Basic Reporting

Basic Reporting Guide
Version: 8.0.2
Document Number: 09490802
Second Edition, January 2006, version 8.0.2

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CONTENTS
Document description................................................................ xi Who should use this guide...................................................... xii Prerequisites .......................................................................... xiii Objectives .............................................................................. xiii About this book ............................................................................ xiii Typographical standards ............................................................. xiv For online and printed documentation ................................... xiv For printed documentation only ..............................................xv Resources.................................................................................... xvi Product documentation .......................................................... xvi Installed documentation ........................................................ xvii International support .............................................................. xix User assistance .......................................................................... xxii Online help............................................................................ xxii Technical Support ................................................................. xxii Feedback .................................................................................. xxvii
1. Introduction to MicroStrategy Desktop
Introduction.................................................................................. 1 The reporting environment............................................................. 2 The MicroStrategy Desktop interface....................................... 3 Navigating through Desktop .......................................................... 6 Desktop menu bar ................................................................... 6 Desktop toolbar........................................................................ 7 Creating and saving objects .......................................................... 8 Creating objects ....................................................................... 8 Saving objects ......................................................................... 9
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Creating shortcut objects ....................................................... 10
2. Reporting Essentials
Introduction................................................................................ 13 Basic work flow ............................................................................ 15 Report design versus report creation........................................... 16 Designing reports......................................................................... 18 Using the Report Editor ......................................................... 19 Designing a new report .......................................................... 25 Report filter ............................................................................ 28 Viewing reports ............................................................................ 32 Saving reports.............................................................................. 37 Printing reports ............................................................................ 37 Next Steps ................................................................................... 38
3. Report Manipulation Essentials
Introduction................................................................................ 39 Formatting reports ....................................................................... 40 Formatting objects ................................................................. 41 Autostyles .............................................................................. 42 Banding.................................................................................. 43 Thresholds ............................................................................. 45 Drilling.......................................................................................... 50 Methods for drilling ................................................................ 51 Page-by ....................................................................................... 53 Data pivoting................................................................................ 55 Methods for data pivoting ...................................................... 55 Sorting ......................................................................................... 56 Quick sort............................................................................... 56 Subtotals...................................................................................... 57 Displaying subtotals ............................................................... 57 Aliasing ........................................................................................ 58 Aliasing an object heading ..................................................... 58 Outline mode ............................................................................... 59 Using Outline mode ............................................................... 60 Exporting...................................................................................... 61 Graph appearance....................................................................... 62 Displaying numbers ............................................................... 62 Displaying data labels ............................................................ 71
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Creating graph titles............................................................... 72 Specifying the number of categories and series .................... 75 Enabling nested labels........................................................... 76 Choosing manual or automatic graph layout ......................... 77 Undoing and redoing graph manipulations ............................ 79 Finding values in a report ............................................................ 79 Setting find options in Grid view............................................. 80 Setting find options in SQL view ............................................ 80 Next steps.................................................................................... 80
4. Metrics Essentials
Introduction................................................................................ 81 What is a fact? ............................................................................. 82 What is a metric? ......................................................................... 82 Metric components ...................................................................... 87 Formula.................................................................................. 87 Level ...................................................................................... 88 Conditionality ......................................................................... 88 Transformation....................................................................... 89 Definition of a simple metric......................................................... 90 Creating a simple metric .............................................................. 91 Totals ........................................................................................... 93 Subtotals example ................................................................. 94 Subtotals ................................................................................ 95 Smart totals............................................................................ 96 Formatting a metric...................................................................... 97 Formatting a metric header and value ................................... 97 Overview of advanced metric topics ............................................ 98 Next steps.................................................................................... 99
5. Filters Essentials
Introduction.............................................................................. 101 What is a filter ............................................................................ 102 Creating a filter .......................................................................... 104 Options for creating a filter......................................................... 106 Attribute qualification ........................................................... 106 Set qualification ................................................................... 112 Report qualification .............................................................. 115 Filter qualification ................................................................. 117 Set operators ............................................................................. 119
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Overview of advanced filter topics ............................................. 123 Next steps.................................................................................. 124
6. Prompts Essentials
Introduction.............................................................................. 125 What is a prompt?...................................................................... 126 Creating prompts ................................................................. 126 Prompt properties ................................................................ 126 Types of prompts ................................................................. 127 Types of filter definition prompts................................................ 129 Creating filter definition prompts .......................................... 129 Using filter definition prompts in a report ............................. 138 Object prompts .......................................................................... 139 Creating object prompts....................................................... 139 Using object prompts in a report .......................................... 140 Value prompts............................................................................ 143 Creating value prompts........................................................ 144 Using value prompts in a report ........................................... 144 Saving reports with prompts ...................................................... 148 MicroStrategy Desktop......................................................... 148 MicroStrategy Web .............................................................. 149 Overview of advanced prompt topics......................................... 150
A. MicroStrategy Tutorial Introduction.............................................................................. 151 What is the MicroStrategy Tutorial?........................................... 151 MicroStrategy Tutorial data model............................................. 154 Geography hierarchy ........................................................... 156 Products hierarchy ............................................................... 158 Customers hierarchy............................................................ 159 Time hierarchy ..................................................................... 161 Promotions hierarchy ........................................................... 162 MicroStrategy Tutorial schema .................................................. 164 Geography schema ............................................................. 167 Products schema ................................................................. 168 Customers schema .............................................................. 169 Time schema ....................................................................... 170 Promotions schema ............................................................. 171 Sales fact tables .................................................................. 172 Inventory fact tables............................................................. 173 Miscellaneous fact tables..................................................... 174
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Glossary ................................................................................... 177
Index ......................................................................................... 195
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PREFACE
Document description
The MicroStrategy Basic Reporting Guide describes the steps required to design, create, and modify simple business reports using the MicroStrategy platform. Specifically, this guide provides the following information: Chapter 1 introduces you to the MicroStrategy Desktop interface. Chapter 2 explains how to design a simple report. Chapter 3 introduces additional reporting functionality that MicroStrategy provides. Chapter 4 explains metrics, a vital component of MicroStrategy reports. Chapter 5 introduces filters, which enable you to display only relevant information in a report. Chapter 6 explains prompts, which allow users to dynamically modify the contents of a report.
The appendix contains the following additional reference information: Information on the MicroStrategy Tutorial, a sample project which includes sample business reports and necessary report objects.
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Technical terms that need more clarification are defined in the glossary section of this guide. This guide is intended to provide you with the information necessary to design, create, and work with simple reports in MicroStrategy Desktop. You must consult other product manuals for detailed information and for more advanced product functionality. The other manuals assume you have read and mastered all topics covered in this guide. Detailed steps for all functionality in the MicroStrategy system is available in the online help.
Who should use this guide

This document is designed for all users who require a basic understanding of how to design, create, and modify simple business reports using MicroStrategy software. The following business intelligence application users should read this guide: Project Designers Report Designers Analysts System Administrators
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Prerequisites
Before working with this document, you should be familiar with: the nature and structure of your companys data you will use for your business intelligence reports the information provided in the Introduction to MicroStrategy Guide
Objectives
After reading this manual, you will be able to: recognize and understand essential MicroStrategy terms for working in the MicroStrategy environment create and deploy a variety of simple reports
About this book

This book is divided into chapters and reference appendices. Each chapter begins with a brief overview of the content. The chapter is then divided into subsections organized in the best method to promote learning. When applicable, a series of steps are provided to carry out tasks and to facilitate the learning process. The appendixes contain additional reference information, which you may or may not require depending on your specific needs. The glossary provides more information about the technical terms used in the guide. When looking for specific information, you can use the table of contents or index to quickly locate the information.
Objectives
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Typographical standards
For online and printed documentation
MicroStrategy online and hard copy documentation follows presentation conventions and cues to help you locate, identify, and understand important concepts and procedures. The following table lists these conventions.
Type bold Indicates button names, check boxes, dialog boxes, options, lists, and menus that are the focus of actions or part of a list of such GUI elements and their definitions text to be entered by the user new terms defined within the text and in the glossary names of other product manuals when part of a command syntax, indicates variable information to be replaced by the user calculations code samples registry keys path and file names URLs messages displayed in the screen
italic
Courier font
UPPERCASE +
keyboard command key (such as ENTER) shortcut key (such as CTRL+V) A keyboard command that calls for the use of more than one key (for example, SHIFT+F1)
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For printed documentation only

The following are explanations of the font style changes, icons, and different types of notes that you may see in this guide.
Actions
References to screen elements and keys that are the focus of actions are in bold Arial font style. Following is an example: 1 Click Select Warehouse.
Code
References to code, formulas, or calculations within paragraphs are formatted in regular Courier New font style. Following is an example: Sum(sales)/number of months
Data Entry
References to literal data you must type in an exercise or procedure are in bold Arial font style. References to data you type in that could vary from user to user or system to system are in bold italic Arial font style. Following is an example: Type cmdmgr -f scriptfile.scp and press ENTER. Type copy c:\filename d:\foldername\filename
Keyboard Keys
References to a keyboard key or shortcut keys are in uppercase letters. Following is an example: To bold the selected text, press CTRL+B.
Typographical standards
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New Terms
New terms to note are in regular italic font style. These terms are defined when they are first encountered in the course material. Following is an example: The aggregation level is the level of calculation for the metric.
Notes and Warnings
! This note icon indicates helpful information. your attention to very " This warning icon calls that should be read before important information
continuing.
Resources
Product documentation
MicroStrategy includes a full set of product manuals designed to help you find the information you need to install, configure, design, and administer your business intelligence and Narrowcast Server, as well as full SDK documentation to help you extend and customize MicroStrategy and integrate it with your existing applications. A list of documentation links is available to access all documentation installed from your CD-ROM. Most of these documents have been provided in Acrobat Portable Document format (PDF). Reader is ! Adobe Acrobatyou do not required to view these documents. If have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, you can download it from www.adobe.com.
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Installed documentation
To access an installed manual
1 From the Start menu, choose Programs, MicroStrategy, then Product Manuals. A Web browser opens with a list of available manuals in PDF format. 2 Click the link for the desired manual. 3 Some information is provided in HTML help format. When you select one of these guides, the Download file dialog box opens. Select the Open this file from its current location option and click OK. side of an ! If bookmarks are not visible on the leftand Page from Acrobat document, select Bookmarks the View menu, then select the topic and section you want to see. You can also scroll from the title page of the guide to its table of contents, and select from there the topic you want to read. The following documents are provided on your CD-ROM in Acrobat Portable Document format (PDF):
MicroStrategy Overview
Introduction to MicroStrategy: Evaluation Guide MicroStrategy Quick Start Guide
Manuals for Query, Reporting, and Analysis Products

MicroStrategy Installation and Configuration Guide MicroStrategy Upgrade Guide MicroStrategy Basic Reporting Guide MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide
Resources
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MicroStrategy Project Design Guide MicroStrategy Document Creation Guide MicroStrategy System Administration Guide MicroStrategy Analytical Functions Reference MicroStrategy Web SDK in the ! The Web SDK is available is sold MicroStrategy Developer Library, which as part of the MicroStrategy SDK.
Manuals for Information Delivery and Alerting Products

MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server Getting Started Guide MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server Installation and Configuration Guide MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server Application Designer Guide MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server System Administrator Guide MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server Upgrade Guide
Manuals for Analytics Modules

Business Intelligence Developer Kit (BIDK) Installation and Porting Guide Customer Analysis Module Reference Sales Force Analysis Module Reference Web Traffic Analysis Module Reference Financial Reporting Analysis Module Reference Sales and Distribution Analysis Module Reference Human Resources Analysis Module Reference
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Software Development Kits

MicroStrategy Developer Library MicroStrategy Web SDK in the ! The Web SDK is available is sold MicroStrategy Developer Library, which as part of the MicroStrategy SDK. Narrowcast Server SDK Guide
International support
MicroStrategy supports several locales. Support for a locale typically includes native database and operating system support, support for date formats, decimal formats, currency symbols, and more. It also includes the availability of translated interfaces and documentation. The level of support is defined in terms of the components of a MicroStrategy business intelligence environment. A MicroStrategy business intelligence environment consists of the following components, collectively known as a configuration: warehouse, metadata, and statistics databases MicroStrategy Intelligence Server MicroStrategy Web server MicroStrategy Desktop client Web browser
MicroStrategy is certified in homogeneous configurations (where all the components lie in the same locale) in the following languages: English (US), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish, Chinese (simplified) and Swedish. MicroStrategy also provides limited support for heterogeneous configurations (where some of the components may lie in different locales). Please contact MicroStrategy Technical Support for more details.
Resources
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A translated user interface is available in each of the above languages. In addition, translated versions of the online help files and product documentation are available in several of the above languages. The following table lists the language selection possibilities for different installation cases.
Installation Fresh installation on a system in which MicroStrategy application has never been installed before Result The Setup Wizard prompts you to select the language from the drop-down list. The user language in the product interface is the language that you select during installation. Once the product is installed, the Online Help is displayed in the same language that the user selects in the language prompt of the installation routine. Repair or maintenance installation on a system on which MicroStrategy application has been installed before All subsequent executions of the installation routine are displayed in the language that you selected the first time you installed the product on the system. The user language in the product interface is also the language that you selected the first time you installed the product on the system. Upgrading an earlier installation from version 7.2.3 The user language preference that was set previously in version 7.2.3 is the language of display of the installation routine and the user language of the product interface.
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Installation Upgrading an earlier installation from version 7.2.2 or earlier, including 7.1.x
Result The Setup Wizard prompts you to select the language from the drop-down list. The installation routine is displayed in the selected language. However, the user language of the product interface language remains the same as the one set in the product interface before running the upgrade installation. Besides, all subsequent executions of the installation routine for maintenance or for upgrade, unless overridden by the command line parameter, are displayed in the language that you selected during the upgrade installation.
Completely uninstalling all the MicroStrategy products and installing the same version or a newer version
If you uninstall all the products and install either the same version or a higher version again, the Setup Wizard prompts you to select the language from the drop-down list. Note: Even if you select a language from the language prompt in the installation routine, it has no effect on the default language of the product interfaces.
! During installation, the installation Online Help is displayed in English only.
Resources
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User assistance
The following paragraphs describe the types of assistance available to answer questions you may have regarding MicroStrategy products.
Online help
MicroStrategy provides several modes of access to online help: From the Help menu, by selecting Contents and Index to see the main table of contents for the help system By pressing F1 to see context-sensitive help addressing the function or task you are currently performing
Technical Support
If you have questions about a specific MicroStrategy product, you should: 1 Consult the product guides, online help, readme files, and release notes. Paths to access each are described above. 2 Consult the MicroStrategy Knowledge Base online at http://www.microstrategy.com/support/ k_base/index.asp organization ! A technical administrator in youryour issues may be able to help you resolve some of immediately.
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3 If the resources listed in the steps above do not provide you with a solution, contact MicroStrategy Technical Support directly. To ensure the most effective and productive relationship with MicroStrategy Technical Support, review the Policies and Procedures document posted at http://www.microstrategy.com/Support/ Policies. Please refer to the terms of your purchase agreement to determine the type of support available to you. MicroStrategy Technical Support may be contacted by your companys Support Liaison. A Support Liaison is a person whom your company has designated as a point-of-contact with MicroStrategys support personnel. All customer inquiries and case communications must come through these named individuals. Your company may designate two employees to serve as their Support Liaisons. Your company may request to change their Support Liaisons two times per year with prior written notice to MicroStrategy Technical Support.
Ensure issues are resolved quickly

Before logging a case with MicroStrategy Technical Support, the Support Liaison may follow the steps below to ensure that issues are resolved quickly: 1 Verify that the issue is with MicroStrategy software and not a third party software. 2 Verify that the system is using a currently supported version of MicroStrategy software by checking the Product Support Expiration Schedule at http://www.microstrategy.com/Support/Expiration.asp. 3 Attempt to reproduce the issue and determine whether it occurs consistently. 4 Minimize the complexity of the system or project object definition to isolate the cause. 5 Determine whether the issue occurs on a local machine or on multiple machines in the customer environment.
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6 Discuss the issue with other users by posting a question about the issue on the MicroStrategy Customer Forum at https://forum.microstrategy.com. The table on the following page shows where, when, and how to contact MicroStrategy Technical Support. If your Support Liaison is unable to reach MicroStrategy Technical Support by phone during the hours of operation, they can leave a voicemail message, send e-mail or fax, or log a case using the Online Support Interface.
North America
E-mail: support@microstrategy.com Web: https://support.microstrategy.com Fax: (703) 8488710 Phone: (703) 8488700 Hours: 9:00 A.M.7:00 P.M. Eastern Time (14000000 GMT), MondayFriday except holidays E-mail: eurosupp@microstrategy.com Web: https://support.microstrategy.com Fax: +44 (0) 208 396 0001 The European Technical Support Centre is closed on certain public holidays. These holidays reflect the national public holidays in each country. Phone: United Kingdom: +44 (0) 208 396 0085 Benelux: +31 20 346 9210 Finland: +35 8 9 6937 9620 France: +33 1 41 91 86 49 Germany: +49 69 95096206 Ireland: +35 3 1242 1522 Italy: +39 02696 33 456 Spain: +34 91 406 90 10 International distributors: +44 (0) 208 396 0080 Hours: United Kingdom: 9:00 A.M.6:00 P.M. GMT, Monday-Friday except holidays Mainland Europe: 9:00 A.M.6:00 P.M. CET, Monday-Friday except holidays E-mail: apsupport@microstrategy.com Web: https://support.microstrategy.com Fax: +81 3 5456 5464 Phone: APAC (except Korea): +81 3 5456 5618 Korea: +82 2 565 2525 Hours: 9:00 A.M.6:00 P.M. JST (Tokyo), Monday-Friday except holidays E-mail: latamsupport@microstrategy.com Web: https://support.microstrategy.com Fax: +55 11 3044 4088 Phone: LATAM (except Argentina): +55 11 3054 1010 Argentina: 0 800 444 MSTR Hours: 9:00 A.M.6:00 P.M. (San Paulo), MondayFriday except holidays
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)
Asia Pacific
Latin America
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Support Liaisons should contact the Technical Support Center from which they obtained their MicroStrategy software licenses or the Technical Support Center to which they have been designated. The individual Technical Support Centers are closed on certain public holidays. In North America, these holidays reflect many U.S. national holidays. In Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America, these holidays reflect the national public holidays in each country. Although not a requirement, we recommend you designate Support Liaisons who have permissions to be MicroStrategy project administrators. This can eliminate security conflicts and improve case resolution time. During the course of troubleshooting and researching issues, MicroStrategy Technical Support personnel may make recommendations that require administrative privileges on the MicroStrategy projects, or that assume that the designated Support Liaison has a security level that permits them to fully manipulate the MicroStrategy projects and has access to potentially sensitive project data such as security filter definitions.
Required information when calling

When contacting MicroStrategy Technical Support, please provide the following information: Personal information: Name (first and last) Company and customer site (if different from company) Contact information (phone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses) Case details: Configuration information, including MicroStrategy software product(s) and versions Full description of the case including symptoms, error messages(s), and steps taken to troubleshoot the case thus far
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Business/system impact
If this is the Support Liaisons first call, they should also be prepared to provide the following: street address phone number fax number e-mail address
To help the Technical Support representative work to resolve the problem promptly and effectively, be prepared to provide the following additional information: case number: Please keep a record of the number assigned to each case logged with MicroStrategy Technical Support, and be ready to provide it when inquiring about an existing case software version and product registration numbers of the MicroStrategy software products you are using case description: What causes the condition to occur? Does the condition occur sporadically or each time a certain action is performed? Does the condition occur on all machines or just on one? When did the condition first occur? What events took place immediately prior to the first occurrence of the condition (for example, a major database load, a database move, or a software upgrade)? If there was an error message, what was its exact wording? What steps have you taken to isolate and resolve the issue? What were the results?
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system configuration (the information needed depends on the nature of the problem; not all items listed below may be necessary): computer hardware specifications (processor speed, RAM, disk space, and so on) network protocol used ODBC driver manufacturer and version database gateway software version (for MicroStrategy Web-related problems) browser manufacturer and version (for MicroStrategy Web-related problems) Web server manufacturer and version
If the issue requires additional investigation or testing, the Support Liaison and the MicroStrategy Technical Support representative should agree on certain action items to be performed. The Support Liaison should perform any agreed-upon actions before contacting MicroStrategy Technical Support again regarding the issue. If the Technical Support representative is responsible for an action item, The Support Liaison may call MicroStrategy Technical Support at any time to inquire about the status of the issue.
Feedback
Please send any comments or suggestions about user documentation for MicroStrategy products to: documents@microstrategy.com Send suggestions for product enhancements to: support@microstrategy.com When you provide feedback to us, please include the name and version of the products you are currently using. Your feedback is important to us as we prepare for future releases.
Feedback
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1
1.
INTRODUCTION TO MICROSTRATEGY DESKTOP
Introduction
This chapter introduces you to the MicroStrategy Desktop application. It gives you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the Desktop interface and learn some of its basic functionality. MicroStrategy Desktop is the next-generation business intelligence environment designed to meet todays sophisticated business intelligence requirements. It brings integrated query and reporting, powerful collaborative analytics, and investigative workflow to every desktop. MicroStrategy Desktop enables you to design, create, and maintain an entire business intelligence system from a single interface by integrating the following products and features:
Introduction to MicroStrategy Desktop
MicroStrategy Desktop Designer is a full-featured version of MicroStrategys business reporting environment that enables report developers to design complex and sophisticated reports and documents. MicroStrategy Analyst is a simplified version of Desktop Designer that provides interactive capabilities to users.
MicroStrategy Architect allows you to model applications using a graphical interface. It provides a unified environment for creating and maintaining business intelligence applications. Administrative features, including tools to manage users, implement security, and configure and maintain MicroStrategy Intelligence Server.
The reporting environment

You should familiarize yourself with some basic MicroStrategy terms so you can easily understand the MicroStrategy reporting environment and you can make the most of the rest of this guide. Metadata repository: Often just called the metadata, this is a MicroStrategy database that holds all your business reports and the objects you place on those reports. Project source: A project source is an object that represents a connection to a metadata repository. A project source may contain one or more projects. It is through a project source that you create and maintain projects. Project: A project is an area within MicroStrategy software where you create, select, and use reports and report objects such as filters, prompts, attributes, metrics, and so on. A project includes a data warehouse that contains your business data, a metadata repository that stores reports and report objects, and a user community that uses those objects while working in the project.
2 The reporting environment
Application object: Application objects include report-related objects such as reports, documents, templates, filters, metrics, custom groups, consolidations, and prompts. An application object is a MicroStrategy object you use to analyze and gain insight into your business data. Application objects are developed in MicroStrategy Desktop and they are the building blocks for reports and documents. Schema object: Schema objects directly reflect the data warehouse structure and include objects that support report creation such as attributes, facts, functions, hierarchies, operators, partition mappings, tables, and transformations. A schema object is a MicroStrategy object that relates the information in the logical data model and physical warehouse schema to the MicroStrategy environment. These objects are developed in MicroStrategy Architect, which can be accessed from MicroStrategy Desktop.
The MicroStrategy Desktop interface

The MicroStrategy Desktop interface has three panes: Folder List: Where all the project folders that hold your reports and report-related objects are accessible. Object Viewer: Where reports and report objects are displayed as you browse. Shortcut Bar: Icons that allow you instant access to your favorite or most used report objects.
Each pane is described fully below.
Folder List
The Folder List displays all the project sources, projects, application and schema object folders, and the administrative functions for your business intelligence system. If the Folder List does not automatically appear when you initially log on to MicroStrategy Desktop, from the View menu select Folder List.
Object Viewer
The right pane of the MicroStrategy Desktop interface is called the Object Viewer. When you navigate through the folder structure in the Folder List, the objects contained in each folder you browse are displayed in the Object Viewer.
Shortcut Bar
The Shortcut Bar displays shortcut icons to your most commonly used Desktop functionalities and folders. Simply click on a shortcut icon to jump immediately to the functionality or folder to which it is linked. You can create a shortcut to any folder that appears in your Folder List. The shortcuts are organized into shortcut groups. By default, the Shortcut Bar contains two shortcut groups, namely Tutorial Shortcuts and Other Shortcuts. You can create additional groupings of shortcuts, which can be useful for large MicroStrategy implementations. You can view the shortcuts within each group by clicking the group name in the Shortcut Bar. For example, when you click Tutorial Shortcuts in the Shortcut Bar, the Tutorial Shortcuts group expands to display the shortcuts to the Tutorial project login, the Tutorial projects My Reports folder, the Tutorial projects Public Objects folder, and so on.
To create a shortcut group
1 Right-click an empty area of the Shortcut Bar and select Add Group. 2 In the Create a new shortcut group dialog box, type a name for the new group and click OK. Your new shortcut group appears in the Shortcut Bar.
To add a shortcut to the Shortcut Bar
1 On the Shortcut Bar, click the shortcut group to which you want to add your new shortcut. The shortcuts which are currently in the group appear in the Shortcut Bar.
4 The reporting environment
2 In the Folder List, right-click the project or folder for which to add a shortcut, and select Add to Shortcut Bar. A new shortcut appears in the Shortcut Bar.
! By default, the name of the shortcut is the same as the name of the folder or project for which you created the
shortcut. You can rename any shortcut by right-clicking on it and selecting Rename Shortcut.
To remove a shortcut from the Shortcut Bar
1 Right-click the shortcut and select Remove from Shortcut Bar. 2 In the confirmation dialog box, click Yes.
To remove a shortcut group
1 Click the shortcut group you want to remove. The shortcuts which are currently in the group appear in the Shortcut Bar. 2 Right-click an empty area of the Shortcut Bar and select Remove Group. 3 In the confirmation dialog box, click Yes to remove the shortcut group.
To rename a shortcut group
1 Click the shortcut group you want to rename. The shortcuts which are currently in the group appear in the Shortcut Bar. 1 Right-click an empty area of the Shortcut Bar and select Rename Group. 2 In the Rename a shortcut group dialog box, type a name for the shortcut group and click OK. The shortcut group is renamed in the Shortcut Bar.
Navigating through Desktop

Use the following menus and tools in MicroStrategy Desktop to access the different reporting features of MicroStrategy.
Desktop menu bar

From the Desktop menus, you can do the following:
Menu File Edit View Description Create new objects and folders. Cut, Copy, and Paste, similar to the functionality in a Microsoft Windows Edit menu. Change the appearance of the object icons in the Object Viewer (Desktops right-hand pane). Show or hide the Status Bar, Shortcut Bar, and Folder List. Move one level up in the Folder List or go directly to a projects home page. Use general Desktop tools, such as: Search Editor Desktop Preferences Change Password
Go Tools
Administration Access administrative functions, such as: Project Configuration Editor Database Instance Wizard Report Scheduler User Manager Integrity Checker Event Viewer Schema Access project design tools such as the Project Creation Wizard and the Attribute and Fact Creation Wizards. Close all open editors with one click. Access the online help system and useful MicroStrategy websites.
Window Help
depend on ! The menus and options available to you you do not your security privileges. For example, if have administrative privileges, you do not see the Administration menu.
6 Navigating through Desktop
Desktop toolbar
From the Desktop toolbar you can do the following:
Name New Button Description Creates a new report or report-related object. The objects you can create from this button depend on your privileges and your location in the Folder List. Cuts the currently selected objects. Use this to move or remove objects. Copies the currently selected objects. Use this to duplicate objects. Pastes whatever you have cut or copied. Use this to move or duplicate objects. Deletes the currently selected object.
Cut
Copy
Paste
Delete
Rename
Renames the currently selected object.
Preferences / View Object Properties
Displays details about the currently selected object. If you have a project selected, this button lets you set project preferences. Opens the Search Editor. Use this to search for report-related objects. Opens the appropriate editor for the currently selected object. Use this to change an objects definition. Executes the currently selected report. Use this to display your most recent business data in an existing report. Change the appearance of the object icons in the Object Viewer (Desktops right-hand pane).
Search
Edit
Run Report
View
Navigating through Desktop
Name Show or Hide the Folder List Refresh
Button
Description Turns the Folder List display on and off.
Refreshes the current display.
Go to project
Takes you to the home page of the current project. Moves you one level up in the Folder List. Use this for quick navigation among report-related objects and their folders.
Go one level up
Creating and saving objects

MicroStrategy Desktop has editors and wizards to help you create and save various types of report-related objects.
Creating objects
Before you create a report to display your business data, you must have objects to place on the report. These objects help define what business data will be displayed in any report those objects are placed upon. You can use one of the following methods to create new objects: On the File menu, click New, and select the type of object to create, such as a report or a filter. On the toolbar, click the drop-down arrow on the Create a new object button, and select the type of object to create. Right-click in an empty area in the Object Viewer, select New from the shortcut menu, and select the type of object you want to create.
8 Creating and saving objects
instead of an " If you right-click an objectdo not get theempty area in the Object Viewer, you correct shortcut menu. The objects you can create in MicroStrategy Desktop fall into one of three groups: schema objects, user objects, and reports and documents. The objects in each group are shown in the following illustration:
Saving objects
Depending on the object editor or wizard you are using, you can save objects in the following ways: From the File menu, select Save. From the File menu, select Save As. On the toolbar, click the Save button. On the toolbar, click the Save and Close button.
When you save an object for the first time, the Save As dialog box opens, where you specify the name and location where the object is to be saved. The default save location is the folder in which you were working when you opened the objects editor or wizard.
Creating shortcut objects

Shortcut objects are stand-alone objects in MicroStrategy that represent links to other objects, such as reports, filters, metrics, and so on. Shortcut objects make navigating among objects easy and quick. Creating shortcuts to objects in different locations facilitates access to these objects without having to duplicate them. Shortcuts also make project maintenance easy by eliminating the need to maintain numerous duplicate copies of objects. Using shortcuts, when you change any properties of an object, you only have to modify the original object and these changes are reflected in all shortcuts linked to this object. You can also edit the original object by right-clicking one of its shortcuts and selecting Edit. The original object is displayed in the editor. You can create shortcut objects either from the original object or from the Shortcut Editor.
To create a shortcut object from the original object
1 Right-click the object for which you want to create a shortcut and select Create Shortcut. The Browse for Folder dialog box opens. 2 Navigate to the folder in which you want to save the shortcut and click OK. The shortcut object is created in the destination folder. For example, you use the Units Sold metric frequently when you create new reports. You want to create a shortcut to the Units Sold metric, which resides in the Metrics folder, and you want the shortcut to be saved in the Templates folder. Locate the Units Sold metric by expanding the Metrics folder, then expanding the Sales Metrics folder. Right-click the Units Sold metric and choose Create Shortcut. In the Browse to Folder dialog box, navigate to the Templates folder and click OK. The Units Sold shortcut object is created in the Templates folder.
To create a shortcut object using the Shortcut Editor
1 Open the folder in which you want to create a new shortcut object. 2 From the File menu, point to New, and then choose Shortcut. The Open dialog box is displayed. 3 Navigate to the object for which you want to create a shortcut, and select the object. The object name appears in the Object name text field. 4 Click Open. The shortcut object is created in the folder that you opened in step 1. For example, you want to create a new shortcut object to the report filter named Year 2003, which is located in the Templates folder. First, open the Templates folder. From the File menu point to New, and choose Shortcut. On the Open dialog box navigate to the filter Year 2003 and click Open. The shortcut to Year 2003 is created in the Templates folder.
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2.
REPORTING ESSENTIALS
Introduction
Reports that display your business data are the focus and goal of business intelligence. Reports allow users to gather business insight through data analysis. The results of any MicroStrategy Desktop report are often a starting point for further investigations. This chapter introduces the basics of creating reports. Before you create reports, you must have a working project with objects that reflect your business data, such as facts and attributes. Facts such as Revenue or Units Sold are business measurements, data, or variables that are typically numeric and suitable for aggregation. Attributes allow you to answer questions about a fact and provide a context for reporting those facts. For example, on a report that contains the Year attribute and a Units Sold metric (based on a Units Sold fact), you can view how many units were sold during a given year. Without any attribute on this report, the report can provide information only about how many units were sold overall; it cannot answer questions about who purchased the units, when, where, and so on.
13
Reporting Essentials
For detailed information on facts, attributes, and projects and how to create these objects, refer to the MicroStrategy Project Design Guide. If a project has not already been created with your own business intelligence data reflected in its facts and attributes, you can use the MicroStrategy Tutorial project. This project, which comes with MicroStrategy, contains predesigned report objects and reports and serves as a sample project to familiarize yourself with MicroStrategy. Most of the reports discussed in this chapter already exist in the MicroStrategy Tutorial project. These sample reports are designed to show you how you can build and generate reports. A report is a MicroStrategy object that represents a request for a specific set of formatted data from your data warehouse. In its most basic form it consists of a report template (usually simply called a template) and the report-related objects you place on it, such as attributes, filters, and metrics as shown in the following figure. Additional MicroStrategy products can further enhance your options when displaying and working with report data. If you add the OLAP Services feature, for example, the templates basic form changes slightly.
A template specifies the broad set of information that you want to retrieve from your data warehouse, and it also determines the format in which the information is displayed in your report results.
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ReportingEssentials
Additional objects you can place on the template, such as filters and prompts, further restrict and refine the data displayed on the executed report. When a report is executed, all the objects on the template that have satisfied the filtering conditions of the report filter are displayed in the specified format. For example, a report can show you a list of stores in a specific region, or the price and volume of stock for a specific period of time. You can change the reports formatting details to suit your requirements and preferences. Whenever you create a report, a template and a basic report filter are also created. Although you may not specifically define and use a separate template or report filter object, these objects logically make up a report definition. reports, including Freeform SQL ! For more advancedcube reports using the SAP BW reports and OLAP data, refer to the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
Basic work flow

MicroStrategys reporting functions are designed to be flexible to meet a myriad of unique reporting needs. The sections that follow provide an overview of the reporting concepts that are required to begin building reports and create a business intelligence application. The following is covered in this chapter: 1 Learn about the difference between report design and report creation. 2 Open the Report Editor and design simple reports, one in Desktop, one in MicroStrategy Web. Run the reports you designed and save them for later use. 3 Open the saved reports and add a condition to the report filter. Run the reports with the new report filter and save them with a new report name. Now you will have four reports.
Basic work flow
15
4 Explore the different report view modes. You can choose from Design View, Grid View, Graph View, Grid Graph View, and SQL View. Examples based on the MicroStrategy Tutorial are provided for each concept. Steps for each example help you to familiarize yourself with using MicroStrategy Desktop and MicroStrategy Web.
Report design versus report creation

Report design is the process of building reports from basic report components. To design reports you use the Report Editor in either MicroStrategy Desktop or Web. The Report Editor also allows you to create advanced reports and additional report objects such as templates, metrics, filters, drill maps, and so on. As a report designer, you can set up a controlled, user-friendly environment for report creators. Although report design is the most generic method for defining a report, it requires the most in-depth knowledge of your business intelligence project. In general, this method is made available only to a group of advanced users who are report designers. Report creation is the process of building reports from existing, predesigned reports either on MicroStrategy Desktop or Web. Report creators can customize reports with the wide range of powerful reporting functionality that report designers can make available to them. Report designers work on the details of reports to design a context or environment in which report creators can work. This environment allows report creators to work within defined limits, ensuring that only reasonable queries are submitted to the database. Reasonable means that irrelevant data sets cannot be created, nor can huge amounts of data be retrieved from the warehouse. This designer-versus-creator convention allows a defined group of report designers to be trained on more advanced report functions, while report creators can manipulate reports without needing to
16 Report design versus report creation
ReportingEssentials
understand the details of report execution. Report designing is concerned with data definition, whereas report creation focuses on view definition. Report creation does not require users to have a thorough understanding of the project. Users can create their own reports in a controlled, user-friendly environment. For example, a report designer can design a report that displays data on the businesss annual regional revenue, including product categories. The report is called Region_Revenue, and the report designer places the attributes Year, Region, and Category, and the metric Revenue on the report. (To view this actual report, see the MicroStrategy Tutorial.) A report creator can then open this report and simply add a filter to view the revenue of only the Northeast region. Another report creator can open the same report, add a filter, and view nationwide revenue for a single product that concerns him. There are numerous ways to design reports, each one giving users a slightly different report creation experience. For example, you can design reports that prompt users for an answer on the type of data they want to view, before the report is run. Each user then sees report results specific to how he answered the prompts. You can design a prompted report that allows users to select from certain attribute elements to create their own personalized version of the report. A report designer can also provide drill maps on a report to set specific paths for users to navigate through the data. Drilling is a report manipulation method through which the user can request additional information related to the information available in the current report. After running a report, you can allow users to drill to various levels on the report. For example, with a drill map in the Region_Revenue report discussed above, a report creator might drill down to the Call Center level to create a new report and to investigate revenue at the Call Center level. Each of these report design and report manipulation methods is described later in this guide: For more information on prompts, see Chapter 6, Prompts Essentials.
Report design versus report creation
17
For more information on drilling, see Drilling, page 50 in Chapter 3, Report Manipulation Essentials. For information on creating metrics, see Chapter 4, Metrics Essentials.
Designing reports
Use the following list of report objects for reference as you learn about designing reports: attribute: metric: filter: attribute element: view filter: report cache:
A simple report has at least one attribute, one metric, and one report filter. It is not necessary to have all these objects in the report, but the data returned is more meaningful if all these objects are present in the report. For example, if you create a report with just one attribute, such as Customer, and run the report, it returns a list of all the attribute elements for that attribute. In this case, you would simply see a list of names and possibly addresses, ages, dates of birth, and so on, for every customer who has done business with your company and is in your database. If you add a metric to the report, such as Revenue, you can see some details about the attribute. In this case, the report data begins to become useful as you can view what revenue each customer brought to your stores.
18 Designing reports
ReportingEssentials
If you add a report filter to the report, you can qualify on, and limit, the data to a specific area of interest. For example, you can add a few additional attributes to the report, such as Region and Year, and then you can add a filter to see only your most profitable Northeast region for the past year. The resulting report displays those customers in your Northeast region who brought in the most revenue last year. This section describes how to design a report with basic reporting components, such as attributes, metrics, and filters, in MicroStrategy Desktop and Web using the Report Editor. In the process, you become familiar with the Report Editor environment and the features it offers. The examples in the following procedures use the MicroStrategy Tutorial project. in " To see a projectWebMicroStrategy aWeb, you must have MicroStrategy connected to MicroStrategy Intelligence Server that has the project loaded. For instructions on how to deploy your project using MicroStrategy Web, refer to the MicroStrategy Installation and Configuration Guide.
Using the Report Editor

The Report Editor allows you to create, modify, and save reports. The Report Editor is available through both MicroStrategy Desktop and MicroStrategy Web.
Desktop Report Editor

To access the Report Editor on MicroStrategy Desktop
1 Open MicroStrategy Desktop and log on to the project in which you want to create the report. 2 On the File menu, point to New, and choose Report. The New Grid dialog box opens.
Designing reports
19
dialog by default the ! The New Griduse thebox is displayedTo ensure the first time you Report Editor. dialog is not displayed in the future, select the Don't show this dialog in the future check box. 3 From the New Grid dialog box, select Empty Report and click OK. The Report Editor opens. The following figure shows the Report Editor on MicroStrategy Desktop. panes may not initially appear ! Some of the followingdepending on what you have in the Report Editor, selected to be visible. Use View from the menu bar to display or hide various Report Editor panes.
ReportingEssentials
The components of the Report Editor allow you to perform the following functions: Report Objects pane: (top left) Where you can see a summary of all the objects you have included on your report template, even if they do not initially appear once the report is executed and results are displayed. The MicroStrategy Engine generates SQL that includes all the objects in this Report Objects pane, and not just the objects that are displayed when the report is executed. Object Browser pane: (center left) Where you can navigate through the project to locate objects to include in the report definition. My Shortcuts pane: (bottom left) Enables you to access a folder in the Object Browser quickly. You can customize your shortcuts in the Shortcuts pane; see Shortcut Bar, page 4. View Filter pane: (top right) Where you apply a special kind of filter to any object that is in the Report Objects pane. (The View Filter pane is only available if you have the MicroStrategy OLAP Services product.) View filters do not modify the SQL for the report like normal report filters do. Instead, view filters are applied to the overall result set after the SQL is executed and results are returned from the data warehouse. The cache for a report contains the entire result set from the data warehouse, but only the subset of information that meets the view filter conditions is displayed in the executed report. A report cache is a report result set that is saved on MicroStrategy Intelligence Server. When you execute a report, and a valid report cache exists for your request, you can retrieve the results from the report cache at any time rather than having to query the data warehouse repeatedly. Using view filters, different users can access the same report cache but see different data according to their needs. In this way, caching and view filters help improve system performance. For more information on report caches, refer to the MicroStrategy System Administration Guide.
Designing reports
21
Report Filter pane: (center right) Where you add attributes, metrics, advanced filter qualifications, and shortcuts to the existing report filter without having to open another object editor (the Filter Editor). Simple filters can be conveniently created by dragging and dropping attribute elements from the Object Browser into this window to create a filter. Template pane: (bottom right) Where you define your report layouts by dragging and dropping objects from the Object Browser onto the report template. Page-by pane: (top of Template pane) Where you place subsets of your report results to be displayed as separate pages of the executed report.
Web Report Editor

To access the Report Editor on MicroStrategy Web
1 Open MicroStrategy Web and log on to the project in which to create the report. 2 Select Create Report from the top toolbar. 3 Click Blank Report or use one of the report templates listed. If you select Blank Report, a blank report definition is displayed, and you are ready to build a new report. The following figure shows the Report Editor in MicroStrategy Web.
ReportingEssentials
These components perform the following functions: Object Browser pane: (left-hand side) Where you navigate through the project to locate objects to use in the report definition. In the Object Browser you can see All Objects and Report Objects: All Objects pane: Where you see the list of all the objects available in your project. Report Objects pane: Where you see a summary of all the objects you have included on your report template, even if they do not initially appear when the report is executed and displayed. The MicroStrategy Engine generates SQL that includes all the objects in this Report Objects window, and not just the objects that are displayed after the report is executed.
Designing reports
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Report Filter pane: (top right) Click Edit Report Filter to display the Report Filter and View Filter panes: Report Filter pane: Where you add attributes, metrics, advanced filter qualifications, and shortcuts to the report filter to create a filter, without having to open another object editor (the Filter Editor). Simple filters can be conveniently created by dragging and dropping attribute elements from the Object Browser into this window. View Filter pane: Where you apply a special kind of filter to any object that is in the Report Objects pane. (The View Filter pane is only available if you have the MicroStrategy OLAP Services product.) View filters do not modify the SQL for the report like normal report filters do. Instead, view filters are applied to the overall result set after the SQL is executed and results are returned from the data warehouse. The cache for a report contains the entire result set from the data warehouse, but only the subset of information that meets the view filter conditions is displayed in the executed report. A report cache is a report result set that is saved on MicroStrategy Intelligence Server. When you execute a report, and a valid report cache exists for your request, you can retrieve the results from the report cache at any time rather than having to query the data warehouse repeatedly. Using view filters, different users can access the same report cache but see different data according to their needs. In this way, caching and view filters help improve system performance. For more information on report caches, refer to the MicroStrategy System Administration Guide.
Page-by pane: (center right) Where you place subsets of your report results to be displayed as separate pages of the executed report. Template pane: (bottom right) Where you define your report layouts by dragging and dropping objects from the Object Browser onto the report template.
ReportingEssentials
Designing a new report

This section describes how to design a report in MicroStrategy Desktop and MicroStrategy Web. For example, you might design the report called My Revenue by Region using the attributes Region and Category, and the metric Revenue. The report appears in the following image.
Designing a report in Desktop

The following procedure assumes you are performing the steps in the MicroStrategy Tutorial project and are making use of the sample Tutorial data. It also assumes you are familiar with the Report Editor in MicroStrategy Desktop; see Desktop Report Editor, page 19 for details.
Designing reports
25
To design the My Revenue by Region report in Desktop
1 In MicroStrategy Desktop, log in to the MicroStrategy Tutorial project. 2 From the File menu, point to New, and choose Report. The New Grid dialog box opens. 3 From the New Grid dialog box, select Empty Report and click OK. The Report Editor opens. 4 In the Object Browser pane, browse to the Schema Objects folder. Double-click the Attributes folder and then the Geography folder. 5 Double-click the Region attribute to add it to the Template pane. 6 In the Object Browser pane, navigate to the Products folder and double-click the Category attribute to add it to the Template pane. 7 In the Object Browser pane, browse to the Public Objects folder. Double-click the Metrics folder. In the Sales folder, double-click the Revenue metric to add it to the Template pane. 8 From the File menu, select Save As. The Save Report As dialog box opens. 9 Navigate to the location you want to save the report, usually in the My Reports folder. Name the report My Revenue by Region and click Save. 10 From the View menu, choose Grid View. This runs the report and displays the results.
ReportingEssentials
Designing a report in Web

The following procedure assumes you are performing the steps in the MicroStrategy Tutorial project and are making use of the sample Tutorial data. It also assumes you are familiar with the Report Editor in MicroStrategy Web; see Web Report Editor, page 22 for details.
To design the Revenue by Region report in MicroStrategy Web
1 In MicroStrategy Web, log in to the MicroStrategy Tutorial project and click Create Report. 2 Click Blank Report. 3 In the Object Browser, browse to the Schema Objects folder, then Attributes, and then the Geography folder. 4 Double-click the Region attribute to add it to the Template pane. 5 In the Object Browser pane, navigate to the Products folder and double-click the Category attribute to add it to the Template pane. 6 In the Object Browser, browse to the Public Objects folder. In the Metrics folder, open the Sales folder. Double-click the Revenue metric to add it to the Template pane. 7 From the File menu, select Save As. The Save As dialog box opens. Browse to the folder where you want to save your report, usually the My Reports folder. Save the report as My Revenue by Region Web and click OK. 8 Click Run newly saved report to execute the report and display the results.
Designing reports
27
Report filter
A filter specifies the conditions that the data must meet to be included in the report results. A report filter defines how much data is actually retrieved from the data warehouse. You can create filters on-the-fly (while you are designing a given report) in the Report Editor, or separately using the Filter Editor. Filters created and saved separately from a report can then be placed on other reports. To define a report filter, drag and drop objects from the Object Browser to the report filter definition pane. You can define filters in both MicroStrategy Desktop and MicroStrategy Web. In the My Revenue by Region report that you created in the previous section, you can add a restriction to display revenue data for the Electronics and Books categories only. To do this, you add the Category attribute to the report filter, to create the following condition: Category In List (Electronics, Books) The following image displays the My Revenue by Year and Month report displayed after adding the filter.
ReportingEssentials
The steps for adding this simple condition to the report filter on MicroStrategy Desktop and on MicroStrategy Web are below.
Creating a filter in Desktop

When you create a filter, you are adding a condition to the report filter.
To add a condition to the report filter in Desktop
1 In the MicroStrategy Tutorial project, open the My Revenue by Region report. (You created this report in the procedure above, Designing a report in Desktop, page 25.) 2 From the View menu, choose Design View to view the report in Design View.
2006 MicroStrategy, Inc. Designing reports
29
3 In the Object Browser, click the Attributes shortcut and then open the Product folder to locate the Category attribute. 4 Drag and drop the Category attribute from the Object Browser into the Report Filter pane. Report ! If thethe ViewFilter pane is not currently displayed, from menu choose Report Filter Definition. 5 The Attribute Qualification area appears at the bottom of the report filter pane. In the Attribute Qualification area, click Add to choose the specific categories to include in the filtering criteria; these are the categories you want to filter for so that only these categories appear in the report. The Select Objects window opens. In the Available Objects dialog box, select Electronics and Books, click > to add them to the list of selected objects, and then click OK. Click OK in the Attribute Qualification dialog box to save the report filter condition. 6 Run the report to see the report results with your new filter applied. 7 From the File menu, choose Save As. Name the report My Electronics and Books Revenue by Region Report and click Save to save it in the My Reports folder.
Creating a filter in Web

When you create a filter, you are adding a condition to the report filter.
To add a condition to the report filter in MicroStrategy Web
1 In the MicroStrategy Tutorial project, open the My Revenue by Region report in Design view. (You created this report in the procedure above, Designing a report in Web, page 27.)
ReportingEssentials
2 Click Edit Report Filter. 3 In the Object Browser, click All Objects to browse through all the objects available for report design. 4 Navigate to the Category attribute by clicking Schema Objects, then Attributes, and then Products. 5 Drag and drop the Category attribute into the Report Filter area. 6 Click the Select option. 7 From the list of Available attribute elements, select Electronics and Books, and add them to the Selected attribute elements. 8 Click Run Report to display the report results with your filtering criteria applied. 9 From the Report menu, choose Save As. 10 Browse to the My Reports folder, name the report My Electronics and Books Revenue by Region Web, and click OK to save it. more ! ForChapterinformation creating and using filters, refer to 5, Filters Essentials.
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Viewing reports
The MicroStrategy Desktop Report Editor offers the following views to view a report: Design Viewdisplays the report definition and allows you to modify the report definition. The Design View is the default view of a report. When you design a new report or edit an existing report, the report always opens in the Design View. The following figure displays the Design View of a report.
32 Viewing reports
ReportingEssentials
Grid Viewoffers a formatted, cross-tabular display of the report data. This is an important view because most of the analysis is performed using this view. The following figure displays the Grid View of a report.
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33
Graph Viewdisplays the report as a graph. The following figure displays the Graph View of a report.
Grid Graph Viewdisplays the Grid View and the Graph View of a report. The following figure displays the Grid Graph View of a report.
34 Viewing reports
ReportingEssentials
Viewing reports
35
SQL Viewdisplays the SQL used to generate the report. This view provides a good way to troubleshoot and fine-tune reports. It also includes various execution statistics. The following figure displays the SQL View of a report.
same view ! MicroStrategy Web provides theof SQLreportis called modes, although the equivalent View Details. Depending on the privileges you have, you can view reports in one or more of these modes. These views provide different information about the report and offer different capabilities. You can change the report view from the View menu.
36 Viewing reports
ReportingEssentials
Saving reports
After you create a report, you must save the report, so that you can execute it again in the future. When you save a report, its name and definition such as the template, report filtering criteria, and report formatting information are stored in the MicroStrategy metadata database. Saving a report creates a predefined report. To execute the report again, you can double-click it to retrieve the latest results.
Printing reports
You can print a report from MicroStrategy Desktop and Web.
To print a report from MicroStrategy Desktop
1 Double-click the report to execute it. The report opens in the Report Editor. 2 On the Data menu, point to Export To, and then choose PDF File. The report opens in Adobe Reader in PDF format. 3 From the File menu on the PDF, choose Print. The Print dialog box opens. 4 Use the options on the Print dialog box to scale the print size of the report, and to specify the number of copies to print. 5 Click OK to print the report.
To print a report from MicroStrategy Web
1 Click a report to execute it. 2 From the File menu, choose PDF. The PDF Options dialog box appears.
Saving reports
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3 Specify the scaling and orientation of the report in the PDF Options dialog box and click Export. The report opens in PDF format. 4 From the File menu, choose Print. The Print dialog box opens. 5 Use the options on the Print dialog box to scale the print size of the report, and to specify the number of copies to print. 6 Click OK to print the report.
Next Steps
After reading this chapter, you are familiar with fundamental information on report design. In the following chapters, you learn about interactive report manipulation and advanced options for report design.
38 Next Steps
3
3.
REPORT MANIPULATION ESSENTIALS
Introduction
This chapter introduces you to different types of report manipulations you can perform using MicroStrategy Desktop and MicroStrategy Web. After you save a report, you can grant additional functionality to users with the help of report manipulation options. These options provide an interactive reporting experience to your users. Users can edit the report and view the new results, without re-executing the report against the warehouse. This means that the changes to the report are performed on Desktop or on the Intelligence Server, and not in the data warehouse, providing users with a fast response time. The following types of report manipulations are available in MicroStrategy Desktop and MicroStrategy Web.
39
Report Manipulation Essentials
Formatting reports Autostyles Banding Thresholds
Drilling Page-by and pivoting Sorting Subtotals Aliasing Outline mode Exporting Graph properties Finding values in a report
Each feature is discussed in detail in the subsequent sections.
Formatting reports
Formatting a report involves changing the display or look and feel of a report. You can alter the general presentation formats and formatting details of a report to suit your requirements and preferences. The Autostyles option allows you to select from among several comprehensive presentation styles for report display, each providing a different format, color scheme, and font. Using the formatting options, you can set specific formatting properties for actual data, as well as row and column headers. You can also set borders and patterns. Using the banding option, you can group the rows or columns using colors to enhance readability and make it easier to identify data for attributes or attribute elements that meets certain criteria.
40 Formatting reports
ReportManipulationEssentials
Report formatting can be performed in Design View and Grid View. In Grid View, you can see the results as you format the report. When you open a report with multiple metrics in Graph View, the graphs number formatting can depend on either the metrics or grid reports number formatting. The graphs axis and data label formatting also depends on certain scenarios. For more details on these scenarios, refer to Displaying numbers, page 62.
Formatting objects
There are different ways to format an object on a report. You can either right-click an object on the report template to format it, or from the Format menu, select the object you want to format. Formatting can be as fine-grained as you choose and as your needs require. For example, a metric used on a report inherits the number formatting applied in the Metric Editor when the metric was created, but MicroStrategy allows you to customize the appearance of the metrics on reports; this report-level customization then overrides any earlier metric-level formatting. You can specify metric format properties such as the display of numeric values, alignment, font styles and sizes, and cell display colors. You can format all the metrics on a particular report or format each one separately. You can also create different formats for metric headers and metric values. You can find steps to perform complex and detailed formatting in the online help.
To format objects on a report
1 Right-click the object to format, and select Formatting, or, from the Format menu, select the object to format. on ! If the Format menu option is not displayed to the menu bar, then from the View menu, point Toolbar and choose Formatting.
Formatting reports
41
2 Select to format Headers, Values, Subtotal Headers, or Subtotal Values. The Format Cells dialog box is displayed. 3 Format the Number, Alignment, Font, Border, or Background of the report, as you desire. 4 Click OK for the formatting to take effect.
Autostyles
You can format a report by using predefined formatting styles, called report autostyles, thereby standardizing formatting among reports. In MicroStrategy Desktop and Web, the default autostyle used for all reports is Corporate. For detailed information on autostyles, refer to the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
Applying an autostyle
To apply an autostyle in MicroStrategy Desktop, point to Autostyle Selected on the Grid menu, and choose an autostyle from the available list. To apply an autostyle in MicroStrategy Web, select the autostyle from the drop-down list on the Grid toolbar.
Creating a custom autostyle

In MicroStrategy Desktop, you can also create your own formatting style by using the basic formatting options, or by adding to or changing existing autostyles.
To create and save an Autostyle
1 Run a report in the grid mode and format it as needed. 2 On the Grid Menu, select Save Autostyle As.
3 Specify a name for the new autostyle in the Save Autostyle As dialog box. 4 Save the autostyle in the Public Objects\Autostyles folder. It is recommended that you save the new autostyle in this folder.
! Note the following:
The default save location for a custom autostyle is My Objects. If you save an autostyle in this folder, it appears in only your autostyle drop-down list. However, if you would like this autostyle to be available to other users, you should save the autostyle in the Autostyles folder under Public Objects. If you save your autostyle in the Autostyles folder, the next time you open the Report Editor, you can view the autostyle you created in the list of available autostyles. Although you cannot create new autostyles in MicroStrategy Web, autostyles you create in Desktop are available in Web.
Banding
Banding is a method of organizing the appearance of values in a grid report according to certain criteria. You can band by rows and columns based on either the number of rows or columns or the values of the row and column headers. The autostyle of a report defines its default banding options, but you can turn off banding or define custom banding for a report regardless of its autostyle. MicroStrategy Desktop autostyles provide the default banding options for a report, but you can choose to remove it, or create a custom banding format for your report.
To create custom banding
1 On the Grid menu, select Options. The Grid Options dialog box is displayed. By default, the General tab is selected.
2006 MicroStrategy, Inc. Formatting reports
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2 Select Custom banding. 3 Click Settings. The Banding Settings dialog box is displayed. 4 Set the banding options as needed and click OK. For example, for the report shown in the following figure, you want to band the columns according to Revenue and Units Sold.
To do this, choose to band by columns and select the banding colors. Select the banding criteria as By column header. After applying this banding, the report looks as shown in the following figure.
To turn off banding
1 On the Grid menu choose Options. The Grid Options dialog box is displayed. By default, the General tab is selected. 2 Select No Banding and click OK.
Thresholds
Thresholds offer conditional formatting for metric values. They allow you to customize the appearance of your report conditionally, depending on the data found within the report. In MicroStrategy Desktop, you can set thresholds that are displayed in both MicroStrategy Desktop and Web. With thresholds you can highlight particular data that meets specific user-defined conditions by using different cell formats, symbols, images, or replacement text.
Formatting reports
45
You can customize reports by assigning colors for different ranges of values in a report. This allows you to classify the information into broad classes and create a report similar to a scorecard. You can apply thresholds to the metrics, and use attributes or other metrics to define them. You can also do the following: Define an unlimited number of conditions for each metric on the template. Each condition can have a simple or complex expression. You are restricted to the metrics that already exist in the report definition. Define the following formatting properties for the cells that meets the condition specified: Font type, size, and style Fill and font color Alignment Number format Borders and patterns Replace the cell value with any arbitrary text for each cell value that meet the condition specified. The text should be limited to 255 characters. For example, you can replace the values where Dollar Sales is greater than $5000 with the text, Exceeded Sales. Replace the cell value with an image when the condition is true. Replace the cell value with a symbol, selected from a predefined list of symbols.
Applying a threshold
You can access the Threshold dialog box in the following ways: from the Data menu, select Thresholds right-click the appropriate metric and select Thresholds click Thresholds on the toolbar
To apply a threshold
1 On the Data menu, select Thresholds. 2 Click New Threshold from the Threshold list to rename it.
! The Threshold list displays all the thresholds that are already defined for the report. You can select any
existing threshold to modify it, or click Add to create a new threshold. 3 Click the text, Click here to start a new qualification in the Condition Definition text box. The following conditions appear: Field, Operator, and Value. 4 Click Field to select the attribute or metric you want to define. Click Operator to select an operator, and Value to specify or select a value from the available list. 5 Define the formatting for cell values that meet the condition you have defined. Select one of the following from the Format Definition drop-down list: Format: formats the values that meet your threshold condition. Replace Text: replaces the value that meets your threshold condition with a text string. Type in the text in the empty text field. Image: replaces the value that meets your threshold condition with an image file. Quick Symbol: replaces the value that meets your threshold condition with a symbol. 6 Select Cell Formatting to define the Number format, Font, Alignment, Border, and Patterns for the formatting option you have chosen from the Format Definition drop-down list.
Formatting reports
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7 Select the options in the Subtotal Option section to specify whether the threshold should be applied to the metric, subtotals, or both: Metric Only: to apply the threshold condition only on metrics. Metric And Subtotals: to apply the threshold condition on metrics and subtotals. Subtotals Only: to apply the threshold condition only on the subtotals. 8 Select the Allow toggle threshold check box to toggle between the metric value and the symbol that you have specified for the threshold value. You can toggle using the F12 function key or by selecting the Hide Threshold option or Show Threshold option from the Data menu. 9 Click OK to save your threshold settings. For example, for the report shown in the following figure, you want to highlight the categories for which the revenue is greater than $100,000.
You can achieve this by applying a threshold to the Revenue metric. The resulting report is as shown in the following figure.
Formatting reports
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You cannot define thresholds in MicroStrategy Web, but any thresholds you define for a report in MicroStrategy Desktop are visible when you view that report in MicroStrategy Web.
Drilling
Drilling allows you to view data at levels other than that of the original grid or graph report. You can investigate the data in your report quickly and easily with the help of drilling. It provides you with the option of executing another report based on the original report to get a detailed or supplemental information.
50 Drilling
A high-level attribute is called a parent attribute, and related lower level attributes are called child attributes. Viewing a report at child level is called drilling down, and viewing a report at the parent level is called drilling up. For example, after looking at the annual revenue of a certain city, you may want to look at the quarterly revenue for the same city. The first figure displays annual sales. The second figure displays a drilled down report of quarterly revenue. The second report includes the parent attribute, though you can choose not to display the parent in the drilled report.
Even though a report generated as a result of drilling is related to the original report, they are, in essence, two entirely different reports. This means that the two reports can be saved or changed independent of each other.
Methods for drilling

Depending upon the drilling method you choose, you can drill on the entire report or only a part of the report. The following describes the different methods of drilling:
Drilling
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Double-click an attribute element: You can drill down one level for a single element. For example, if your report shows two years, 2003 and 2004, you can double-click either 2003 or 2004 to drill down and see the quarter level data for that year.
Right-click one or more elements: You can select one or more elements on which to drill by holding down SHIFT or CTRL. Right-click to open a shortcut menu that lists the possible drill directions and drill paths. Use the Drill menu option or toolbar button: You can drill on either the entire report or only selected items.
To drill using the menu or toolbar
1 From Data menu, select Drill. OR Click Drill on the toolbar. The Drill dialog box is displayed. 2 Select the object on which to drill from the Selected object list. You can drill on attributes, compound metrics, consolidations, and custom groups. 3 In the Drilling options window, browse to the attribute to which to drill. 4 Choose Yes from the Keep parent drop-down list to see the parent attribute (attribute from which you are drilling) on the new report. 5 Choose whether to keep thresholds on the new report and click OK to drill. 6 If you are using an attribute in the page-by field on the original report, the When drilling, add the current page-by element check box is enabled. Select this check box to view this page-by element in the new report. For information on page-by, see Page-by, page 53.
52 Drilling
7 Click OK to view the new report.
Page-by
Page-by enables you to select and display subsets of your report results as separate pages. The page-by function allows you to dynamically select report components as criteria for analysis. The grid that results from this selection is called a page of the original report. You can save a page you have created, and subsequently display it and manipulate it as you would for any other report. By allowing the use of different criteria to show information, pages provide an added level of capability for data manipulation and display. The page-by feature is useful when you have extremely long report results and scrolling is necessary to see the entire data. For example, if a report showing the Profit data is organized by Year, Quarter, and Region, you can page-by Year to see one years data at a time. The following figure shows such a report with Year in the page-by field.
Page-by
53
You can page-by any of the following objects: attributes metrics hierarchies consolidations custom groups object prompt (attribute) object prompt (metric)only if the row or column does not contain a metric object prompt (hierarchy) object prompt (consolidation) object prompt (custom group)
To create Page-by fields
1 Open the report in the Report Editor or Report Viewer. 2 On the View menu, choose Page-by. Drop Page Fields Here appears in the Template definition section. 3 From the Object Browser, select the object to include in the page section, and drag and drop it into the section labeled Drop Page Fields Here. Alternatively, you can also right-click an object and choose Page-by from the Move menu. than one object fields ! You can place morethe attributes in in the pagecan panel. The order of the panel influence the list of attribute elements displayed for subsequent attributes in the panel. 4 On the File menu, select Save to save the report. If the object you want to page-by is already displayed on the report, click the object heading on the report and drag and drop it into the page-by section.
54 Page-by
Data pivoting
Data pivoting enables you to rearrange the columns and rows in a report, so you can view data from different perspectives. With data pivoting, you can do the following: Move an object from the row header to the column header. Move an object from the column header to the row header. Change the order of objects in the row header. Change the order of objects in the column header.
Methods for data pivoting

You can pivot data in a report using any of the following methods: Drag and drop objects to move them around on the template. Select an object and choose a data pivoting option from the Move menu. Right-click an object, select Move, and choose a data pivoting option. Select an object and use one of the data pivoting buttons 0n the toolbar.
together and bound ! All metrics are groupedyou cannot move oneto only to one axis. For example, metric a row and another to a column.
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Sorting
Sorting allows you to specify an order, ascending or descending, in which to present the report data for a particular row or column. Sorting is processed by the Analytical Engine, hence you can sort the data on the report without re-executing the report against the warehouse. You can select what objects to sort, the sorting criteria, and the sorting order. An ascending sort arranges the data from smallest to largest, such as A - Z and 1 - 10. If you choose descending order, the data appears from largest to smallest, such as Z - A, and 10 1. If there is no sort information in the report, the result set is by default sorted based on the attribute ID of the attribute in ascending order if there is only one attribute in the report, or the far left attribute on the row or the top attribute in the column if there are multiple attributes in the report.
! This guide discusses only quick sorting. For information on advanced sorting, see the
MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
Quick sort
Quick sort allows you to select a column or row and sort it in either ascending or descending order based on the data displayed. You can sort using the sort buttons or the right-click menu. The sort buttons are on the Data toolbar in MicroStrategy Desktop. To see the sort buttons in MicroStrategy Web, from the View menu, choose Sort Buttons.
To quick sort
1 Right-click the column heading of the column to be sorted.
56 Sorting
2 In MicroStrategy Desktop, point to Sort rows by this column, and then choose either Ascending or Descending. In MicroStrategy Web, point to Sort and then choose either Ascending or Descending.
Subtotals
Subtotals reflect accumulations at selected attribute levels and can be applied dynamically to any report. You can add, remove, and edit the subtotals at different levels for metrics on the report. The subtotal functions available include sum, count, minimum, maximum, average, mean, median, and more.
Displaying subtotals
You can choose to display the subtotal across levels, grand totals, or all the subtotals. Additionally, MicroStrategy Desktop allows you to construct custom subtotals that, for example, allow you to turn on subtotals for selected metrics only. Custom subtotal functionality is documented in detail in the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
To display subtotals
1 Select Subtotals on the Data menu in MicroStrategy Desktop. In MicroStrategy Web, select Totals on the Data menu. The Subtotals dialog box is displayed. 2 Select the subtotal function to use on the report. 3 Click the Advanced tab. The Advanced Subtotals Options dialog box opens.
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4 In the Applied levels section, specify the desired level on the template at which to calculate the selected subtotal. The levels are: By position Across level Group by 5 Click OK to return to the Subtotals dialog box. 6 Click OK to complete the definition.
Aliasing
You can, for display purposes only, use aliasing to rename any object on the report grid. A Formula Bar displays information about the report header that is currently selected and allows you to modify that information without opening an editor. The following is a list of the objects you are able to rename with the Formula Bar. attribute consolidation custom group metric
Aliasing an object heading

The aliasing feature is available in MicroStrategy Desktop and Web but the procedures for aliasing are different in MicroStrategy Desktop and Web.
58 Aliasing
To alias an object heading in MicroStrategy Desktop
1 If the Formula Bar is not displayed in MicroStrategy Desktop, from the View menu, point to Toolbar, then choose Formula. 2 Click the heading of the object to rename. The name of the selected heading is displayed on the Formula Bar. 3 Type in the new name for the object. The Cancel and Validate and apply buttons in the toolbar are enabled. 4 Click the Validate and apply button and save the new name. MicroStrategy Desktop, if you on a cell ! Inderived metric, you can change clicksyntaxdatathe of a the of derived metric formula in the formula box.
To alias an object heading in MicroStrategy Web
1 From the Data menu, choose Rename/Edit Objects. The Rename/Edit Objects dialog box is displayed. 2 Select the object to rename from the Object drop-down list. If you select a derived metric, you can also change the derived metrics definition. 3 Type the new name for the object and click OK to save your changes.
Outline mode
You can create an indented grouping of related attribute elements by turning on Outline mode in MicroStrategy Desktop and Web. This is similar to Outline mode in a standard word processor. Outline mode allows you to collapse and expand sections of related data.
Outline mode
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This function is particularly useful in instances where the information displayed would otherwise involve repetitive entries. For example, in the case of a grid showing sales by year, each year is broken down by month and the year would repeat for each month, such as 2003, January; 2003, February; 2003, March; and so on. data for ! To seedisplayedcollapsed outline levels, you must have totals at the appropriate level.
Using Outline mode

To turn on outline mode, do one of the following: From the Grid menu, select Display Outline Results. On the toolbar, click the Display Outline Results button.
only when you have more ! Outline mode isin theavailablethe report template. than one object rows of You can expand and collapse levels by clicking the numbered buttons. There is one button for each column in the report. By default, reports in outline mode are displayed with all levels expanded. However, there is a setting that enables you to specify how you want the report to initially display.
To set an outline mode report to initially display with all levels collapsed
1 Go to the Grid menu and select Options. The Grid Options dialog box is displayed. 2 Click the General tab, and select the Open with all outline levels collapsed radio button. option to have an outline ! You also have theexpanded to a specific level.mode report open and 3 Click OK to close the Grid Options dialog box.
60 Outline mode
4 From the File menu, select Save to save your settings to the report definition. In MicroStrategy Web, choose Outline from the Format menu. You can expand and collapse the levels. Click the numbers above the report to expand or collapse everything to a certain outline level.
Exporting
In MicroStrategy Desktop and Web you can export data to different formats or applications, such as a spreadsheet or a word processor. formats ! The availableWeb. are different in MicroStrategy Desktop and To export data in MicroStrategy Desktop, from the Data menu, point to Export To and choose the appropriate application to receive the exported file. The following formats are supported. Microsoft Access Microsoft Excel Microsoft Word An HTML file A text file E-mail PDF
To export data in MicroStrategy Web, from the Report menu, choose Export or use the shortcut buttons. Make any necessary changes to the export settings and click Export. The report automatically displays in the selected application.
Exporting
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Graph appearance
You can make use of numerous graph properties, such as graph types and styles, to customize various aspects of a graph reports appearance. After you select a graph type and graph style to display your data, other options enable you to adjust various aspects of the graph display, such as number formatting, data labels, a legend, the graphs axes, and its title. This section describes scenarios featuring commonly used graph properties. For a discussion of the different graph styles available in MicroStrategy and when to use each style, see the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
Displaying numbers
The metrics and data labels displayed on a graph report depend on the formatting of the metric, as well as other factors that are described in the following scenarios. If the metrics on a graph report do not display as expected, see the online help (Formatting metrics on a report) for complete details on other factors that can affect number formatting in a graph report.
62 Graph appearance
Scenario 1: One metric with formatting

If a grid report contains a single metric with specific formatting applied to that metric, the data labels and axis on the graph version of the report display the same metric formatting as the grid report. See the following example:
Graph appearance
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Scenario 2: One metric without formatting

If a grid report contains a single metric without formatting applied, the graph version of the report displays the General formatting (no specific number format). See the following example:
64 Graph appearance
Scenario 3: Multiple metrics without formatting

If a grid report contains multiple metrics without any formatting applied, the graph version of the report displays the General formatting (no specific number format). See the following example:
Graph appearance
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Scenario 4: Multiple metrics with same formatting

If a grid report contains multiple metrics, all with the same formatting, the data labels and axis on the graph version of the report show the same formatting as the grid report. See the following example:
66 Graph appearance
Scenario 5: Multiple metrics with same formatting but different details

If a grid report contains multiple metrics with the same formatting category but with different settings (different details), the data labels and axis for the graph version of the report display the same formatting category and settings as the first metric (the metric listed furthest to the left on the grid report). In the example shown below, the metrics % Diff from LM - Profit and % Diff from LM - Profit Margin have the same formatting category (%) but their settings are different (one has a decimal). When this report is viewed in graph mode, the axis and data labels are formatted according to the settings of the first metric, % Diff from LM - Profit.
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a grid report includes two ! Currency exception: If Currency category applied,or more metrics with the but their settings within that category are different, for example, one has decimal points, then the graph report displays the General formatting (no specific number format).
68 Graph appearance
Scenario 6: Multiple metrics with different formatting

If a grid report contains multiple metrics, each with different category formatting, the graph version of the report displays the General formatting (no specific number format). See the following example:
Graph appearance
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Scenario 7: Page-by metrics display

If a report contains metrics on the Page-by of the report, the formatting for the data labels and axis on the graph version of the report changes depending on the metric selected on the Page-by, and reflect the formatting specific to the selected metric. See the following example:
70 Graph appearance
Displaying data labels

You can display the exact values for each data point on a graph. To display data labels in a graph report, on the Graph menu, point to Display, and then choose Data Label. The data labels and axes numbers are automatically formatted based on the formatting of the metrics in grid view, as long as all metrics are formatted in the same manner. However, you can also manually set the format of the data labels and axes numbers.
To manually format the data labels and axes numbers on a graph
1 Open the report in graph view. 2 On the Graph menu, select Graph Options. The Graph Options dialog box is displayed. 3 Click the Numbers tab. 4 Select the desired format for the Category list.
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5 Click OK to close Graph Options dialog box. 6 On the File menu, select Save to save the data label format to the report definition.
Creating graph titles

All graphs can include a title, subtitle, and footnote which help to clearly identify the graph. By default, the title of a graph is the name of the report, but you can manually change the title. Most graphs can also include a Category Axis title and a Numeric Y1-Axis title. Surface and 3D graphs can contain a Series Axis Title, which provides additional detail on the information that is being charted on the series axis. Other axis titles are available depending on the graph type. For example, Histogram, Bubble, and Scatter graphs can use an X-Axis Title, while Dual-Y and Bi-Polar graphs have a Value Title (Y2) for the secondary numeric (Y2) axis. You can type static text into any title and, for specific types of titles, use variables. Variables generate the titles automatically every time the report is run. You can use multiple variables in the same title, or combine static text and variables. The title types that allow variables include the following: Title Subtitle Footnote X Axis (for Scatter and Bubble graphs only) Y Axis (for Scatter and Bubble graphs only)
The available variables are described in the following table.

Variable {&REPORTNAME} {&REPORTDESCRIPTION} Description Report name. Report description as entered in the Properties dialog box.
72 Graph appearance
Variable {&CREATIONDATE} {&CREATIONTIME} {&AXISINFO}
Description Date the report was created. Time the report was created. Innermost label from the grid that represents either the X or Y metric. This variable applies to Scatter and Bubble graphs only.
{&PROJECT} {&USER} {&PROMPTn&}
Project in which the report is stored. Full name, not Desktop login, of the user executing the report. User's answers to the prompts in the report, where n is the number of the prompt in order; that is, {&PROMPT1&} returns the answer to the first prompt, {&PROMPT2&} returns the answer to the second prompt, and so on. If n is greater than the number of prompts in the report, the variable cannot be replaced with pertinent information. Therefore, the code itself is displayed in the report.
{&PROMPTDETAILS}
All prompt answers for the report. This variable is useful if you do not know the exact order or number of prompts in the report.
{&EXECUTIONTIME} {&FILTERDETAILS}
Date and time the report was executed. Report filter and report limit used in the report. If the report does not have a filter, the text "Empty Filter" is printed. If the report does not have a limit, the text "Empty Limit" is printed.
{&PAGEBYDETAILS}
Current attribute elements selected in the page-by.
! All dates and times are displayed in the system format.

You can change the location, font, and color of any of the titles by using formatting options.
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To change the title of a graph
1 Open the report in graph view. 2 From the Graph menu, select Titles and Labels. The Titles dialog box is displayed. 3 Select the Title check box and type a new title. 4 Click OK to close the Title dialog box and apply the change to your graph report. 5 From the File menu, select Save to save the updated graph title to the report definition.
To create a new title
1 Open the report in graph view. 2 From the Graph menu, select Titles and Labels. The Titles dialog box is displayed. 3 Select the check box for the component for which to create a title and enter a title name in the space provided. 4 Click OK to close the Title dialog box and apply the new title to your graph report. 5 From the File menu, select Save to save the new graph title to the report definition.
To change the formatting of a graph title
1 Open the report in graph view. 2 On the Graph menu, point to Formatting, and then choose the title to format. The Formatting dialog box is displayed. 3 Set the color, font, alignment, and frame for the text.
74 Graph appearance
4 Click OK to close the Formatting dialog box and apply the changes to your graph report. 5 On the File menu, select Save to save the new graph title format to the report definition.

For other methods of reformatting a graph title, see the online help. You can also use the Find and Replace feature in MicroStrategy Desktop to apply a font of your choice to graph titles and labels in selected sets of reports and templates throughout a MicroStrategy project. You can access this feature from the Tools menu. For more information on the Find and Replace feature, refer to the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
Specifying the number of categories and series

Categories are sets of data along the X-axis and series are legend items. Generally, the categories correspond to the rows of a report, and the series correspond to the columns of a report. Sometimes, the entire data from a report does not fit into one page of a graph. A horizontal scroll bar appears at the bottom of the graph for you to scroll through the rest of the data. An alternative to scrolling is to change the number of series and categories on the graph to display more data per page.
To change the number of categories and series of a graph
1 Open the report in graph view. 2 On the Graph menu, select Preferences. The Preferences dialog box is displayed. 3 Click the General tab. 4 Specify the maximum number of categories and the maximum number of series.
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5 Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box. 6 From the File menu, select Save to save the graph preferences to the report definition.
Enabling nested labels

When there are several attributes in the rows of a grid report, all the attributes are displayed in each label on the category axis, resulting in a cluttered look. A feature called nested labels in the Graph Preferences dialog box when enabled, minimizes the amount of text that displays along the category axis. In addition, when you enable nested labels, you can also have brackets drawn for each attribute level for added effect.
To enable nested labels on a graph
1 Open the report in graph view. 2 On the Graph menu, select Preferences. The Preferences dialog box is displayed. 3 Click the General tab. 4 Select the Use nested labels check box, under Graph Labels. for each in the ! To include bracketsthe Drawattribute level each nested label, select brackets for level check box. 5 Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box. 6 From the File menu, select Save to save the nested labels to the report definition.
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Choosing manual or automatic graph layout

You can set whether you control the positioning of chart elements manually or the chart elements are automatically repositioned to avoid overlapping elements. By default, manual positioning is selected. If you choose the automatic layout setting, any modifications that impact the layout, such as resizing and data changes, invoke automatic positioning. For example, if a different page-by is selected, resulting in longer data with longer category names, the chart frame height may need to be reduced so the labels fit. If the number of series increases, the height and width of the legend area may need to be increased, which reduces the width of the chart frame. layout is cannot manually ! If automatic the chartselected, youyou try to move an move any of elements. If element, a dialog box opens. If you choose to stay in automatic layout mode, the element does not move. If you switch to manual mode, the element moves. If you choose automatic layout, the size of the background frame can be automatically expanded if the recalculated legend size is larger than the current background frame. Since this option overrides other sizing options, it can lead to a frame size that is unexpected or unwanted.
To set automatic layout
1 Open the report in graph view. 2 On the Graph menu, select Preferences. The Preferences dialog box is displayed. 3 Click the Layout tab. 4 Select Automatic layout. 5 Click the Web/HTML Document Display tab. 6 Select Expand background frame to accommodate recalculated legend sizes.
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7 Click OK to return to the graph report.
Manual layout options

If the graph remains in manual layout mode, you can set options to help you size and position the legend. The size of the legend can change automatically when the data changes. If this option is selected, you can also have the legends repositioned to a default location, such as right or left, when the data changes. For example, place the legend frame in the center of the graph report. Select the Reposition chart frame and legend option. Change the data of the report and re-execute it. The legend frame is moved to one of the default locations on the graph.
To set options for manual layout
1 Open the report in graph view. 2 On the Graph menu, select Preferences. The Preferences dialog box is displayed. 3 Click the Layout tab. 4 If manual positioning is not set, select Manual layout. 5 To have the size of the legend change when the data changes, click Re-calculate legend size automatically when data changes. 6 If you selected the legend size recalculation, you can also have the legends repositioned to a default location, such as right or left, when the data changes. To do this, select Reposition chart frame and legend. 7 Click OK to return to the graph report.
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Undoing and redoing graph manipulations

Creating an attractive and easily understandable graph usually means you have to try different combinations of fonts, colors, gradients, and other options. The Undo function allows you to easily reverse actions that resulted in an undesirable outcome. If you decide later that you did not want to undo an action, the Redo function allows you to easily recreate it. These functions work the same as the Windows commands and are found on the Edit menu of the Report Viewer.
Finding values in a report

In MicroStrategy Desktop, you can use the Find feature in the Grid view of a report, to quickly track down a value in the grid display. Similarly, you can use the SQL view to find a value in the SQL syntax. MicroStrategy ! In locate values orWeb, use theinbrowsers Find function to other data a report. In Internet Explorer, from the Edit menu, choose Find (on this page).
To find a value in a report
1 Display the report in Grid or SQL view. 2 From the Edit menu, choose Find. The Find dialog box is displayed. 3 Enter the value to search for and click Find Next. The first instance of the string is highlighted if the value is found. Clicking Find Next again searches for another instance of the value in the report. Each cell in the grid is treated as a string value. For example, if a grid contains 50 and 500, both cells are found when you search for 50.
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Setting find options in Grid view

You can set the following options when searching in Grid view: Search By Rows or By Columns allows you to set the direction of the search. Match case finds only text that has the same pattern of upper and lower case as the text you specify in the Find what text box. To make the search case-sensitive, you can select this option. Find entire cell finds only cells that match all of the text in the Find what text box. For example, if you enter the, a cell containing the end will not be found.
Setting find options in SQL view

You can set the following options when searching in SQL view: Match whole word only finds only text that matches the entire word of the search string. For example, if you enter the, words like theme will not be found. Match case finds only text that has the same pattern of upper and lower case as the text you specified in the Find what text box. To make the search case-sensitive, you can select this option.
Next steps
You have learned how to manipulate your reports in MicroStrategy Desktop and Web. Now, you also need to learn about business calculations or metrics you require to add to your reports to make your reports more meaningful. Chapter 4, Metrics Essentials discusses the concepts of creating and using metrics in reports.
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4.
METRICS ESSENTIALS
Introduction
This chapter begins with a brief discussion about facts. Facts are the MicroStrategy objects on which metrics are based. Distinguishing between facts and metrics and learning about how facts are used to build metrics is essential to understanding metrics. Metrics are MicroStrategy objects that represent business measures and key performance indicators. They represent calculations to be performed on data stored in the database, and are similar to formulas in spreadsheet software. Questions, such as What were the sales for the Eastern Region during the fourth quarter? or Are inventory levels being consistently replenished at the beginning of each week? can easily be answered by creating metrics. Metric creation and publishing is usually the responsibility of advanced analysts. This chapter describes how to create simple metrics. Advanced metrics are discussed in the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
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What is a fact?
Understanding facts is the key to understanding metrics. Facts are values that represent business performance. Some characteristics of facts are as follows: They are typically numeric. They can be aggregated to produce meaningful results.
Facts are stored in tables in the data warehouse. You can build facts in a MicroStrategy project that point to columns in tables that store fact data. For example, the MicroStrategy Tutorial project has facts, such as Revenue, Cost, and Freight that point to columns in tables that store values for these measurements. If you open a fact with the Fact Editor, you see the warehouse columns and tables to which it is mapped. The fact definition dictates the location in the data warehouse from which the MicroStrategy Engine retrieves Revenue data. For more information on the Fact Editor and creating facts see the MicroStrategy Project Design Guide.
What is a metric?
Metrics define the analytical calculations to be performed against data in the data warehouse. A metric definition must contain a formula, which determines the data to be used and the calculations to be performed on the data. A metric also consists of a level and a non-group function or arithmetic operators in addition to the required group function. However, a metric must be placed inside the group function. Based on the functions used in the formula, metrics can be categorized as simple metrics and compound metrics. The formula of a simple metric is a mathematical expression based on at least one group function, such as sum or average, applied to facts, attributes, or metrics. It can also contain non-group functions or arithmetic operators, in addition to the required group function.
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An example of the formula of a simple metric is Avg(Sum((Cost + Profit))) where Cost and Profit are facts. The formula contains two group functions (Average and Sum). Another example is Avg((Cost + Profit))) where Cost and Profit are metrics instead. The formula contains a group function, so it is still a simple metric. simple only refers to ! The termrestrict you to simple a metrics structure; it does not calculations. The formula of a compound metric is based on arithmetic operators and non-group functions. Arithmetic operators are +, -, *, and /; non-group functions are OLAP and scalar functions such as running sum or rank. The expressions and functions can be applied to facts, attributes, or metrics. An example of the formula of a compound metric is RunningAvg(Cost) where Cost is a metric. The formula contains a non-group function, Running Average. Another example is Sum(Cost) + Sum(Profit) where Cost and Profit are metrics. The addition expression, denoted by the +, makes this a compound metric. For more information on compound metrics, refer to the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide. Besides a formula, a simple metric can contain the following components: The level, or dimensionality, determines the level of calculation for the metric. For example, you can choose to calculate at the month level or the region level. A simple metric can only contain one level. By default, a metric is calculated at the report level, that is, the attributes of the report in which the metric is placed.
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Conditionality associates a filter to the metric calculation. This is an optional component. A transformation applies offset values, such as four months ago, to the selected attributes. This is also an optional component.
These components are explained in detail in the section Metric components, page 87. None of these components can be set on a compound metric, for the whole metric, although they can be applied separately on the expressions that make up the compound metric. This explains why metrics are divided into the different typesso you know whether you can adjust the components of a metric. Compound metrics, unlike simple metrics, can have smart totals, which allow a different evaluation order for the calculation. For more information on smart metrics, see Smart totals, page 96.
Simple and compound metrics in the Metric Editor

The Metric Editor shows the difference between simple and compound metrics in its metric definition. The following screen shots are of definitions of simple and compound metrics.
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The definition in the following example has two facts (Cost and Profit) and two group functions (Average and Sum). Notice that everything is collapsed and you can still view its components, such as formula, level, condition, and transformation.
The definition in the following example contains the Cost and Profit metrics, rather than the Cost and Profit facts. You can identify metrics because they are displayed in bold font and they are not summed. It is still a simple metric because it uses a group function, Average. As shown below, the components of the metric are still visible.
What is a metric?
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The definition below is a compound metric because it contains a non-group function, Running Average. Notice that you cannot see the metric components (level, conditionality, and transformation); this is because you cannot set the components for a compound metric. You can set it for the Cost metric, which is a simple metric.
The definition below is a compound metric because it contains an arithmetic expression (+). It contains two metrics, Cost and Profit. While you can see and change the default report level for each of the constituent metrics, a level for the entire metric does not exist and you cannot change the level for the entire metric.
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These screen shots show that when you collapse everything on a simple metric, its components such as formula, level, condition, and transformation are still visible. As a compound metric does not contain these components at the level of the entire metric, you cannot see them. When you expand each expression of a compound metric, the components of each expression are displayed.
Metric components
Metrics have the following components: Formula Level Conditionality Transformation

Formula is the only component that you must specify while creating a metric. The other components are optional. All the components are calculated at the report level.
Formula
A formula includes facts, attributes, or metrics on which the calculation is performed. It also includes arithmetic operators. Sum(Revenue - Cost) is an example of a formula. If you are familiar with SQL syntax, a formula is the component of the metric that is included in the SELECT clause of a SQL statement.
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Level
Level or dimensionality of a metric enables you to determine the attribute level at which a metric is calculated. specify the grouping ! You cancalculation. By default,and filtering involved in metric the filtering and grouping criteria is set to standard. Grouping and filtering are discussed in detail in the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide. Following are examples of level: Sum(Revenue - Cost){~+} Sum(Abs (Revenue - Cost)){~+} set ! The {~+}, which is the automatically when youatcreate a metric means that metrics are calculated the lowest level on the report. For example, if the report shows revenue by year and month, the numbers are calculated to reflect monthly sales data.
Conditionality
Conditionality of a metric enables you to associate an existing filter object with the metric so that only data that meets the filter conditions is included in the calculation. For information on filters, see What is a filter, page 102 in Chapter 5, Filters Essentials. Metric conditionality forces the calculation of a metric to be qualified by a filter irrespective of what is specified in the report filter. For example, you want to create a report with multiple metrics and apply a time filter to most of the metrics. However, for one metric, you want to show all the values of revenue for the year 2003, regardless of the filter on the report. With conditionality, you can create a metric that ignores the report filter and calculates the revenue for the year 2003. While you can only use one filter as part of the definition of a metric, that single filter can contain multiple filtering criteria.
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! Conditionality can be applied only to simple metrics.

For more information on conditionality, refer to the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
Transformation
Transformations are generally used for time-series analysis, for example, to compare values at different times, such as this year versus last year, or month-to-date. Transformations are useful for discovering and analyzing time-based trends in your data. you must have ! As transformations are schema objects,modify them. the appropriate privileges to create or You use transformations to define transformation metrics, which are simple metrics that assume the properties of the transformation applied to it. For example, you create a metric to calculate revenue. If you add a transformation named Month to Date to that metric, the metric now calculates month to date revenue. The following figure illustrates this example:
Any transformation can be included as part of the definition of a metric, and multiple transformations can be applied to the same metric. For more information on the transformations, refer to the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
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Definition of a simple metric

As the name implies, a simple metric is the most basic metric. The term simple only refers to its structure; it does not restrict you to simple calculations. You can use simple metrics to create other types of metrics. In their structure, simple metrics include one or more metric functions are based on either a fact column or an attribute include the specified level at which calculations are applied to the report may include conditions for applying calculations may include transformations to be done to the data prior to calculation
A simple metric consists of a formula and a level. It can also contain a non-group function or arithmetic operators in addition to the required group function. However, it must be placed inside the group function. Following are examples of simple metrics Sum(Revenue - Cost){~+} Sum(Abs (Revenue - Cost)){~+} set ! The {~+}, which is the automatically when youatcreate a metric means that metrics are calculated the lowest level on the report. For example, if the report shows revenue by year and month, the numbers are calculated to reflect monthly sales data. If an attribute is added, then that attribute is considered when the data is calculated for the report.
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Creating a simple metric

You use the Metric Editor to create, edit, and save metrics. The Metric Editor has the following tabs: Formula tabUsed to define a metric. The Formula tab is divided into the following sections: Object BrowserEnables you to navigate through the project to locate objects to use in the metric definition. My ShortcutsEnables you to jump to locations in the Object Browser. You can customize your shortcuts. For information on how to customize your shortcuts, refer to Shortcut Bar, page 4 in Chapter 1, Introduction to MicroStrategy Desktop. Metric definition windowDisplays the complete metric definition, including its formula, calculation level, condition, and transformation. The information in the lower portion of the metric definition window changes depending on what part of the metric definition you have selected in the upper portion. Metric Editor to ! When you first open thedefinition windowcreate a new metric, the metric is empty. Subtotals/Aggregation tabUsed to configure subtotal and dynamic aggregation settings for a metric. The Subtotals/Aggregation tab contains the following fields: Total subtotal functionEnables you to determine the aggregate function, such as Sum, Average, Count, and so on, used to calculate the grand total and the subtotal values for the metric. Dynamic aggregation functionEnables you to determine the rollup of metric values that occurs when an attribute is moved from the report grid to the Report Objects. Select the subtotals to be available for this metricEnables you to specify which subtotals you want to be available for the metric when it is placed on a report template that displays subtotals.
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The Metric Editor also contains the Function Wizard, which enables you to define a metric formula using a wizard interface. You can access the Insert Function Wizard from the operator bar in the metric definition window. The Insert Function Wizard allows you to use the functions provided in MicroStrategy Desktop. The following section describes how you create a revenue metric using the Metric Editor.
To create a revenue metric
1 Expand and select the MicroStrategy Tutorial project. 2 On the File menu, point to New, and then choose Metric. 3 In the New Metric dialog box, select Empty Metric from the list of metrics object templates and click OK. The Metric Editor opens. dialog box may not display a ! The New Metricno metric templates have beenlist of filter objects, if created or if the Desktop Preferences have been set not to display metric templates. For more information on the New Metric dialog box, see the online help. 4 In the Metric Editor, locate the Revenue fact in the Object Browser and drag and drop it in the metric definition area. The metric formula displays as follows: Sum(Revenue) {~} 5 On the toolbar, click Save and Close. 6 Name the metric My Revenue Metric. 7 Navigate to the My Objects folder, and click Save to save the metric in that folder. This is one of the simplest metrics you can create. If you use it in a report, it will sum up the fact data at different levels depending on the attributes you include in the report.
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more sophisticated ! The Metric Editor supportsMicroStrategy Advanced functionality. Refer to the Reporting Guide for details about the Metric Editor.
Totals
Totaling is another function of the report view that you can define. Subtotals allow you to control how metrics are further computed or rolled up and can be applied dynamically to any report. Subtotals allow you to display totals on a report by selecting an aggregation function. You can apply subtotals using one of many standard subtotal functions such as total, count, minimum, maximum, standard deviation, and others. When you create a metric, you determine which subtotals are available for that metric. The user who runs a report with that metric can then choose which of those subtotals to display on the report. You can also choose to disable totaling on the metric. For more information on Subtotals, refer to the online help.
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Subtotals example
Open the Subtotals report, a sample of which is displayed below. This report is based on the Basic Report, with the addition of the attribute Quarter. Also, a view filter has been added, which includes only quarters 1 and 2 of Year 2002 and the Northeast, Central, and South regions.
yourself by with ! You can create this reportthe Subtotal startinghas a the Basic Report. Note that report different format than the Basic Report. The Subtotal report uses the autostyle named SmallType, while Basic Report uses Squares.
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Subtotals
The following steps describe the procedure to set the subtotals for a metric.
To set subtotals for a metric
1 From the File menu, point to New, and then choose Metric. The Metric Editor opens. 2 In the Metric Editor, click the Subtotals / Aggregation tab. 3 From the Total subtotal function drop-down list, select the function to use when the metric is totaled on a report. You can select more than one function. 4 From the Project subtotals list, select the function to be available for the subtotal calculation and click > to move it to the Available subtotals for metric list. 5 Repeat step 2 for any other function to be included for the subtotal calculation.

To disable all the totals, on the Subtotals/Aggregation tab, select None from the Total subtotal function drop-down list. Clear the Available subtotals for metric list. The subtotals you disable are not displayed for the metric whenever the metric is used on a report template where those subtotals are displayed.
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Smart totals
The smart totals property of a compound metric allows you to change the default evaluation order of the metric. Smart metrics calculate subtotals on individual elements of the compound metric. For example, a smart metric uses the formula Sum (Metric1) / Sum (Metric2) rather than Sum (Metric1/Metric2). The smart metric property is available for compound metrics and some simple metrics, which combine two or more calculation formulas with arithmetic operators. To toggle smart metrics on and off, use the Allow Smart Metric check box at the bottom of the Subtotals/Aggregation tab in the Metric Editor. For example, consider the following report.
Yearly Sales
Year 2003 2004 Revenue $200 $100 Discount $50 $50 Ratio of Discount to Revenue 25% 50%
If you choose to display the Total subtotal without using smart totals for the Ratio of Discount to Revenue metric, you get the following results.
Yearly Sales
Year 2003 2004 Total Revenue 200 100 300 Discount 50 50 100 Ratio of Discount to Revenue 25% 50% 75%
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The Total value in the last column is incorrect; it is strictly a sum of the percentages of Ratio of Discount to Revenue metric. To calculate a meaningful Total value for this metric, you should enable smart totals. If you select the Allow Smart Metric check box, you get the following correct results.
Yearly Sales
Year 2003 2004 Total Total Sales 200 100 300 Discount Sales 50 50 100 Ratio of Discount Sales to Total Sales 25% 50% 33.33%
Formatting a metric
You can format metrics to control how they are displayed on reports, regardless of the report that contains the metric. This formatting, which can be applied to headers and data values, is performed in the Metric Editor Report Viewer through the Find and Replace feature information on the Find and Replace ! For moresee the MicroStrategy Advanced feature, Reporting Guide.
Formatting a metric header and value

Using the Format Cells dialog box, you can specify formatting properties for a metrics report header and for the numeric values it displays. To access the Format Cells dialog box, from the Tools menu in the Metric Editor, point to Formatting, and then choose Headers or Values. The Format Cells dialog box opens. The Format Cells dialog box has the following tabs:
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NumberEnables you to determine how metric values are displayed. For example, you can determine whether values appear as general numbers, percentages, or currency. You can also determine whether the values appear with or without decimal places.
! The Numbers tab is only relevant to metric values.

AlignmentEnables you to control the vertical and horizontal alignment, and configure word wrapping. FontEnables you to format the font and color. BorderEnables you to adjust the cell borders containing data. BackgroundEnables you to specify a background pattern and color.
To set metric formatting properties
1 On the Tools menu in the Metric Editor, point to Formatting, and then choose Headers or Values. The Format Cells dialog box opens. 2 Format the metric header or values as desired. 3 Click OK to close the Format Cells dialog box. feature is covered in detail ! The FormattingAdvanced Reporting Guide.in the MicroStrategy
Overview of advanced metric topics

In the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide, you build on your knowledge of metrics that you have learned in this chapter. You learn to create various types of advanced metrics such as level, non-aggregatable, and transformation metrics. You find information on the following advanced metrics topics in the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide that help you create and use complex metrics in your reports.
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Advanced topics for compound metrics Level Metrics Conditional metrics User-defined subtotals Join specifications Metric-specific VLDB properties Metric column aliases Advanced functions Custom plug-in functions Metric creation in the Command Manager
Next steps
In this chapter, you have learned how to create simple metrics which enable you to analyze your data and make important business decisions. In the next chapter, you learn how to create another MicroStrategy report object, called a Report as a filter, that helps you to define criteria for the data to be displayed in the report results.
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5.
FILTERS ESSENTIALS
Introduction
This chapter introduces you to the different types of report filters and the procedure to create a simple filter using MicroStrategy Desktop. It is essential to understand how to create filters so that the report results contain only the data you want to analyze. Basic knowledge of formal logic is useful in understanding report filters and their concepts, but it is not a prerequisite to learn how to create filters. examples in ! The reports savedthe following sections refer to filters and in the MicroStrategy Tutorial in the MicroStrategy BI Developer Kit. The directory path within Desktop is MicroStrategy BI Developer kit\MicroStrategy Tutorial\Public Objects\Reports\Technical Reports\Reports by Feature\Advanced Reporting Examples. You can follow the steps to create filters and reports, or you can view the saved samples. Remember to save any objects that you create under a different name, so you do not overwrite the samples.
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What is a filter
A filter specifies the conditions the data must meet to be included in report results. If you are familiar with SQL syntax, a filter is equivalent to the WHERE clause in a SQL statement. For example, consider the following diagram, which shows a table of data filtered by three different filter conditions.
Each filter condition returns a different result set. You need to know how to design the correct filter to retrieve the desired data.
Report filter
A report filter enables you to apply filter conditions to a report. These conditions appear in the SQL used to retrieve the report result set from the database. The report filter is created as part of the report and is saved with the report definition. You can filter on an object even if it is not a part of the report template.
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The following illustration shows the Revenue by Brand report.
The following illustration shows the Revenue by Brand report filtered on specific brands.
You can open and close the Report details window for a report by selecting Report Details on the View menu.
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Creating a filter
The Filter Editor in MicroStrategy Desktop enables you to create, modify, and save filters that you can use to run a report. To access the Filter Editor, on the File menu point to New, and then choose Filter. The New Filter dialog box opens with Empty Filter from the list of filter object templates selected. Click OK to display the Filter Editor as shown in the following figure. dialog display list of ! The New Filterno filterbox may nothave beenacreated or filter objects if templates if the Desktop Preferences have been set not to display filter templates. For more information on the New Filter dialog box, see the online help.
The Filter Editor has the following panes: 1 Object BrowserEnables you to navigate through the project to locate objects to use in the report filter definition. 2 My ShortcutsEnables you to jump to locations in the Object Browser. You can customize your shortcuts. For more information on customizing shortcuts, see the online help.
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3 Filter definitionEnables you to add attributes, metrics, advanced filter qualifications, and copies or shortcuts to existing report filter objects. Create simple filters by dragging and dropping attribute elements from the Object Browser into the Filter definition pane.
To create a simple filter
1 On the File menu, point to New, and then choose Filter. The New Filter dialog box opens. 2 Select Empty Filter from the list of filter object templates and click OK. The Filter Editor opens. dialog display list of ! The New Filterno filterbox may nothave beenacreated or filter objects if templates if the Desktop Preferences have been set not to display filter templates. For more information on the New Filter dialog box, see the online help. 3 In the Filter Editor, use the Object Browser to navigate to the Data Explorer. 4 Double-click the hierarchy that contains the attribute on which to qualify the report. The list of attributes included in that hierarchy is displayed. 5 Double-click the attribute on which to qualify the report. The list of attribute elements included in that attribute is displayed. 6 Select the attribute elements to see in the report results, and drag and drop them into the Filter definition pane. 7 Save the filter. To create the sample displayed in the previous section titled What is a filter?, select Products as the hierarchy, Brand as the attribute, and 3Com, Hewlett Packard, and Sony as the attribute elements.
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Options for creating a filter

You can use the following options to create different types of filters: Attribute qualificationallows you to filter on an attributes form, such as ID and description OR elements of the attribute. Set qualificationallows you to create a set based on a metric, also known as a metric qualification OR a relationship between two attributes, also known as a relationship qualification. Report qualificationuses an existing report as a filter. Filter qualificationuses an existing filter as a base to which you can add more conditions to further refine the filter.
You can also create advanced qualifications and prompted filters. For more information on these filters, refer to the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
Attribute qualification
Attribute qualifiers enable you to specify conditions that attribute elements or forms must satisfy to be included in the filter definition. For example, you can create a qualification on the attribute Month so that the result set returns only months beginning with the letter J.
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Attribute element list qualification

Attribute element list qualification allows you to qualify a report on a list of attribute elements. For example, you can use an attribute element list qualification on the attribute Customer, to obtain data only for those customers you specify in your list. Attribute element list qualification example You want to create a report that includes the revenue, cost, and profit for all employees. However, certain months are not representative of the normal business cycle, so they should be excluded from the report calculations. To do that, create a filter that excludes the months April, May, and December. The step-by-step instructions on creating the attribute element list qualification filter are listed below.
! This filter is saved as Month in the Supporting Objects subdirectory.

To qualify on a list of attribute elements
1 In the Filter Editor, with the Object Browser, locate the attribute with the attribute elements on which you want to qualify and drag and drop the attribute into the filter definition window. For this example, select the Month of Year attribute. The Attribute Qualification window appears. 2 In the Attribute Qualification window, in the Operator list, click either In list or Not in list. For this example, click Not in List. 3 To create the list of attribute elements, click the Add button. The Select Objects dialog box appears. 4 In the Select Objects dialog box, in the Available objects window, click attribute elements to select them, and then click > to add them to the Selected objects window. For this example, select April, May, and December. 5 Click OK to close the Select Objects dialog box.
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6 Click OK to close the Attribute Qualification window. Open the Basic Report. The Basic Report is displayed in the following figure.
In this report Leanne Sawyers contribution to revenue is $316,786. Now switch to Design View and add the Month filter. When you reexecute the report, it looks like the following figure.
do not want to create it yourself, this report ! If you as Filter - Month Filter in the Tutorial. is saved The metrics have different values than in the Basic Report. Sawyers contribution to revenue is now $198,976. In the Basic Report, the data for all months was retrieved from the data warehouse. In the filtered report, the data for the months April, May, and December are not retrieved from the data warehouse, so the metric cannot include this data in its calculations.
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Attribute form qualification

Attribute form qualification allows you to qualify a report on an attribute form. For example, to return data only for those customers whose last names start with the letter H, you can use an attribute form qualification for the form Customer Last Name in a report. Attribute form qualification example A report includes the revenue, cost, and profit for all employees. You want to view the data of only those employees whose last name begins with the letter B. To do this, create a filter that qualifies on the Last Name of the attribute Employee. The step-by-step instructions on creating the attribute form qualification filter are listed below.
To qualify on an attribute form
1 In the Filter Editor, with the Object Browser, locate the attribute with the attribute form on which you want to qualify and drag and drop the attribute into the filter definition window. The Attribute Qualification window appears. 2 In the Attribute Qualification window, in the Qualify on list, click the attribute form on which you want to qualify the report. For this example, click Last Name. 3 Click an operator in the Operator list. For this example, click Begins With. 4 Beside the Value box, type the value to use to qualify on the attribute form. For this example, type B. the operator you ! Depending onmultiple values. have selected, you may have to enter 5 Click OK to close the Attribute Qualification window. 6 Save the filter.
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Open the Basic Report. Now switch to Design View and add the filter you have created. When you reexecute the report, it looks like the following figure.
The report displays the revenue of only those employees whose last name begins with the letter B.
Date qualification
This type of filter enables you to qualify on an attribute with a date data type. For example, you can create a date qualification on the Day attribute to only return data for days between January 1, 2003, and February 12, 2003. Use the following procedure to create a date qualification filter.
To qualify on a date
1 In the Filter Editor, with the Object Browser, locate the attribute of a date datatype on which you want to qualify, and drag and drop the attribute into the filter definition window. For this example, select the Day attribute. 2 In the Attribute Qualification window, in the Qualify on list, click the ID attribute form. 3 From the Operator list, select an operator. For this example, select Between. 4 Beside the Value box, enter a date (or date range, depending on the operator you selected) using one of the following methods:
FiltersEssentials
clicking the drop-down button. A calendar appears. Click on a date from the calendar. clicking the Calendar icon. The Date Editor is displayed. Select Static date or Dynamic date. For more information on the Date Editor, refer to the MicroStrategy Desktop online help. For more information on dynamic dates, see the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide. For this example select the date range January 1, 2003 to February 12, 2003.
5 Click OK to close the Attribute Qualification window. 6 Save the filter as Date_Filter. Open the Basic report. The Basic report is displayed in the following figure.
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Now switch to Design View and add the filter you have created. When you reexecute the report, it looks like the following figure.
The report displays the revenues of the employees only for the specified date range.
Set qualification
This type of filter allows you to create reports on a set of attributes. The set of attributes is generated dynamically based on either the metrics associated with those attributes or the relationships between them.
Set qualification: metric qualification

Metric qualifiers enable you to restrict the attributes in a set based on the value, rank, or rank percentage of the metrics associated with the attributes. For example, a store manager wants to see sales numbers for products whose current inventory levels fall below a certain level. A metric qualification causes the report to display the sales data only for those products having inventory levels below the threshold value. This report does not necessarily display the inventory figures for those products.
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A metric qualification is additionally defined by output level and break by. The output level specifies the level at which the metric is calculated, and break by allows you to choose the attribute level at which to restart counting rank or percent values for a metric. For more information on output level and break by, see the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
To qualify on a metric
1 In the Filter Editor, with the Object Browser, locate the metric on which to qualify and drag and drop it into the filter definition window.
2 In the Set Qualification window, from the Function list, select the method of qualification: Metric Value, Rank, or Percent. 3 From the Operator list, select an operator. 4 Beside the Value box, enter the value to use for the metric qualification. 5 Click OK to close the Set Qualification window.
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Set qualification: relationship qualification

A relationship qualification allows you to create a link between two attributes and place a filter on that relationship. It allows you to create a set of elements from an attribute based on its relationship with another attribute. For example, you can create a relationship filter called Nike shoes in DC that allows you to create a report that shows you all the stores selling Nike shoes in the Washington, DC area. You can create relationship filters using either the Set qualification or Advanced qualification option in the Filter Editor. Set qualification provides an interface to guide you through the process, whereas you have to enter commands in Advanced qualification. For more information on the Advanced qualification option, see the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide. A relationship filter has the following options. The Output level option enables you to specify the level at which the set can be calculated. The Relate output level and filter qualification by option allows you to specify the relation between the attributes in the output level and the filter qualification. For more information on the relationship filter options, see the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide. For example, to create a report that shows all the stores selling Nike shoes in the Washington, DC area, you need to set the output level to Stores, the filter qualification to Nike shoes in DC, and the relation to the fact Sales.
To qualify on a relationship
1 In the Filter Editor, double-click in the Report Filter window. The Filtering Options window opens. 2 Click the Add a Set qualification option, and click OK. The Set Qualification window opens. 3 Select Relationship from the Type drop-down list. 4 Click the Browse button to select the output level. 5 Click the Browse button, to select a relationship filter.
FiltersEssentials
6 Click OK to close the Set Qualification window.
Report qualification
The report data set of an existing report can be used as a filter for another report. Often, the result of one report is exactly what is needed as a filter in another report. Instead of creating a new report that includes the results of the first report, you can use the first report itself as a filter inside the new report. This type of filter called Report as filter is also known as Shortcut to a Report qualification. In the Filter Editor, you select Add a Shortcut to a Report to create a Report as filter. A reports data definition is the query that is sent to the database to retrieve information for the report, whereas the reports view definition determines how much of the retrieved information is displayed in the report. When you use a report as a filter, only the reports data definition is considered; any changes to the view definitions do not influence the filter conditions. with consolidations or ! Reports as a shortcut to a filter.custom groups cannot be used
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For example, you can use the Revenue by Brand report to view a filtered version of the Basic Report shown below.
FiltersEssentials
When filtered, the Basic Report displays the revenue generated by each employee only for those brands specified in the Revenue by Brand report. The filtered report is shown below.
To use a report as a filter:
1 In the Filter Editor, with the Object Browser, locate the reports with which to filter and drag and drop them into the filter definition window.
Filter qualification
A filter qualification allows you to use an existing filter or add conditions to an existing filter to apply to a report. For example, Filter1 contains two conditions, A and B. You can use Filter1 in another filter and add another condition C to it. The data must then satisfy all three conditions A, B, and C to be included in the report.
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For example, you are a manager in New England, responsible for stores in Boston, Providence, and Greenwich. Your project contains a filter called Stores in my Region, which is defined as the Boston, Providence, and Greenwich stores. The Womens Clothing filter includes the categories Blouses and Dresses. A third filter, All Days in December 03, is a date range that includes all the days in the month of December, 2003. To study December sales in your stores for womens clothing, create a new filter and include a shortcut to each of the three filters. Use this new filter in your report.
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Set operators
When a filter has multiple conditions, they are always combined with set operators. Set operators govern the interaction between different filter conditions. Whenever you have more than one condition in a report filter, you can change the set operator to any of the following: AND OR OR NOT AND NOT
For example, you have a filter with the conditions Year = 2004 Region = Northeast
By default, the set operator AND is inserted between filter conditions. Therefore, using the above examples, the following illustration shows the impact of the set operator AND on a result set.
As shown by the shaded region, only revenue generated in the Northeast in 2004 is returned in the result set.
2006 MicroStrategy, Inc. Set operators
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The following illustration shows the impact of the set operator OR on a result set.
As shown, revenue generated in either 2004 or the Northeast or in both 2004 and the Northeast is returned in the result set. The following illustration shows the impact of the set operator OR NOT on a result set.
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In this case, revenue generated in 2004 in any region (including the Northeast) or revenue generated in all other years in any region except for the Northeast is returned in the result set. Finally, the following illustration shows the impact of the set operator AND NOT on a result set.
As shown, revenue generated in 2004 in any region except the Northeast is returned in the result set.
To change the set operator
1 In the Filter Editor, add more than one condition to the filter definition window. 2 In the filter definition window, right-click the set operator, point to Toggle Operator in the shortcut menu, and then choose the desired set operator.
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Overview of advanced filter topics

The MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide provides detailed information about the following advanced filters. Attribute qualification promptsallow you to qualify on the values of attribute elements, attribute forms, or operators during report execution. Attribute-to-attribute qualificationsallow you to create reports that compare two attributes using their respective attribute forms. Break by property for set qualification filtersis the attribute level at which to restart counting rank or percent values for a metric. Custom expressionsallow you to create custom expressions to fit particular needs. Dynamic datesare fixed offsets of the current date. Filter object promptsallow you to choose the filters to be included in a report during report execution. Imported filter elementsallow lists of data from existing files to be imported into the filter definition. Joint element listsallow you to choose attribute elements from different attributes to filter the report result set. Metric qualification promptsallow you to select a function, an operator, or the value for a metric during report execution. Metric-to-metric comparisonsdynamically compare the values of two metrics. Output levels for set qualification filtersspecify the level at which the metric is calculated for the set qualification. Report object promptsallow you to choose the results of one report to be included in another report. You can define a report object prompt by specifying a search object or specifying a predefined list of objects to choose from during report execution.
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Next steps
You have learned about the various types of filters that you can use to create meaningful reports in MicroStrategy Desktop. MicroStrategy Desktop has another useful feature called prompts. You can use prompts to create reports that can be customized by users during report execution. The next chapter, Prompts Essentials explains the various types of prompts.
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PROMPTS ESSENTIALS
Introduction
This chapter explains how to create and use prompts. Prompts are powerful objects that allow you to change the report content during report execution. Prompts allow the report to have dynamic report definitions, which the user can change with each query by altering the information in the prompt dialog box. You can choose different prompt answers each time you run the report, enabling quick and easy comparison of data.
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What is a prompt?
A prompt is used to dynamically modify the contents of a report. With prompts, you can determine during report execution, the objects you want to retrieve for the report, and report filtering conditions. In addition, you can make different prompt selections each time you run the report. For example, you can create a prompt for filtering criteria that qualifies on the Year attribute. When you run a report with this prompt in its report filter, you are prompted to select the year for which you want the report results. You can run the report the first time by selecting 2003 and then a second time by selecting 2004.
Creating prompts
You create all prompts with the Prompt Generation Wizard, which guides you through the prompt creation process. The Prompt Generation Wizard is explained in detail in the sections that follow. It is important to note that the prompting questions asked of the user raise the complexity of running a report, and you run the risk of confusion. This confusion can be minimized by providing good descriptions for the prompts so that the user is clear about the questions they are answering.
Prompt properties
You can control several aspects of how prompts appear and how they function, including the following: Answer requirements Default prompt answers Title and description
These properties are set using the Prompt Generation Wizard.

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Answer requirements
You can choose to make it either necessary or optional to answer a prompt. A required prompt requires a prompt answer to be selected for the report to execute. An optional prompt does not require a prompt answer to be selected. To specify answer requirements, select the Prompt answer is required check box in the Prompt Generation Wizard.
Default prompt answers

You can specify default prompt answers, which the users can modify during report execution. You can also specify the minimum and maximum number of prompt answers allowed. To specify default prompt answers and the minimum or maximum number of prompt answers allowed, select the Choose default prompt answers check box in the Prompt Generation Wizard.
Title and description

You can customize the title and description of a prompt, which are displayed to users when they are answering the prompt. Options for customizing the title and description of a prompt appear on the last screen of the Prompt Generation Wizard.
Types of prompts
Using the following prompt types, you can create a prompt for almost every part of a report. Prompts can be a part of the report definition, filter, template, custom group, or metric.
What is a prompt?
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Filter definition promptsinclude prompt types that allow you to define the filtering criteria, such as attributes in a hierarchy, attribute forms, lists of attribute elements, and metrics. Object promptsallow you to select MicroStrategy objects to include in a report, such as attributes, metrics, custom groups, and so on. Value promptsallow the user to select a single value, such as a date, a specific number, or a specific text string. The value chosen by the user is compared with metric values or attribute element values and hence determines the data viewed by the user. Level promptsallow you to specify the level of calculation for a metric. Level prompts are explained in the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
Each of these prompt types are explained in detail in the sections that follow.
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Types of filter definition prompts

You can use filter definition prompts within report filters to specify conditions that data must meet to be included in report results. You can create the following types of filter definition prompts: Choose from all attributes in a hierarchyEnables the user to qualify the report on any attribute or attribute element that belongs to the specified hierarchy. Qualify on an attributeEnables the user to qualify the report on the attribute forms or the attribute elements of the specified attribute. Choose from an attribute element listEnables the user to qualify the report on a list of attribute elements of the specified attribute. Qualify on a metricEnables the user to qualify the report on the specific metric.
Creating filter definition prompts

The procedures for creating each of these types of filter definition prompts are described in the following sections. After you have created a filter definition prompt, you can incorporate it in a report as outlined in the section, Using filter definition prompts in a report, page 138.
Choose from all attributes in a hierarchy

The choose from all attributes in a hierarchy prompt allows you to select attributes and elements from a specific hierarchy all hierarchies in the project hierarchies returned by a search object
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To create a hierarchy prompt
1 On the File menu, point to New, and then choose Prompt. The Prompt Generation Wizard appears. 2 Select the Filter definition prompt option in the Prompt Generation Wizard. Select Choose from all attributes in a hierarchy in the list of filter definition prompts, and click Next. 3 Choose one of the following options: Choose a hierarchy object Browse to and select the hierarchy or specify the name of the hierarchy Use the results of a search object Browse to and select the search object or specify the name of the search object List all hierarchies (no restrictions)
4 Select one of the following options from the Displayed forms drop-down list: All attribute forms: displays all attribute forms and is a default setting. Browse forms: displays only the browse forms defined in the Attribute Editor. Report display forms: displays only report display forms defined in the Attribute Editor.
5 To specify default prompt answers, which is an optional step, complete the following steps: select the Choose default prompt answers check box and click Next. select default prompt answers set the maximum and minimum number of prompt answers allowed, if necessary
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6 Click Next. 7 Specify a title and description for the prompt. 8 If you choose to, you can select the Prompt answer required check box to have users answer the prompt before running the report. 9 Click Finish. 10 Save the prompt.
Example: Hierarchy prompt

Report Requirement You want to create a prompt on Product hierarchy and use it in a report filter of a report that has Item and Revenue on its template. Solution Create a hierarchy prompt, prompting the user on the product Hierarchy. Choose the following default answers for the prompt: The Art of Bev Doolittle Art as Experience The Painted Word
When you use this prompt as a filter in a report and execute the report, the report looks as shown in the following figure.
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Qualify on an attribute
The Qualify on an attribute prompt, also called an attribute prompt, can be used to create a more focused prompt than the hierarchy prompt. You can create the following types of attribute prompts: A prompt in which a user can qualify a report only on the attribute built into the prompt. A prompt in which a user can qualify a report on any attribute that is returned by a specific search object.
To create an attribute prompt
1 On the File menu, point to New, and then choose Prompt. The Prompt Generation Wizard appears. 2 In the Prompt Generation Wizard, select the Filter definition prompt option. Then, select Qualify on an attribute in the list of filter definition prompts, and click Next. 3 Choose one of the following options: Choose an attribute Browse to and select the attribute or specify the name of the attribute Use the results of a search object Browse to and select the search object or specify the name of the search object 4 Select one of the following options from the Displayed forms drop-down list: All attribute forms: displays all attribute forms and is a default setting. Browse forms: displays only the browse forms defined in the Attribute Editor. Report display forms: displays only report display forms defined in the Attribute Editor.
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Example: Qualify on an attribute prompt

Report Requirement You want to create a prompt that qualifies on the attribute Region and use it in a report filter of a report that has Region and Revenue on its template. Solution Create an attribute prompt, prompting the user on the attribute Region. Choose the following default answers for the prompt: Northeast Northwest Southeast Southwest
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When you use this prompt as a filter in a report and execute the report, the report looks as shown in the following figure.
Choose from an attribute element list

The choose from an attribute element list prompt, also called an attribute element prompt, allows a user to choose from a list of attribute elements to be included in a filter or custom group. This list can be restricted when you are designing the prompt by using one of the following options selecting all elements associated with an attribute (no restriction) providing a partial list of elements by applying a filter on all of the elements associated with an attribute providing a predefined list of elements from which the user can choose
To create an attribute element prompt
1 On the File menu, point to New, and then choose Prompt. The Prompt Generation Wizard appears. 2 Select the Filter definition prompt option in the Prompt Generation Wizard. Then, select Choose from an attribute element list in the list of filter definition prompts, and click Next. 3 Browse to and select the attribute or specify the name of the attribute and click Next. 4 Choose one of the following options:
PromptsEssentials
List all elements (no restriction) Use a filter to reduce the number of elements Browse to and select the search object or specify the name of the search object.
Use a pre-defined list of elements
Example: Qualify on an attribute element list

Report Requirement You want to create a report that displays the revenue for the selected regions. Solution Create an attribute element list prompt, prompting the user for the attribute Region.
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When you use this prompt as a filter in a report for revenue by region, and execute the report, the report looks as shown in the following figure.
Qualify on a metric
The Qualify on a metric prompt, also called a metric qualification prompt, allows a user to qualify on a metric. You can create two types of metric qualification prompts. In the first type, a user can qualify a report on a metric built into the prompt. In the second type, a user can qualify a report on any metric that is returned by a specific search object. In both types, users can qualify on the value, rank, or percentage of the metric.
To create a metric qualification prompt
1 On the File menu, point to New, and then choose Prompt. The Prompt Generation Wizard appears. 2 Select the Filter definition prompt option in the Prompt Generation Wizard. 3 In the list of filter definition prompts, select Qualify on a metric and click Next. 4 Choose one of the following options: Choose a metric object Browse to and select a specific metric to use in the prompt. Use the results of a search object
PromptsEssentials
Example: Qualify on a metric prompt

Report Requirement You want to create a report that displays the regions whose revenues are greater than 500 dollars. Solution Create a metric prompt, prompting the user for the metric revenue. Choose the default answer for the prompt as Revenue > 500. When you use this prompt as a filter in a report and execute the report, the report looks as shown in the following figure.
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Using filter definition prompts in a report

To use a filter definition prompt, you must include it in a report filter object or in the report filter definition window of a report.
To build a report with a filter definition prompt
1 In the Report Editor, use the Object Browser to locate the filter definition prompt to use, and drag and drop it into the Report Filter window. also drag and drop it ! You can of the Report Editor. into the Report Filter window 2 Add more report filter conditions if desired. 3 Save the report. When you run the report, a window that looks similar to the Filter Editor appears. If the filter definition prompt answer is required, you must answer the prompt before the report is executed.
To resolve a filter definition prompt
1 Run a report containing a filter definition prompt.
PromptsEssentials
2 The actions you take next depend on the type of filter definition prompt in the report, but they are very similar to what you would do in the Filter Editor to define a report filter condition. 3 Click Finish to run the report with your prompt answers. see your prompt answers in ! You canwindow, in the form of reportthe Report Details filtering conditions.
Object prompts
Object prompts can be used to create a prompt on almost any type of MicroStrategy object. For example, you can prompt on a list of metrics or attributes to place on a template, or you can prompt on a list of report filter objects to apply to a metric. Object prompts enable you to create very versatile reports. With an object prompt, you can qualify a report on a specified list of MicroStrategy objects or any MicroStrategy object that is returned by a specific search object.
Creating object prompts

To create an object prompt
1 On the File menu, point to New, and then choose Prompt. The Prompt Generation Wizard appears. 2 In the Prompt Generation Wizard, select the Object prompt option and click Next. 3 Choose one of the following options: Use a pre-defined list of objects Use the results of a search object
Object prompts
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! You can only use objects of the same type in one object prompt. For example, you can include
metrics or attributes in an object prompt, but not both. To prompt for multiple object types in the same report, you must create an object prompt for each object type. 4 To specify default prompt answers, which is an optional step, complete the following steps: select the Choose default prompt answers check box and click Next. select default prompt answers set the maximum and minimum number of prompt answers allowed, if necessary
Using object prompts in a report

Object prompts have multiple uses. Object prompts allow users to select, during report execution, one or more objects meeting specific criteria.
To use an object prompt in a report
1 Create and save an object prompt. It can be an object prompt for a report, a template, a metric, or another MicroStrategy object.
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2 Use the Object Browser in the Report Editor to locate the object prompt. 3 Drag and drop it in the appropriate location in the Report Editor. For example, if the object prompt contains a list of metrics, drag and drop it into the appropriate columns of the template definition window. If your object prompt contains a list of report filter objects, drag and drop it into the Report Filter definition window. 4 Save the report. the report, a prompt window ! When you runthe objects from whichresolutionchoose to opens, listing you can answer the object prompt. If the object prompt is required, you must answer the prompt before the report is executed.
To resolve an object prompt
1 Run a report containing an object prompt. 2 Select objects from the list in the left window and click > to add them to the right window. 3 Click Finish to run the report with your prompt answers.
Example: Object prompt

Report Requirement Create a report that prompts you to select the metrics Revenue or Units Sold during report execution. Solution Create a metric prompt that allows you to select the metric Units Sold or Revenue. Create a report that uses the attribute Category and this prompt.
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When you run the report, select Units Sold so the report results look like the following:
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Value prompts
Value prompts are used when the information desired during report execution is a single value of a specific data type. Value prompts are typically used as part of a filter definition, but they can also be used as part of a metric formula. The different types of value prompts are: Dateprompts for a date value. Date prompts can be used to prompt the user to specify a date, for example, for a filter that qualifies on an attribute of a date. Numericprompts for a numeric value. Numeric value prompts accept integers or decimals up to 15 digits of precision. Numeric prompts can be used to prompt the user for a number, for example a metric definition. Textprompts for any type of text. Text prompts can be used to prompt the user for a text string, for example, an attribute form qualification. Big Decimalprompts for a big decimal value. Big Decimal value prompts accept integers and decimals up to 38 digits of precision.
prompts should ! Big Decimalthat require highbe used only in as expressions precision, such qualifying on a Big Decimal attribute ID. Longprompts for a long integer value. Long prompts accept integer numbers up to 10 digits.
is not default. To ! The long value promptprompt,enabled byTools menu, enable the long value from the select My Preferences. In the My Preferences dialog box, click the Advanced tab, and select the Add long prompts to the list of available value prompts check box.
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Creating value prompts

To create a value prompt
1 On the File menu, point to New, and then choose Prompt. 2 In the Prompt Generation Wizard that opens, select the Value prompt option and click Next. 3 Specify the type of value such as date, numeric, text, big decimal, or long to use in the prompt, and click Next. value prompt is displayed only if it ! The longin the My Preferences dialog box, onisthe enabled Advanced tab. 4 Select the Default value check box to specify a default prompt answer, specify a valid range for the prompt answer if necessary, and click Next. 5 Enter a title and description for the prompt. 6 If you choose to, you can select the Prompt answer required check box to have users answer the prompt before running the report. 7 Click Finish. 8 Save the prompt.
Using value prompts in a report

You can use a value prompt in a report as described in the following procedure.
To use a value prompt in a report
1 Create the object in which to use the value prompt, such as a report filter or a metric.
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2 Use the Object Browser in the Report Editor to locate the value prompt. 3 Drag and drop it in the appropriate section of the Report Editor. For example, if you are using a date prompt in a date qualification filter, drag and drop the date prompt beside the Value box in the Attribute Qualification window. 4 Save the report. When you run the report, a prompt resolution window opens. If the value prompt is required, you must answer the prompt before the report is executed.
To resolve the value prompt
1 Run a report containing a value prompt. 2 Enter an appropriate value. 3 Click Finish to run the report with your prompt answer.
Example: Value prompt

Report Requirement You want to create a report that lists all employees whose age is less than 40 years. If you specify 40 as the Employee Age, the final report should look like the following:
Value prompts
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Solution Creating this prompted report is a little different than the previous reports in that the prompt is not created as an independent object. Instead, you create the prompt from within the report filter window. Steps 1 In MicroStrategy Desktop, from the File menu, select New, and then Report. 2 In the New Grid dialog box, keep Empty Report selected and click OK. 3 In the Report Editor, in the Object Browser, double-click the Geography (Browsing) hierarchy to expand it. 4 Drag and drop first the Employee and then the Employee Age attributes into the rows of the template definition window. 5 In the Object Browser, drag and drop the Employee Age attribute into the filter definition window.
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6 In the Attribute Qualification window, from the Qualify On list, select ID. 7 From the Operator list, select Less Than. 8 Click the Simple Prompt button: 9 In the Prompt Generation Wizard, specify the maximum value of the prompt as 50. 10 Click OK to close the Attribute Qualification window and run the report. 11 In the prompt selection window, specify the age as 40 and click Finish. The report results are as shown in the previous figure.
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Saving reports with prompts

When you save a prompted report after having executed it, you are presented with additional save options. These save options on MicroStrategy Desktop are different from those on MicroStrategy Web.
MicroStrategy Desktop
You can select one of the following options from the Save Options dialog box: StaticYou are not prompted when you run the report in the future. The prompt answers you selected are saved to the report definition and used every time the report is run. PromptedYou continue to be prompted every time you run the report in the future. You can choose whether to be prompted for the filter definition prompts, the template prompts (object prompts), or both. Set the current prompt answers to be the default prompt answers The prompt answers you selected become the new default prompt answers when you run the report in the future. This check box is enabled only if you select the Prompted option. Keep filter modifications (unanswered filter prompts will be lost)Any optional filter definition prompts that you did not answer is not be presented when you run the report in the future. This check box is enabled only if you select the Prompted option. Remember options next timeYour selections in the Save Options dialog box become the default selections when you save prompted reports in the future.
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MicroStrategy Web
To access additional save options, select Advanced Options in the Save as dialog box, and choose one of the following options: Save report as static The report is saved with the current template and filter information. Upon executing the report, you will not be prompted again. Save report as promptedThe report is saved with active prompts. The next time you run the report, the report prompts you on either the filter, the template, or both, depending on the option you select as follows. Only filter is promptedThe report is saved with the current template definitions. Upon executing the report, you are prompted on the filter information only. Only template is promptedThe report is saved with the current template definitions. On executing the report, you are prompted on the template information only. Filter and template are promptedThe report is saved with both active template and filter prompts. On executing the report, you are prompted on both the template and filter information. Set the current prompt answers to be the default prompt answers If you select this check box, your most recent prompt answers are saved as the default prompt answers for the next time you execute the report. Keep filter modifications (unanswered filter prompts will be lost) If you select this check box, any changes you make to the report filter are saved in the report definition.
Saving reports with prompts
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only prompted on you have ! You areprompts (promptingthe template ifor metrics to object on attributes be placed on the template of the report) or level prompts (prompting on the level at which a metric is calculated) associated with your report. If there are no object or level prompts, or if the template is static, the behavior appears to be the same as what occurs when you select Save report as prompted and Only Filter will be prompted, and you are prompted on only the filter information.
Overview of advanced prompt topics

You can find detailed information on the advanced prompt topics in the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting Guide.
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MICROSTRATEGY TUTORIAL
Introduction
This appendix provides information on the MicroStrategy Tutorial. It includes the following sections: MicroStrategy Tutorial data model MicroStrategy Tutorial schema
What is the MicroStrategy Tutorial?

The MicroStrategy Tutorial is a MicroStrategy project, which includes a metadata and warehouse, and a set of demonstration applications designed to illustrate the features of the MicroStrategy platform.
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MicroStrategy Tutorial
A project is the highest-level of intersection of a data warehouse, metadata repository, and user community. Conceptually, the project is the environment in which all related reporting is done. A typical project contains reports, filters, metrics, and functions. You create projects that users access to run reports. The theme of the MicroStrategy Tutorial project is a retail store for the time 2003 to 2005 that sells electronics, books, movies and music. The key features include the following: HierarchiesCustomer, Geography, Products, Promotions, and Time. Each hierarchy can be viewed graphically through MicroStrategy Desktop and MicroStrategy Web. Numerous customers and items purchased. Reporting areasHuman Resources, Inventory, Financial, Product Sales, and Supplier. Options to create reports from MicroStrategy Desktop and MicroStrategy Web focusing on a particular analysis area, such as Customer, Inventory, Time, Products, Category, Employee, or Call Center.
MicroStrategy Tutorial reporting areas

As described in the preceding section, the analysis areas are grouped into the following report categories that illustrate the various types of business analysis possible with MicroStrategy: Financial reports contain information based on time, geography, and products, such as Regional and Quarterly Profit Margins. The financial reports represent the types of financial reports used in any business. These reports include profit and loss information, company forecasts, and margin reports. These reports give executives, general managers, and operations managers immediate access to financial data so they can quickly analyze trends and key performance indicators. They ensure that all decision-makers have access to a single repository of financial information, so executives can be sure that
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MicroStrategyTutorial
departments are all working from the same set of facts. Decision-makers are able to determine immediately the profitability of categories, departments, districts, and business units. Individual managers are able to determine their own performance against budget plan and standard business performance metrics. Furthermore, decision-makers can get timely reports on key metrics, uncover opportunities to raise revenue and lower costs, track changes in operational costs, analyze categories and business units, and compare actual performance against budget. Human resources reports contain information on employees headcount, birthdays, length of employment, and top 5 employees by revenue. These reports are based on employees, time, geography, and sales. The human resources reports provide insight into human capital so that managers can boost the efficiency and effectiveness of their employees. Human Resource representatives can highlight under-performing employees and misallocated headcounts. Managers at all levels can focus on the performance of their people, drill down to an individual employee detail level, view trends, and extract intelligence that is not evident otherwise. Inventory reports contain information based on supplier, product, cost, and profit, such as Inventory and Unit Sales, or Inventory Received from Suppliers by Quarter. The inventory reports track inventory information within the company and through to suppliers. Essentially, these reports show how many units of an item are on hand, how many are expected from a particular supplier, and how many units are sold. Inventory reports are used to ensure that the supply chain is as efficient as possible. Using these reports, employees can analyze trends and details, quickly adjust inventory and distribution, and understand underlying supply chain costs and inefficiencies. Product sales reports allow for market basket analysis, such as Sales by Region, Revenue over Time, and Yearly Revenue Growth by Customer Region.
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The product sales reports allow managers and analysts to monitor and analyze sales trends, track corporate revenue goals, compare store-to-store performance, and respond more quickly and accurately to feedback from the marketplace. In turn, executives can analyze sales trends and details, quickly adjust pricing and promotions, identify product affinities, key profit centers, and understand costs and revenue trends. Supplier reports contain supplier, sales, profit, and revenue information, such as Brand Sales by Supplier, Supplier Sell-Through Percentage, and Units Sold and Profit by Supplier. The supplier reports allow managers and analysts to monitor and analyze vendor performance so that they can quickly identify performance problems. These reports track brands and items sold that came from a particular vendor. They also correlate profit and revenue information with particular suppliers so that relationships with key vendors can be strengthened. These reports are located in the Reports folder of the MicroStrategy Tutorial project. After the areas of analysis are determined, a data model is created.
MicroStrategy Tutorial data model

A logical data model graphically depicts the flow and structure of data in a business environment. It provides a way of organizing facts so that they can be analyzed from different business perspectives. For example, a simple logical data model for a retail company can organize all necessary facts by store, product, and time, which are the three common business perspectives typically associated with retail business. For detailed information about data modeling, see the MicroStrategy Project Design Guide. For MicroStrategy Tutorial, the areas of analysis discussed earlier, Financial, Product Sales, and so on, are organized into the following hierarchical groupings, which are described on the following pages for your reference:
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geography products customers time promotions
Data modeling notations

The following notations are used in graphical depictions of hierarchies.
Symbol Indicates entry point Definition An entry point is a shortcut to an attribute element in the Data Explorer. Creating an entry point grants you faster access to the attribute without having to browse through multiple attributes to reach different levels of the hierarchy.
attribute
A data level defined by the system architect and associated with one or more columns in the data warehouse lookup table. Attributes include data classifications like Region, Order, Customer, Age, Item, City, and Year. They provide a handle for aggregating and filtering at a given level.
one-to-many relationship
An attribute relationship in which every element of a parent attribute relates to multiple elements of a child attribute, while every element of the child attribute relates to only one element of the parent. The one-to-many attribute relationship is the most common in data models.
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Geography hierarchy
The Geography hierarchy contains attributes, such as Country and Region, as well as Distribution Center, Call Center, and employee-specific attributes. It is easy to understand why Country and Region are in the Geography hierarchy, but what about Distribution Center, Call Center, and the employee-related attributes? The data used in MicroStrategy Tutorial is based upon a fictitious company that sells electronics, movies, music, and books. The company does not have physical stores, but instead does its business from catalog and Web sales. Customers review the products in a printed or online catalog and call in their order over the phone. The order is then processed by an employee located at one of the call centers. The order is then fulfilled by a distribution center that holds the correct item and sends it through one of the shippers. The Geography hierarchy contains the following attributes.
Attribute Country Region Call Center Distribution Center Manager Employee Experience Hire Date Salary Employee Age Description Countries where the company does or hopes to do business in the future. Also refers to countries where employees work. Each country is split into regions. Where product phone-in orders are taken. Each call center is located in a different city. The location where product orders are sent out to customers. Currently, each is located in the same city as the call center it services. Person responsible for a specific call center. The number of years an employee has worked for the organization. The date on which a particular employee was hired. The amount of money an employee makes per year. The age of each employee. Example USA, Spain, France. Central, Northeast, Southwest. Atlanta, Boston, Charleston. Miami, New Orleans, Fargo. Peter Rose, Alice Cooper. 3, 5, 6. 2/16/97, 3/15/99. 24,000, 35,000. 29, 36, 52.
Attribute Employee Birth Date Employee
Description The date each employee was born. The lowest level in the Geography hierarchy, representing the individual responsible for each order placed.
Example 5/6/66, 1/1/77. Jennifer Lee, Laura Kelly.
Refer to the following graphic to see how all these attributes are organized into the MicroStrategy Tutorial Geography hierarchy.
157
Products hierarchy
The products hierarchy contains attributes, such as category, brand, catalog, and supplier. It should be noted that the attributes Transaction, Warranty, and Discontinued Code are not part of the main data model; these are extra attributes that were introduced to support the MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server demonstrations. The Products hierarchy contains the following attributes.
Attribute Category Subcategory Warranty Brand Catalog Supplier Discontinued Code Item Transaction Description Products are organized into categories at the highest level. Used to further differentiate a subset of products within a category. The time period in months during which a manufacturer repairs a broken item (specific to Narrowcast Server). The manufacturer or artist for a particular product. The medium used to sell products. The distributor for a set of brands. (Currently not implemented in the project.) 0 = discontinued product, 1 = non-discontinued product. The individual product sold. Describes a resupply transaction from the fictitious company that the MicroStrategy Tutorial product uses to its suppliers for additional stock. The Great Gatsby, Sony Discman. Example Electronics, Music. Business, Cameras, Drama. 3, 5. Ayn Rand, 3Com, Sony. Spring 2002, Fall 2003. McGraw Hill, Disney Studios.
Refer to the following graphic to see how all these attributes are organized into the MicroStrategy Tutorial Products hierarchy.
Customers hierarchy
The Customers hierarchy contains customer demographic and purchase information, such as Customer Age, Income Bracket, Payment Method, and Ship Date. The Customers hierarchy contains the following attributes.
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Attribute Customer Region Customer State Customer City Customer Age Customer Birth Date Income Bracket Zip Code Customer Shipper Rush Order
Description The highest level of differentiation for where customers live. Each Customer Region is divided into multiple States. Each Customer State is broken down into cities. The age of a particular customer at a current point in time. The date on which the Customer was born. The salary range reported by the customer. The lowest level of differentiation for where customers live. The name of the individual customer. The vendor used to send products to the customer. (Currently not implemented in the project.) Indicates whether a customer chose to expedite delivery of an order. The way a customer pays for an order. The date on which an order is shipped from the distribution center. The tracking number associated with a particular group of items purchased.
Example Northeast, South, France. Maine, North Dakota. Albany, Chicago, Memphis. 26, 38, 59. 8/4/50, 4/30/72. $31,000 - 40,000, $61,000 70,000. 07026, 36303. Selene Allen, Chad Laurie. Pronto Packages, MailFast.
Payment Method Ship Date Order
Amex, Check. 9/15/02, 3/26/03. 167, 2635.
Refer to the following graphic to see how all these attributes are organized into the MicroStrategy Tutorial Customers hierarchy.
Time hierarchy
The Time hierarchy contains time-specific attributes, Year, Quarter, Month, and Day.
161
The Time hierarchy contains the following attributes.

Attribute Year Quarter Month of Year Month Day Description Calendar year of purchase. Calendar quarter of purchase. Calendar month of purchase. Month of purchase. Calendar date of purchase. Example 2002, 2003. Q2 02, Q3 03. January, November. Jul 02, Aug 03. 5/14/02, 12/26/03.
Refer to the following graphic to see how all these attributes are organized into the MicroStrategy Tutorial Time hierarchy.
Promotions hierarchy
The Promotions hierarchy contains Promotion and Promotion Type. This hierarchy is useful for recording whether a sale was a promotional purchase.
The Promotions hierarchy contains the following attributes.

Attribute Promotion Type Promotion Description (Currently not implemented in the project.) Type of discount period offered (Sale type). (Currently not implemented in the project.) Date range for a particular discount period under which an item is purchased (Sales Date). Example Mothers Day, Labor Day. 9/1/02 - 9/4/02, 2/16/03 2/19/03.
Refer to the following graphic to see how all these attributes are organized into the MicroStrategy Tutorial Promotions hierarchy.
Viewing the MicroStrategy Tutorial data model

Although the MicroStrategy Tutorial data model is displayed in the previous pages, you can also view it directly in the product.
To view the MicroStrategy Tutorial data model
1 If you are not already using the MicroStrategy Tutorial, log on to the project source containing the MicroStrategy Tutorial and expand the MicroStrategy Tutorial project. You must log on as an Administrator. Specify the user name as Administrator and provide a blank password to complete these steps.
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2 From the Schema menu, point to Graphical View, and then choose Hierarchies. Once loaded, the HierarchiesMicroStrategy Tutorial dialog box opens. 3 To view a different hierarchy, select it from the Hierarchy drop-down menu in the toolbar. 4 To focus on a different entry point, select it from the Entry Point drop-down menu in the toolbar. 5 To view the entire hierarchy in the window, click Fit in window from the toolbar. 6 You can rearrange the attributes by dragging and dropping them. does not affect the browse order, but allows ! Thisto view the hierarchy in a way meaningful to you you. 7 To return to the default view, click Auto arrange in the toolbar. 8 To save the layout view of the hierarchy, click Save in the toolbar. The next time you open the Hierarchy Viewer, this saved view is displayed. After the data model is created, the next step is to create the schema.
MicroStrategy Tutorial schema

A schema is a logical and physical definition of warehouse data elements, physical characteristics, and interrelationships. The logical data model is a picture of all the pieces of information necessary to understand your data and how it relates to your business. It is a graphic-intensive technique that results in a data model representing the definition, characteristics, and relationships of data in a business, technical, or conceptual environment.
164 MicroStrategy Tutorial schema
The physical warehouse schema is based on the logical data model, such as Day, Item, Store, or Account. Several physical warehouse schemas can be derived from the same logical data model. While the logical data model tells you what facts and attributes to create, the physical warehouse schema tells you where the underlying data for those objects is stored. The physical warehouse schema describes how your data is stored in the data warehouse. This appendix shows the physical warehouse schema, including data types. For more detailed information on the physical schema, see the MicroStrategy Project Design Guide. The MicroStrategy Tutorial schema is divided into the following parts: geography products customers time promotions fact tables
Schema notations
The following notations are used in the graphical depictions of the MicroStrategy Tutorial schema.
Symbol LU_ Indicates Definition
a lookup table A database table used to uniquely identify attribute elements. They typically consist of descriptions of dimensions. Lookup tables are usually joined to fact tables in order to group the numeric facts in the fact table by dimensional attributes in the lookup tables. a primary key In a relational database, the set of columns required to uniquely identify a record in a table.
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Symbol REL_
Indicates a relationship table
Definition While lookup tables store information about one or more attributes, relate tables store information about the relationship between two attributes. Relate tables contain the ID columns of two or more attributes, thus defining associations between them.
PMT_
a partition A warehouse table that contains information used to identify the mapping table partitioned base tables as part of a logical whole. Also referred to as a PMT.
! The schema also contains fact tables. A fact table is a database table containing numeric data that may be
aggregated along one or more dimensions. Fact tables may contain atomic or summarized data. The basic facts from which all metrics in the MicroStrategy Tutorial were created from are listed below.
Fact Cost Discount End on hand Freight Profit Revenue Rush Charge Unit Cost Unit Price Unit Profit Units Received Units Sold Description The total amount charged by the supplier to the company. A monetary reduction made from a regular price. The number of individual items remaining at the close of each month. The compensation paid for the transportation of goods. The excess of the selling price of goods over their cost. The total income produced by a given source accounting for all product sales deducting discounts. The amount of money charged to expedite delivery service. The amount of money charged by the supplier to the company per individual item purchased. The amount of money charged by the company to the customer per individual item sold. Unit price - unit cost. The number of individual items acquired from a supplier. The number of individual items bought by customers.
Geography schema
167
Products schema
Customers schema
169
Time schema
Promotions schema
171
Sales fact tables
Inventory fact tables
173
Miscellaneous fact tables
Viewing the MicroStrategy Tutorial schema

Although the MicroStrategy Tutorial physical schema is displayed in the previous pages, you can also view it or the logical schema directly in the product.
To view the MicroStrategy Tutorial schema
1 If you are not already using the Tutorial, log in to the project source containing the MicroStrategy Tutorial and expand the MicroStrategy Tutorial project. You must login as an Administrator to complete these steps. 2 From the Schema menu, point to Graphical View, and then choose Tables. Once loaded, the TablesMicroStrategy Tutorial dialog box opens with the physical view displayed. 3 To switch to the logical view, select View, then Logical View.
4 To change display preferences for the physical view, use the following options from the Options menu: Show joinsto connect the tables to represent the joins between the warehouse tables. Use circular joinsto use circular joins. Show column data typesto show the data type and size for each column. Show table prefixesto display the table prefix as part of the table name. 5 To change display preferences for the logical view, use the following options from the Options menu: Show joinsto connect the tables to represent the joins between the table columns. Use circular joinsto use circular joins. Show relationshipsto map the relationships between the tables. Show relationship typesto differentiate between one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many relationships. Show columnsto display the warehouse columns that define each attribute, as a link between the logical and physical views. 6 To switch back to the physical view, select View, then Physical View. 7 To view the entire schema in the window, click the Fit in window button on the toolbar. 8 You can rearrange the tables by dragging and dropping them. affect the relationships ! This does not view the tables in a way or joins, butto allows you to meaningful you. 9 To return to the default view, click Auto arrange in the toolbar.
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10 To save the layout view of the tables, click Save in the toolbar. The next time you open the Table Viewer, this saved view is displayed. 11 To copy the layout view, select Copy as Metafile from the File menu.
GLOSSARY
application object MicroStrategy object used to provide analysis of and insight into relevant data. Application objects are developed in MicroStrategy Desktop and they are the building blocks for reports and documents. Application objects include these object types: report, document, template, filter, metric, custom group, consolidation, prompt. attribute A data level defined by the system architect and associated with one or more columns in a data warehouse lookup table. Attributes include data classifications like Region, Order, Customer, Age, Item, City, and Year. They provide a means for aggregating and filtering at a given level. See also: attribute element attribute form child attribute constant attribute derived attribute parent attribute
application object
177
Glossary
attribute element A value of any of the attribute forms of an attribute. For example, New York and Dallas are elements of the attribute City; January, February, and March are elements of the attribute Month. attribute form One of several columns associated with an attribute that are different aspects of the same thing. ID, Name, Last Name, Long Description, and Abbreviation could be forms of the attribute Customer. Every attribute supports its own collection of forms. attribute relationship See relationship. axis A vector along which data is displayed. There are three axesRow, Column, and Page. When a user defines a template for a report, he places template unitsattributes, dimensions, metrics, consolidations, and custom groupsalong each axis. See also: column row
base fact column A fact column represented by a single column in a fact table. business intelligence A system that facilitates the analysis of volumes of complex (BI) system data by providing the ability to view data from multiple perspectives.
178 attribute element
Glossary
cache A special data store holding recently accessed information for quick future access. This is normally done for frequently requested reports, whose execution is faster because they need not run against the database. Results from the data warehouse are stored separately and can be used by new job requests that require the same data. In the MicroStrategy environment, when a user runs a report for the first time, the job is submitted to the database for processing. However, if the results of that report are cached, the results can be returned immediately without having to wait for the database to process the job the next time the report is run. cardinality The number of unique elements for an attribute. child attribute The lower-level attribute in an attribute relationship. See also: parent attribute relationship
column 1) A one-dimensional vertical array of values in a table. 2) The set of fields of a given name and data type in all the rows of a given table. 3) MicroStrategy object in the schema layer that can represent one or more physical table columns or no columns. See also: axis row
compound key In a relational database, a primary key consisting of more than one database column. conditionality Conditionality of a metric enables you to associate an existing filter object with the metric so that only data that meets the filter conditions is included in the calculation.
cache
179
Glossary
constant attribute See implicit attribute. data warehouse 1) A database, typically very large, containing the historical data of an enterprise. Used for decision support or business intelligence, it organizes data and allows coordinated updates and loads. 2) A copy of transaction data specifically structured for query, reporting, and analysis. description column Optional columns that contain text descriptions of attribute elements. derived attribute An attribute calculated from a mathematical operation on columns in a warehouse table. For example, Age might be calculated from this expression: Current DateBirth Date Compare implicit attribute. derived fact column A fact column created through a mathematical combination of other existing fact columns. derived metric A metric based on data already available in a report. It is calculated by the Intelligence Server, not in the database. Use a derived metric to perform column math, that is, calculations on other metrics, on report data after it has been returned from the database. drill A method of obtaining supplementary information after a report has been executed. The new data is retrieved by re-querying the Intelligent Cube or database at a different attribute or fact level. See also: page-by pivot
180 constant attribute
Glossary
sort subtotal surf
element browsing Navigating through hierarchies of attribute elements. For example, viewing the list of months in a year. entity relationship A diagram that provides a graphical representation of the diagram (ERD) physical structure of the data in the source system, which lets you easily recognize tables and columns and the data stored in those columns. extraction, 1) The process used to populate a data warehouse from transformation, and disparate existing database systems. loading (ETL) 2) Third-party software used to facilitate such a process. fact 1) A measurement value, often numeric and typically aggregatable, stored in a data warehouse. 2) A schema object representing a column in a data warehouse table and containing basic or aggregated numbersusually prices, or sales in dollars, or inventory quantities in counts. See also metric. fact column A column in a database table that contains fact data. fact table A database table containing numeric data that can be aggregated along one or more dimensions. Fact tables can contain atomic or summarized data.
element browsing
181
Glossary
filter A MicroStrategy object that specifies a set of criteria used to limit the data returned in a report. Specifically, it limits the returned values of an attribute in the result set to a specified range. It is normally implemented in the SQL WHERE clause. Examples include 2002, All weekdays in May, Stores in the Northeast. heterogeneous column Columns in different tables in a database that store the same naming data but have different names. For example, one column named Customer in one table and one named Customer Name in a different table, both containing customer names. hierarchy A set of attributes defining a meaningful path for element browsing or drilling. The order of the attributes is typicallythough not alwaysdefined such that a higher attribute has a one-to-many relationship with its child attributes. highly denormalized Schema type where not only are higher-level attribute ID schema columns present within all related tables, but the description columns are present as well. highly normalized Schema type where lookup tables contain unique schema developer-designed attribute keys. homogeneous column Columns in different tables of a database that contain the naming same data and have the same column name. ID column A column that contains attribute element identification codes. All attributes must have an ID column. implicit attribute An attribute that does not physically exist in the database because it is created at the application level. Such an attribute has its expression defined as a constant value, though nothing is saved in a column. For example, you may wish to create columns in the database with a value of 1 for every row to get around COUNT limitations. You don not have to actually create the column, though, because in the Attribute Editor, you can just enter a 1 in the expression to create a
182 filter
Glossary
count. Implicit attributes are useful in analyzing and retrieving information. When analyzing data, you can use constant attributes to create a COUNT to keep track of the number of rows returned. You can use constant attributes when building metrics, where you can sum the column holding the constant to create a COUNT. Any constant is acceptable. Compare derived attribute. logical data model A graphical representation of data that is arranged logically for the general user, as opposed to the physical data model or warehouse schema, which arranges data for efficient database use. lookup table A database table used to uniquely identify attribute elements. They typically consist of descriptions of dimensions. Lookup tables are usually joined to fact tables to group the numeric facts in the fact table by dimensional attributes in the lookup tables. many-to-many An attribute relationship in which multiple elements of a parent attribute can relate to multiple elements of a child attribute, and vice versa. See also: one-to-one one-to-many many-to-one relationship
logical data model
183
Glossary
many-to-one An attribute relationship in which (1) multiple elements of a parent attribute relate to only one element of a child attribute, and (2) every element of the child attribute can relate to multiple elements of the parent. See also: one-to-one one-to-many many-to-many relationship
metadata A repository whose data associates the tables and columns of a data warehouse with user-defined attributes and facts to enable the mapping of the business view, terms, and needs to the underlying database structure. Metadata can reside on the same server as the data warehouse or on a different database server. It can even be held in a different RDBMS. metric 1) A business calculation defined by an expression built with functions, facts, attributes, or other metrics. For example: sum(dollar_sales) or [Sales] - [Cost] 2) The MicroStrategy object that contains the metric definition. See also fact. moderately normalized Schema type having the same basic structure as the highly schema normalized schema, but here the higher-level attribute ID columns are present within all related tables. multithreaded Characteristic of a process that supports the simultaneous execution of multiple threads. The startup code initiates the primary thread of a process by passing the main function address to the operating system. When the primary thread terminates, the process terminates.
184 many-to-one
Glossary
object Conceptually, an object is the highest grouping level of information about one concept, used by the user to achieve the goal of specified data analysis. More concretely, an object is any item that can be selected and manipulated, including folders, reports, facts, metrics, and so on. one-to-many An attribute relationship in which every element of a parent attribute can relate to multiple elements of a child attribute, while every element of the child attribute relates to only one element of the parent. The one-to-many attribute relationship is the most common in data models. See also: one-to-one many-to-many many-to-one relationship
one-to-one An attribute relationship in which every element of the parent attribute relates to exactly one element of the child attribute, and vice versa. See also: one-to-many many-to-one many-to-many relationship
online analytical A system with analytical processing that involves activities processing (OLAP) such as manipulating transaction records to calculate sales trends, growth patterns, percent to total contributions, trend reporting, and profit analysis.
object
185
Glossary
online transaction Typically, databases or mainframes that store transactional processing (OTLP) data. Transactional processing involves the simple recording of transactions such as sales, inventory, withdrawals, or deposits. page-by Segmenting data in a grid report by placing available attributes, consolidations, and metrics on a third axis called the Page axis. Since a grid is two-dimensional, only a slice of the cube can be seen at any one time. The slice is characterized by the choice of elements on the Page axis. By varying the selection of elements, the user can page through the cube. See also: drill pivot sort subtotal surf
parent attribute The higher-level attribute in an attribute relationship with one or more children. See also: child attribute relationship
partial relationship An attribute relationship in which elements of one attribute relate to elements of a second attribute, while the opposite is not necessarily true. See also: relationship one-to-many
186 online transaction processing (OTLP)
Glossary
many-to-one many-to-many
physical warehouse A detailed graphic representation of your business data as it schema is stored in the data warehouse. It organizes the logical data model in a method that make sense from a database perspective. See also schema. pivot To reconfigure data on a grid report by placing report objects (attributes, metrics, consolidations) on different axes. Also, to reconfigure a grid report by interchanging row and column headers, and hence the associated data. Subset of cross-tab. See also: drill page-by sort subtotal surf
port number The port number is how a server process identifies itself on the machine on which it is running. For example, when the Intelligence Server machine receives a network call from a client (Desktop, Web, Narrowcast Server, Command Manager, and so on), it knows to forward those calls to the Intelligence Server port number that is specified in the call. prefix A prefix is stored in the project metadata associated with a table or tables and is used by the Engine to generate SQL. Also, the Catalog Server uses it to obtain table sample values and row counts. In most cases, it should match the name space field since it is used to qualify on a specific table belonging to a certain owner or name space. Prefixes can be defined and modified from the Warehouse Catalog interface. See also table name space.
2006 MicroStrategy, Inc. physical warehouse schema
187
Glossary
process An executing application comprising one or more threads. Processes use temporary private address spaces and control operating system resources such as files, dynamic memory allocations, pipes, and synchronization objects. project 1) The highest-level intersection of a data warehouse, metadata repository, and user community, containing reports, filters, metrics, and functions. 2) An object containing the definition of a project, as defined in (1). The project object is specified when requesting the establishment of a session. project source Defines a connection to the metadata database and is used by various MicroStrategy products to access projects. A direct project source is a two-tier connection directly to a metadata repository. A server project source is a three-tier connection to a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server. One project source can contain many projects and the administration tools found at the project source level are used to monitor and administer all projects in the project source. prompt 1) MicroStrategy object in the report definition that is incomplete by design. The user is asked during the resolution phase of report execution to provide an answer that completes the information. A typical example with a filter is choosing a specific attribute on which to qualify. 2) In general, a window requesting user input, as in type login ID and password at the prompt. quality relationship The relationship between a parent attribute and two or more joint child attributes. The parent attribute is referred to as a quality because its definition is complete only with the intersection of its joint children. ratio The relationship in quantity, amount, or size between the cardinalities of related attributes.
188 process
Glossary
relate table A table containing the ID columns of two or more attributes, thus defining associations between them. relational database A relational database management system (RDBMS) is a management system program that lets you create, update, and administer a relational database. A relational database is a collection of data items organized as a set of formally-described tables from which data can be accessed or reassembled in many different ways without having to reorganize the database tables. The leading RDBMS products are Oracle, IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server. relationship An association specifying the nature of the connection between one attribute (the parent) and one or more other attributes (the children). For example, City is a child attribute of State. See also: parent attribute child attribute partial relationship quality relationship one-to-one one-to-many many-to-one many-to-many
report The central focus of any decision support investigation, a report allows users to query for data, analyze that data, and then present it in a visually pleasing manner. See also: filter template
relate table
189
Glossary
report creation The process of building reports from existing, predesigned reports in MicroStrategy Desktop or in MicroStrategy Web. report design The process of building reports from basic report components using the Report Editor in MicroStrategy Desktop or MicroStrategy Web. row The horizontal axis of a report. See also: axis column
schema 1) The set of tables in a data warehouse associated with a logical data model. The attribute and fact columns in those tables are considered part of the schema itself. 2) The layout or structure of a database system. In relational databases, the schema defines the tables, the fields in each table, and the relationships between fields and tables. schema object A MicroStrategy object created, usually by a project designer, that relates the information in the logical data model and physical warehouse schema to the MicroStrategy environment. These objects are developed in MicroStrategy Architect, which can be accessed from MicroStrategy Desktop. Schema objects directly reflect the warehouse structure and include attributes, facts, functions, hierarchies, operators, partition mappings, tables, and transformations. shortcut object A MicroStrategy object that represents a link to any other MicroStrategy object such as report, filter, metric, and so forth. server definition A MicroStrategy object stored in the metadata containing information about the configuration of an Intelligence Server.
190 report creation
Glossary
server instance The combination of an Intelligence Server running with a particular server definition. simple key In a relational database, a primary key that requires only one column to uniquely identify a record within a table. sort Arranging data according to some characteristic of the data itself (alphabetical descending, numeric ascending, and so forth). See also: drill page-by pivot subtotal surf
source system Any system or file that captures or holds data of interest. statistics tables Tables that are used to record a variety of statistical information about the usage and performance of a MicroStrategy system. Structured Query The query language standardized in 1986 by the American Language (SQL) National Standards Institute (ANSI) and used to request information from tables in a relational database and to manipulate the tables structure and data.
server instance
191
Glossary
subtotal A totaling operation performed for a portion of a result set. See also: drill page-by pivot sort surf
surf To add filters, attributes, attribute elements, metrics, and functions to existing analysis objects. See also: drill page-by pivot sort subtotal
table name space A field that is read from the warehouse catalog and used to organize databases. This field cannot be modified from the product since it is actually stored in the warehouse. Each table object in the metadata stores the name space or owner from which it came. This is needed to uniquely identify each table saved in the project when comparing table information in the metadata to the real one in the warehouse. template The data definition portion of the template consists of the group of objects (attribute, metrics, custom groups, and so on) that defines the columns of data to be included in the result set. The layout and format of these objects are defined within the template's view definition.
192 subtotal
Glossary
transformation A schema object that encapsulates a business rule used to compare results of different time periods. Transformations are used in the definition of a metric to alter the behavior of that metric. transformation metric An otherwise simple metric that takes the properties of the transformation applied to it. For example, a metric calculates total sales. Add a transformation for last year and the metric now calculates last years total sales. threshold Used to create conditional formatting for metric values. For example, if revenue is greater than $200, format that cell to have a blue background with bold type. virtual cube 1) In an OLAP data model, a conceptual, multidimensional representation of data. Unlike a physical cube, a virtual cube does not perform data retrieval and consequently lacks the performance problems and size limitations associated with a physical cube. A virtual cube maps MicroStrategy objects such as hierarchies and metrics to OLE DB for OLAP objects. 2) The result of mapping a logical data model to an OLE DB for OLAP multidimensional model after hierarchies and metrics have been selected from a project. No physical cube is created or loaded, but a definition of the virtual cube structure is stored in MicroStrategy metadata.
transformation
193
Glossary
194 virtual cube
INDEX
A
Alerter. See thresholds. alias 58 attribute 58 consolidation 58 custom group 58 metric 58 application object defined on 3 attribute alias 58 qualification 106 Attribute element list qualification 107 Attribute form qualification 109 automatic layout 77 autostyle 42
D
data model MicroStrategy Tutorial 154 data pivoting methods for data pivoting 55 toolbar buttons 55 date qualification 110 dimensionality. See level. drill defined on 17 drilling 17
E
export 61
F
fact defined on 82 filter 28, defined on 102 attribute qualification 106 creating 104 metric qualification 112 metric qualification prompt 115 relationship filter 114 report object prompt 117 filter definition prompt
195
C
compound metrics defined on 83 condition. See filter. Conditionality defined on 88 consolidation alias 58 custom group alias 58
Index
creating 129 filter qualification 117 find 79 format, autostyle 42
G
graphs categories and series 75 changing title 74 creating new titles 74 formatting numbers 71 formatting titles 74 layout 77 positioning of chart elements 77 titles 72 variables for titles 72
I
international support xix
L
layout of graphs 77 logical data model MicroStrategy Tutorial 154, 164
M
manual layout 78 menus Administration 6 Edit 6 File 6 Go 6 Help 6 Schema 6 Tools 6 View 6
196
Window 6 metric alias 58 axis on report 55 compound 83 conditionality 84 create 92 dimensionality. See level. formatting 97, 98 formula 82 level (dimensionality) 83 qualification 112 simple 82 smart totals 96 subtotals 95 threshold 46 totals 93 transformation 84 type 82 Metric Editor 92 metric qualification definition 112 metric set qualification 112 MicroStrategy Desktop 1, 3 creating objects 8 folder list 3 menu bar 6 object viewer 4 saving objects 9 shortcut bar 4 toolbar 7 MicroStrategy Tutorial 151 logical data model 164 physical warehouse schema 165 schema 164 view data model 163 view physical schema 174
Index
O
objects list of 9 saving 9 Outline mode 59 outline mode using outline mode 60
metric 112 metric set 112 set relationship filter 114
R
relationship filter 114 relationship set qualification 114 Report 13 report defined on 14, 19 alias 58 autostyle 42 creating in Desktop 26 creating in Web 27 creation 16 design 16 designing 18, 25 edit interactive 53 export 61 filter 28 finding values 79 format 40 metric axis 55 printing 37 prompts 148 quick sort 56 saving 37 sort 56 subtotal 57 viewing 32 report creation defined on 16 report design defined on 16 Report Editor 19 access from Desktop 19 access from Web 22 Formula Bar 58 Outline mode 59 report filter in Web 30
P
physical warehouse schema MicroStrategy Tutorial 165 project defined on 2, 152 create shortcut object 10 project source defined on 2 prompt defined on 126 choose from all attributes in a hierarchy 129 choose from an attribute element list 134 creating 126 filter definition 129 object 139 object prompt 139 properties 126 qualify on a metric 136 qualify on an attribute 132 saving reports with 148 types of 127 using filter definition prompt 138 using object prompt 140 using value prompt 144 value 143 value prompt 144
Q
qualification attribute 106
197
Index
report filter 102 Report Manager. See Report Editor.
S
schema MicroStrategy Tutorial 164 schema object defined on 3 set qualification metric qualification 112 relationship filter 114 simple metric creating 91 definition 90 simple metrics defined on 82 sort 56 quick sort 56 subtotal 57 support international xix
Run Report 7 Search 7 Show or Hide the Folder List 8 View 7 total 57 transformation defined on 89 transformations metric defined on 89
V
variables for graph titles 72
T
technical support xxii thresholds defined on 45 toolbar buttons Copy 7 Cut 7 data pivoting 55 Delete 7 Display Outline Results 60 Edit 7 Go one level up 8 Go to project 8 New 7 Paste 7 Preferences/View Object Properties 7 Refresh 8 Rename 7
198

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Basic Reporting Guide

Second Edition, January 2006, version 8.0.2

1. Introduction to MicroStrategy Desktop

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Creating shortcut objects ....................................................... 10

3. Report Manipulation Essentials

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Overview of advanced filter topics ............................................. 123 Next steps.................................................................................. 124

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Glossary ................................................................................... 177

Index ......................................................................................... 195

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Who should use this guide

xii Who should use this guide

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

About this book

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

xiv Typographical standards

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

For printed documentation only

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Notes and Warnings

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Manuals for Query, Reporting, and Analysis Products

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Manuals for Information Delivery and Alerting Products

Manuals for Analytics Modules

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Software Development Kits

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

! During installation, the installation Online Help is displayed in English only.

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

xxii User assistance

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Ensure issues are resolved quickly

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)

xxiv User assistance

2006 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basic Reporting Guide

Required information when calling