
text 88
colors 436
document performance considerations 263
fonts 436
parallel execution 267
object placement 437
tuning candidates 270
positioning 438
virtual dataset 268
thumb zones 438
transparent image 437
Book-Style Page-By Navigation 284 G
business intelligence architecture 12
Geo Location Prompt 338
grouping 143
D
dashboard 22 H
characteristics 22
hyperlinks on images
dashboard templates 128
considerations 373
data warehouse 13
Derived elements 92
display modes 24 I
Design 24 image layout 228
Editable 24 information window 283
Express 25 information windows 372
Flash 25 intelligent cube reports 19
Interactive 25

Index Dashboard and Mobile Developer
interactive stacked graph widget 226 S

selector 135
L attribute elements selector 137
Linking automatically apply selector changes 144
buttons 365 automatically maintain targets 144
Link Editor 364 metric condition selector 139
linking to static report or document 193 metric selector 138
Passing Selector Values 365 selector as filter 265
prompted document to a prompted selector targeting another selector 141
target 194 storyboard 327
tab bar 365 Summary metrics 92
to simulate drilling 195
login page 13
U
URL API 367
M passing page-by elements 368
microchart widget 220 specifying layout 369
operation modes 222
MicroStrategy Mobile Architecture 276
Microstrategy Web interface 12
V
MicroStrategy Web login page 13 VI characteristics 32
MicroStrategy Web projects page 12 VI dashboard
characteristics 32
panes 33
N VI manipulations
navigation derived metrics 44
tools creation 371 drilling 40
filtering 38
page-by 40
P sorting 39
page-by subtotals 44
passing page-by elements 368 thresholds 41
panel stack 129
as information window 133
panels 129
W
Projects 12 widget as selector 218
prompts widgets
attribute element list 333 heat map 223
value prompt 334 image layout 228
interactive stacked graph 226
microchart 220
time series slider 217
using widget as selector 218

Dashboard and Mobile Developer Index
widgets in mobile 388

Data Cloud 393
Date Selection 395
Heat Map 397
Image Viewer 399
Interactive Grid 400
Map 401
Microcharts 402
Multimedia 404
Network Visualization 405
Time Series 409
Timeline 407
Z
Zoom on Reports and Documents 284

Index Dashboard and Mobile Developer

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REPORT DEVELOPER

Table of Contents Dashboard and Mobile Developer

Targeting a Dynamic Text Box Using a Selector ................. 140

Authentication ...................................................................... 456

MicroStrategy Web Interface

Project Home Page

Project Home Page Options

Shared Reports Contains public reports, documents, and other objects

My Subscriptions Enables you to view and modify report and document

New Dashboard Enables you to create a dashboard from scratch or from a

New Document Enables you to create an enterprise report, scorecard, or

New Filter Enables you to create a qualification to narrow down your

Import Data Enables you to imports external data into MicroStrategy

New Metric Enables you to create a metric to analyze the data

Search Helps you to locate folders, reports, documents, and

Intelligent Cube Reports

A document can include only one Intelligent Cube as a dataset.

Document with Intelligent Cube as the Dataset

An example dashboard is displayed in the image below:

Business Use Case

Document Display Modes and Export

Desktop Interface Web Interface

PDF DHTML modes (Express Mode, Interactive Mode,

Desktop interface offers basic HTML and Flash preview modes.

Export Format Description

Excel Exporting to Microsoft Excel, sends the document data

Document Subscriptions to History List

Document Subscriptions to Email, File, and Printer

Business Use Case

Introduction to Visual Insight

Few key features of Visual Insight are:

What Is a Visual Insight Dashboard?

A VI dashboard contains of six different panes as illustrated in the image below:

4. Layout tabs Enables you to create new layouts, navigate between

Using Visual Insight

Using the Edit Visualization Pane

Business Use Case

Visual Insight Manipulations

The following image displays Year attribute in the Page-by field:

A VI dashboard is unable to retain the parent attribute when drilling.

The following image displays the thresholds formatting window:

You must have MicroStrategy OLAP Services to create derived metrics.

Business Use Case

A government Unemployment Agency is responsible for all aspects of unemployment in a

Exercises: Visual Insight

2.1 Creating a Visual Insight Dashboard

The dashboard should display as shown below:

In a new panel, use the Grid visualization as shown below:

In a new panel, use the Ring in Pie visualization as shown below:

In Panel 1, use the Heat Map visualization as shown below:

You can use the step-by-step instructions if you need help.

Type the URL provided by your instructor, in your Internet browser.

9. On the project sidebar, click Shared Reports.

12. In the prompt window, keep the default selections.

Add Vertical Bar - Stacked Visualization

14. In the Select a Visualization window, click Vertical Bar - Stacked.

The visualization should display as shown below:

15. On the Show menu, select Dataset Objects.

You will get the following visualization:

20. On the Tools menu, select Add Panel.

Add Grid Visualization

22. In the Select a Visualization window, click Grid.

The grid should display as shown below:

25. In the Layouts tab, click Add Layout.