MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting User manual

Below you will find brief information for Advanced Reporting. It will give you an idea of the features and possible use cases. It is designed to help you create and analyze reports and dashboards, providing insights and data-driven decisions. It is intended for those who are familiar with basic reporting concepts and want to learn how to create more complex reports. It includes topics like building metrics, filters, and interactive documents.

PDF Download

Document

MicroStrategy Academic Program

Creating a center of excellence for enterprise analytics and mobility.

ADVANCED REPORTING

APPROXIMATE TIME NEEDED: 6 HOURS

ONTENTS

1. Viewing and Creating

Reports

Introduction to reports in MicroStrategy Web ................................................ 4

Activity: Open a MicroStrategy report ........................................................ 5

Building a report: Report objects ......................................................................... 8

Calculating business data: Metrics..................................................................... 10

Business context on a report: Attributes ......................................................... 10

Attribute elements........................................................................................... 11

Attribute forms.................................................................................................. 11

Creating a report ...................................................................................................... 12

Building reports from scratch .............................................................................. 14

Exercise 1.1: Create a simple report........................................................... 15

Report types............................................................................................................... 18

Drilling into related data................................................................................ 21

Report Services dashboards and documents ................................................ 22

Building reports based on pre-designed reports and templates ........... 24

Exercise 1.2: Create a report using the Employee Analysis template.

2. Creating Metrics and

Filters

Overview ..................................................................................................................... 32

Building metrics to calculate data...................................................................... 32

Exercise 2.1: Create simple metrics............................................................ 35

Compound metrics: Metrics made up of other metrics ..................... 40

Contents

Documents

4. Interactive

Documents

Advanced Reporting

Building filters to filter data on reports ............................................................ 41

Limiting data displayed on the report: View filters.............................. 42

Exercise 2.2: Create a view filter .................................................................. 43

Limiting the data retrieved from the data source: Report filters .... 47

Introduction to Report Services documents .................................................. 51

Formatted data displays: Basic documents .................................................... 52

Activity: Open a MicroStrategy document.............................................. 53

Creating your document: Document Editor................................................... 54

Building your document: Document objects ................................................ 55

Visual displays of data: grids and graphs................................................. 55

Dataset objects: Attributes and metrics................................................... 56

Formatting objects: Text................................................................................ 56

Formatting objects: Images.......................................................................... 56

Formatting objects: Lines and rectangles ............................................... 57

Organizing the document: Document sections............................................ 57

Detail section ..................................................................................................... 58

Grouping sections............................................................................................ 59

Headers and footers ........................................................................................ 59

Exercise 3.1: Create a basic document.............................................................. 60

Introduction to interactive documents............................................................ 73

Activity: Open an interactive document.................................................. 74

Adding interactivity to a document .................................................................. 76

Grouping and layering data: Panels and panel stacks........................ 76

Switching between data: Selectors ........................................................... 77

Data visualizations: Graphs........................................................................... 77

Interactive graphs: Widgets.......................................................................... 78

Exercise 4.1: Create an interactive document................................................ 79

Introduction to advanced reporting ................................................................. 91

Add smart totals to compound metrics: Smart metrics ..................... 91

Specify the attribute to use in the metric calculation: Level metrics .

Advanced Reporting Contents

Make time-based comparisons: Transformation metrics .................. 96

Grouping attribute elements: Custom groups ...................................... 97

Dynamically modify the contents of a report: Prompts ..................... 99

IEWING AND

REATING

EPORTS

Introduction to reports in MicroStrategy Web

A report is 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 appealing manner. A report represents a request for a specific set of formatted data form your data source. In its most basic form, a report consists of two parts:

•

A report template (usually just called a template), which is the underlying structure of the report.

•

The report-related objects placed on the template, such as attributes, metrics, filters, and prompts.

Reports that display your business data are the focus and goal of business intelligence. Reports allow you to gather business insight through data analysis.

The results displayed in any MicroStrategy report are often a starting point for further investigation.

Introduction to reports in MicroStrategy Web

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

Activity: Open a MicroStrategy report

Use the steps below to open a sample report in the Tutorial project, to become familiar with a standard grid report in MicroStrategy.

Log into the MicroStrategy Cloud environment

1 In the Welcome to MicroStrategy Cloud email, click Access MicroStrategy

Platform.

2 In the Login MicroStrategy web page, scroll down, and click Credentials.

The system displays the option to log in.

Introduction to reports in MicroStrategy Web

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting

3 In the User name and Password boxes, type (or copy and paste) the login credentials provided in the Welcome to MicroStrategy Cloud email.

4 Click Login. The MicroStrategy Cloud landing page displays in the Chrome browser window of your cloud environment.

Open MicroStrategy Web

5 On the landing page, click MicroStrategy Web.

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

You will arrive at the MicroStrategy Tutorial Home page.

6 Click Go to MicroStrategy Web to open the Shared Reports folder of the

MicroStrategy Tutorial project.

Introduction to reports in MicroStrategy Web

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting

Open a report

1 Expand Subject Areas, expand Sales and Profitability Analysis, and then click Category Sales Report to run the report and see the sample data results.

This is a MicroStrategy grid report.

Building a report: Report objects

To create a simple report, you typically place at least one attribute, one metric, and a filter on the report. Objects placed on a report determine what data is gathered from your data source, how that data is calculated, and how the results are displayed when each report is run.

Example of a simple report, with one attribute and one metric

The most common objects on reports are:

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

•

Metrics: A metric represents a business measure or key performance indicator, such as Revenue, Profit, Employee Headcount, or Probability of

Purchase. From a practical perspective, metrics are the calculations performed on data stored in your database, the results of which are displayed on a report.

A metric on a report shows a list of values used for analytical calculations.

When you are designing a report, a metric is displayed with this icon: .

•

Attributes: An attribute represents a business concept, such as Product,

Employee, Month, and so on. Attributes provide a context for the data calculations (metrics) that are usually the core of any business reporting.

Attributes based on the data in your data source are generally created by your organization’s project designer. An attribute on a report serves as a label for a group of metric values.

When you are designing a report, an attribute is displayed with this icon:

•

Filters: A filter sifts the data in your data source to bring back the information that answers exactly what you require.

A filter is displayed with this icon in Web: .

Not all of these components are required, but the data returned is often more meaningful when you use them.

To create a report, you place the attributes, metrics, and filters into a report template. A report template containing objects specifies what information to retrieve from your data warehouse and how this information is displayed in the report results.

When a report is executed, you see a formatted collection of all of the data associated with the objects (the attributes and metrics) specified on the template that have satisfied the filtering conditions of the report filter. For example, a report can show you a list of stores in a specific region, the price and volume of stock for a given period of time, or other important information.

Building a report: Report objects

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting

Calculating business data: Metrics

Metrics are MicroStrategy objects that represent business measures and key performance indicators. Metrics are similar to formulas in spreadsheet software.

The metric in the following report is Profit.

Metrics Example

Most of the decisions you make about the other objects to include on a report depend on the metrics you use on the report. Questions such as: “What were the sales for the Eastern region during the fourth quarter?” or “Are inventory counts being consistently replenished at the beginning of each week?” can easily be answered by metrics.

Specifically, metrics define the analytical calculations to be performed against data that is stored in your data sources. A metric is made up of data source facts and the mathematical operations to be performed on those facts, so that meaningful business analysis can be performed on the results.

A fact is a schema object that represents a column in a data warehouse table and contains basic or aggregatable numbers-usually prices, sales in dollars, or inventory counts.

Business context on a report: Attributes

Attributes are the business concepts reflected in your data source. Attributes provide a context in which to report on and analyze business facts or calculations.

While knowing your company’s total sales is useful, knowing when and where the

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1 sales took place, provides the kind of analytical depth users require on a daily basis.

Attributes Example

As you can see in the image above, when you place attributes on a report, you should choose attributes that make sense together when they are on the same report.

Attribute elements

The elements of a business attribute are the unique values for that attribute. For example, 2015 and 2016 are elements of the Year attribute, while New York and

London are elements of the City attribute. On a report, attributes are chosen to build the report, but once the report is executed, the attribute’s elements are displayed in the rows or columns.

In the image above, Call Center is an attribute whose elements include

Milwaukee, Fargo, Washington DC, and Charleston, which are specific names of various call centers. The Region attribute has attribute elements such as Central,

Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and so on.

Attribute forms

Attribute forms are additional descriptive information about a business attribute.

Attribute forms are mapped to columns in your data source. The ID column in your data source provides a unique identifier for each attribute element, and the

Description column provides the name of each attribute element. In

MicroStrategy, only the IDs are used to identify the datasets to find corresponding

Business context on a report: Attributes

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting parent-child relationships for calculation purposes. The ID and the Description are both attribute forms.

But an attribute can have many other forms. For example, the attribute Customer has the forms ID, Last Name, First Name, Address, and Email, as shown below.

Attribute Forms Example

Report designers and project designers can decide which form of an attribute to display on a report. For example, in some circumstances, displaying the attribute’s

ID is more useful for certain users, such as a project designer. For most users, displaying the Description (DESC) form of an attribute is more useful. However, as you can see with the example of the Customer attribute above, displaying several attribute forms can also be useful, depending on user needs.

Creating a report

You can create a report in MicroStrategy Web using any of these methods:

•

Starting from scratch with a blank report

•

Using a pre-designed report by either:



Using one of the pre-designed reports that come out of the box with

MicroStrategy



Using a pre-designed report that you have already created

•

Using a pre-made template

You use the Report Editor to create a new report or modify an existing report. The

Report Editor displays the report as it will be seen by the user and includes toolbars, menus, and panels that allow you to change how the report is displayed.

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

A new report automatically opens in Design Mode of the Report Editor. In Design

Mode you will create or edit the report’s template and definition. A report’s definition is the definition of all the objects that are included on the report when the report is designed, as well as any formatting applied to the report.

Report Editor: Design Mode

These are the most frequently used panes of the Report Editor:

•

All Objects pane: Lets you search for and select objects within the project, to add them to the report. These are all the project objects that can be added to the report.

•

Report Objects pane: Displays all objects included in the report, even if the object is not displayed on the report’s grid or graph.

From the accordion list on the bottom left, select the pane to display. In the image above, the All Objects pane is displayed to allow you to select objects to add to the report. Since no objects have been added to the report yet (the

Template pane is blank), the Report Objects pane will also be blank.

•

Report Filter pane: Use to add filtering conditions to a report. Simple filters can be conveniently created by dragging and dropping objects from the All

Objects pane into this pane to create a filter for the report data.

•

View filter pane: Lets users apply a filter on-the-fly to any attribute or metric on the report. A view filter is applied to the executed report. Since the report does not have to be re-executed against the data source, view filters can help improve report execution performance. In addition, multiple reports can be created from the same parent report.

Creating a report

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting

If you are familiar with SQL, 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 source.

•

Page-By pane: Use to create separate pages, or subsets of your report results.

Drag and drop objects from the All Objects pane into this pane to create pages.

•

Template pane: Allows you to define your report layout by dragging and dropping objects from the All Objects pane onto this report template pane.

Reports can be executed and viewed in the Report Editor or in other applications.

Building reports from scratch

Attributes, metrics, and filters are the most basic report objects. When building a report form scratch, adding these objects begins to add meaning to your data.

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 see a list of names for every customer who has done business with your company and is in your data source. Likewise, if you add just one metric to an otherwise blank report, you see one amount—all revenue data for all time, for all regions.

If you add a metric and an attribute to the same report, such as the Customer attribute and the Revenue metric, the report data starts to become useful, because you can view what revenue each customer brought to your stores.

However, for most organizations, this is still a prohibitively large report.

If you add a report filter to the report, you can limit the data to a specific area of interest. For example, you can define a specific geographic region by adding the

Region and Year attribute to the report. Then you can add a filter to see only your most profitable Northeast region customers. The resulting report can display those customers in your Northeast region who brought in the most revenue.

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

Exercise 1.1: Create a simple report

Create a report from scratch, to display profit data for subcategories. We will use the Blank Report as a starting point, and add the following objects to the template: Region, Subcategory, Profit, and Profit Margin.

Create a report using the Blank Report template

1 In the Tutorial project, on the MicroStrategy home page, click the Create

Report icon .

2 Click Blank Report.

An empty report template is displayed, with drop zones showing you where to drag and drop objects.

Select the attributes for the report

3 Add the Region attribute to the rows.

You can find Region in the Geography folder, under Attributes in the All Objects pane. Drag it onto the rows of the template.

4 Add the Subcategory attribute to the right of Region.

Building reports from scratch

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting

To find the attribute, in the All Objects pane, click the Up One Level icon , and then click Products.

Select the metrics for the report

5 Add the Profit and Profit Margin metrics to the columns.

At the top of the All Objects pane, select Metrics from the drop-down list. In the

Search For box, type Profit, then click the Search icon . Double-click Profit and then Profit Margin to add them to the columns of the template. (Metrics are automatically added to the columns.)

Add a filter to the report

6 In the drop-down menu at the top of the All Objects pane, select

MicroStrategy Tutorial. In the Search For box, type East Region (which is the name of the filter) and click the Search icon .

7 Drag East Region from the All Objects pane and drop it into the Report Filter pane.

The report looks like the following:

Save the report

8 Click the Save icon

. Name the report Profit for Subcategories in Eastern

Regions and save it in the My Reports folder.

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

Review the results

9 In the Report Saved window, click Run newly saved report.

Check your results against the image below. Only the following regions should be displayed:

•

Mid-Atlantic

•

Northeast

•

Southeast

•

South

10 Close the report.

Building reports from scratch

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting

Report types

You can view a MicroStrategy report from different perspectives, depending on the type of work that you want to perform.

Grids

A grid report is the most commonly used type of report. Grid view displays grid reports using a formatted, cross-tabular display of the report data. This is a popular view for performing business intelligence analysis. The following image displays the Grid view of a report.

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

Graphs

A graph report is a representation of data in a visual format that can help you see overall trends easily, identify medians and exceptions, and so on. You display report data as a graph using Graph view.

There are many different graph styles you can choose from to display your report data most effectively.

Graphs can help you see trends across certain business areas. The grid report is generally more useful than a graph report for identifying specific numbers you may need for financial reports, for example.

SQL View

MicroStrategy engines automatically create the SQL (structured query language) to generate your report results. If you are familiar with SQL, you can view the SQL used to generate your report in Web. Viewing the SQL provides a good way to troubleshoot and fine-tune the selection of data that is retrieved in your report.

You can create your own SQL in MicroStrategy Developer.

Report types

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting

To view SQL for your report in Web, from the Tools menu click Report Details

Page.

Grouping related attributes: Hierarchies

Data must be calculated within the context of a business attribute—but which attribute? Most reports contain more than one attribute. For example, on a report containing the Revenue metric and the attributes Month and Year, is revenue calculated and displayed by month? Or is it calculated and displayed by year?

Another way to ask this question is, at what level is the Revenue metric calculated? Is it calculated at the higher-level Year attribute or the lower-level

Month attribute? To understand an attribute’s level, picture a hierarchy of related business attributes. An example is shown below:

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

These attributes and this Time hierarchy are part of the sample Tutorial project.

The attribute Year is higher than Quarter, Month, or Day, because it appears above those other attributes. The highest level attribute is usually the attribute that reflects the most-inclusive business concept. In this hierarchy, Day is the lowest-level attribute and reflects the least-inclusive or most granular business concept.

Drilling into related data

When you drill on a report, you view the report data at a level other than what is originally displayed in the report. It allows you to retrieve more information after a report has been executed, to investigate the data quickly and easily. Drilling automatically executes another report based on the original report to get more detailed or supplemental information.

For example, refer to the Geography hierarchy shown above. A report displays profit values for the Region attribute, as shown below:

From Region, you can drill up to Country, to display revenue values for each country.

Report types

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting

To drill, you right-click an attribute element or attribute header, and select the destination. For example, to drill from Region to Country, right-click Region, point to Drill, and select Country.

Drilling from Region to Country

If the Drill option is not available on the right-click menu, the report designer has disabled the function on the report. A report designer can also restrict the drilling destinations.

Report Services dashboards and documents

Reports are a common way to analyze your business data in MicroStrategy.

MicroStrategy also offers other ways to display data. Also created in Web, a document, interactive document, or Visual Insight dashboard, can contain data from one or more MicroStrategy reports. The reports are added as datasets.

Documents and dashboards can appear in almost as many ways as you can imagine and are generally formatted to suit your business needs, in a single presentation quality display. Documents and dashboards allow you to display your business data in a user-friendly way that is boardroom-quality material.

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

An example of a Report Services interactive document is shown below:

An example of a simple Report Services document is shown below:

Report Services dashboards and documents

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting

An example of a Report Services Visual Insight dashboard is shown below:

Visual Insight dashboards are not discussed in this course. More information on VI dashboards can be found in the MicroStrategy course: 10.113 Visual Data

Discovery: Visual Insights in Web.

Building reports based on pre-designed reports and templates

In addition to creating reports from scratch, you can build a report based on a pre-designed report by either:

•

Using one of the pre-designed reports that come out of the box with

MicroStrategy

•

Using a report you have previously

MicroStrategy comes with pre-designed report templates in various business areas, including:

•

Business roles, such as billing managers, brand managers, executives, operations managers, and so on.

•

Documents and scorecards, providing a distilled view of the business, with interactive visualizations.

•

Enterprise reporting documents, such as managed metrics reports, production and operational reports, invoices, and so on.

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

•

MicroStrategy platform capabilities, such as reports with a variety of graph styles, ad hoc reporting with sorting and thresholds features, and so on.

•

Subject areas, such as customer analysis, performance management, human resources analysis, sales and profitability analysis, and so on.

Exercise 1.2: Create a report using the Employee

Analysis template

We will create a employee report, based on the Employee Analysis template. This template provides access to the objects that are relevant to analyzing employee data. We will add the objects to create the report, and then customize it to suit our needs, by displaying regional subtotals, for example.

The final report should look like the following. (Only two regions of the report are shown in this sample.)

Employee Revenue by Region Report

Detailed instructions

Create a report using the Employee Analysis template

1 In the Tutorial project, on the MicroStrategy home page, click Create Report.

Building reports based on pre-designed reports and templates

Viewing and Creating Reports

2 Click Employee Analysis.

Advanced Reporting

An empty report template is displayed, with drop zones showing you where to drag and drop objects. Notice that the Report Objects pane is displayed, listing only those objects containing employee information.

Select the attributes for the report

3 In the Report Objects pane on the left, double-click Region to add it to the rows of the report.

•

Region is an attribute, as indicated by the icon.

•

Attributes are automatically added to the rows of a report, although you can drag and drop them onto the columns.

4 Double-click Manager and then Employee to add them.

Select the metrics for the report

5 In the Report Objects pane on the left, double-click Revenue to add it to the columns of the report.

•

Revenue is a metric, as indicated by the icon.

•

Metrics are automatically added to the columns of a report, although you can drag and drop them onto the rows.

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

6 Double-click Profit and then Units Sold to add them.

7 You decide that Profit is not really relevant to your employee analysis, so you want to remove it. Drag the Profit metric from the report template to the

Report Objects pane.

The report template now looks like the following:

Save the report

8 Click the Save icon

. In the Save As window, from the Save In drop-down list, select My Reports.

9 In the Name box, type Employee Revenue by Region, then click OK.

Review the results

10 In the Report Saved window, click Run newly saved report.

Check your results against the report sample at the beginning of the exercise. The two reports are not quite the same. A sample of the current results is displayed below:

Building reports based on pre-designed reports and templates

Viewing and Creating Reports

The original report:

•

Displays the name of each region and each manager only once

•

Displays the manager’s last name, but not the first name

•

Displays the Employee ID

•

Does not display the word “Metrics”

•

Displays regional subtotals

Advanced Reporting

Display repeated row headers once

You can merge any row headers that are repeated. All headers displaying the same value are automatically merged into one header. In this report, the regions and managers are repeated, but we want to see each region and each manager displayed once.

You can also merge repeated column headers. For example, if multiple metrics are related to revenue, you can merge their column headers into a single header. In our report, the Revenue and Units Sold metrics are different, so merging column headers would not be helpful.

1 From the Tools menu, select Report Options.

2 On the General tab of the Report Options window, select the Merge check box under Rows.

3 Click OK.

Add and remove attribute forms (manager first name and employee ID)

The manager first name and last name are forms of the Manager attribute.

Similarly, the ID is a form of the Employee attribute. Recall that attribute forms provide additional descriptions for a business attribute.

Advanced Reporting Viewing and Creating Reports 1

Remove Manager First Name

1 Right-click Manager in the report and point to Attribute Forms. The attribute forms for the selected attribute are displayed. Selected forms are displayed on the report.

2 Click First Name to remove it from the report.

Add Employee ID

3 Add the ID attribute form for employees.

Right-click Employee, point to Attribute Forms, and select ID.

Save the report

4 Click the Save icon

. In the Save As window, from the

Save In drop-down list, select

My Reports.

5 In the Name box, type Regional Employee Report, then click OK.

Remove the extra Metrics column

1 From the Tools menu, select Report Options.

Building reports based on pre-designed reports and templates

Viewing and Creating Reports Advanced Reporting

2 On the General tab of the Report Options window, select the Remove extra

column check box, in the View area.

3 Click OK.

Display regional subtotals

1 From the Data menu, select Show Totals. Subtotals are automatically displayed for each level, which is region and manager for this report. However, we only want to see regional subtotals.

2 From the Data menu, select Edit Totals.

3 In the Subtotals Editor, click the Advanced tab. Notice that subtotals are calculated by position, and subtotals are applied to all rows and columns. This means that subtotals are applied based on the metric’s location on the report.

If you change the layout of the report, which subtotals are calculated will also change.

4 Select Across Level, to calculate subtotals for selected attributes rather than location. This option means “group by attributes to the left of the selected attribute.”

5 Select both Region and Manager.

Although you want regional subtotals, if you select Region only, no subtotals are displayed. (You can try it.) Why? Across-level subtotals are grouped by attributes to the left of the selected attributes. Region is the leftmost attribute on the report, so there are no attributes to the left of it, and therefore no subtotals.

Advanced Reporting

6 Click OK.

Review results and save the final report

Viewing and Creating Reports 1

The report should now look like the report sample provided at the beginning of this exercise.

1 Save and close the report.

Building reports based on pre-designed reports and templates

REATING

ETRICS AND

ILTERS

Overview

Now that you have created reports using existing objects, create your own metrics to add calculations to reports:

•

Metric: Performs calculations on data stored in your database. The results are displayed on a report. For example, the revenue metric sums the revenue fact, while an average revenue metric averages the revenue data.

•

Derived metric: Metric created based on data already available in a report.

For example, the employee data report contains a revenue metric and a cost metric. A derived metric can subtract cost from revenue, to calculate profit.

Building metrics to calculate data

Metrics are calculations that are placed directly in reports, to calculate the values in the data fetched from your data source.

For example, your data source contains a Cost fact, which represents the cost per product item. You want to view the cost for each item on a report. To calculate the

Overview

Advanced Reporting Creating Metrics and Filters 2 cost, create a metric that add ups (or sums) the cost. The metric definition is shown below in the Metric Editor, the interface that you use to create metrics.

Sum of Cost Metric

Notice that Sum is selected in the list of functions on the left, and the function is applied to the Cost fact.

Place the metric on a report with the Item attribute. When you run the report, the cost is calculated for each item. A portion of the report is shown below.

Sum of Cost for Items

The metric values are not shown as currency, because we did not format the metric or the report.

Building metrics to calculate data

Creating Metrics and Filters Advanced Reporting

The Sum of Cost metric uses a fact, but metrics can be built using attributes or other metrics as well. For example, the Employee Headcount metric applies the

Count function to the Employee attribute.

Employee Headcount Metric

Place the metric on a report with the Region and Call Center attributes. When you run the report, the Employee Headcount is calculated for each Call Center, as shown below:

Employee Headcount

If you are familiar with data warehousing concepts, facts reflect data values from your data source that represent business performance. Facts are MicroStrategy objects which do not appear on a report.

•

Facts are typically numerical.

•

Facts are mapped to columns in your schema. The fact object serves as a bridge between fact values stored in your data source and the metrics that users want to see on reports.

•

Facts are used to define metrics.

Advanced Reporting Creating Metrics and Filters 2

•

Metrics perform aggregations on fact columns.

Fact objects provide the following benefits:

•

Report designers and end users do not need to understand the structure of the data source when they build reports.

•

The data source can contain columns with different names that store the same type of fact data; they are all resolved with a single-named fact object in

MicroStrategy.

•

You do not have to resolve discrepancies in the data source to make reporting seamless for users.

Exercise 2.1: Create simple metrics

In this exercise, we will create:

•

A Cost metric and save it in a new folder called My Metrics Exercises.



Define the Cost metric as a sum of the Cost fact.



Format the values as currency with two decimal points. Format the values so that negative numbers display in red with no negative sign or parentheses.

•

A Revenue metric and save it in your My Metrics Exercises folder.



Define the Revenue metric as a sum of the Revenue fact.



Format the values as currency with two decimal points. Format the values so that negative numbers display in red with no negative sign or parentheses.

•

A report that contains the Item attribute and your new Cost and Revenue metrics. Save the report as Item, Cost, Revenue Report, then run it.

Building metrics to calculate data

Creating Metrics and Filters

The first few rows of the report should look like the following:

Advanced Reporting

Create the simple metric: Cost

1 On any MicroStrategy Web page, click Create and select New Metric.

The Metric Editor opens, in the Function Editor mode. The Function Editor allows you to quickly and easily create and edit a metric.

•

Use the Function Editor to create a metric that uses a function. The Function

Editor provides an easier-to-use interface.

•

To type the metric formula directly, or to create a metric that combines multiple metrics or contains custom expressions, you can use the Formula

Editor instead, by clicking Switch to Formula Editor. We will discuss the

Formula Editor when we create a compound metric later in this chapter.

Advanced Reporting Creating Metrics and Filters 2

2 From the Functions list on the left, double-click Sum to add it to the metric definition window. You may need to scroll to find the function in the alphabetical list.

When you select a function, its description is displayed at the bottom of the

Metric Editor. You can click Details to view the syntax and examples for the function.

3 Select the Cost fact: a Click the Browse icon next to the Search for a fact, metric or attribute box. b Click the Facts folder.

c Click the Cost fact.

Building metrics to calculate data

Creating Metrics and Filters Advanced Reporting

Format the metric’s values

4 Click Format at the top right of the Metric Editor.

This formatting applies to the metric regardless of the report that it is placed on.

5 In the Format window, select Metric Values from the drop-down list.

You can select different formatting options for metric column headers (the title of the metric) and metric values (the numbers calculated by the metric and displayed in the report).

6 Under Category, select Currency. By default, Decimals places is set to 2 and

Currency Symbol is set to $, which is the formatting that we want.

7 Select the Negative Numbers to display in red with no negative sign and no parentheses.

8 Click OK to close the Format window.

Save the Cost metric

9 Click Save As, then navigate to the My Objects folder.

10 Click Create New Folder.

11 In the Create Folder window, type My Metric Exercises, then click OK.

12 Click the My Metric Exercises folder.

Advanced Reporting Creating Metrics and Filters 2

13 Save the new metric as Cost.

14 Click OK on the message that the metric was saved.

The MicroStrategy Tutorial project already contains another Cost metric, but it is saved in a different folder.

Create a simple metric: Revenue

1 On any MicroStrategy Web page, click Create and select New Metric.

2 From the Functions list on the left, double-click Sum.

3 Find and add the Revenue fact.

4 Format the metric values:

•

Category = Currency

•

Negative Numbers = red, no negative sign, no parentheses

5 Save the metric in the My Metrics Exercises folder as Revenue.

The MicroStrategy Tutorial project already contains another Revenue metric, but it is saved in a different folder.

Use the new metrics in a report

1 On any MicroStrategy Web page, click Create, point to New Report, then select Blank Report.

2 In the All Objects pane on the left, click Attributes, and click the Products folder.

3 Drag Item to the rows of the template definition pane.

4 In the All Objects pane, navigate to My Personal Objects.

5 Click the My Objects folder, and then the My Metrics Exercises folder.

6 Drag the Revenue metric to the columns of the template definition pane.

Building metrics to calculate data

Creating Metrics and Filters Advanced Reporting

7 Drag the Cost metric to the right of Revenue in the template definition pane.

Your report template should look like the following:

8 Click Save As.

9 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Item, Cost, Revenue Report.

10 Click Run Newly Saved Report. Compare your results to the expected report at the beginning of this exercise.

Compound metrics: Metrics made up of other metrics

A compound metric is created when you create a new metric made up of other metrics. You can also create derived metrics by combining metrics with other report metrics on the fly, once they have been added into the report. Derived metrics are discussed in depth in the MicroStrategy course: 10.112 Introduction to

Analytics Reporting. Compound metrics have advanced options available, such as enabling smart totals, that are not available for derived metrics.

The following example of a metric formula uses an arithmetic operator to create a compound metric out of existing simple metrics:

Sum(Cost) + Sum(Profit) where

Cost and Profit are metrics. The addition operator (+) between the two metrics makes this a compound metric. The metric formula of a simple metric is made up of a mathematical function and the business facts stored in your data source. For a compound metric, the formula contains other metrics as well.

If you familiar with function types, a metric that uses a non-group function such as an OLAP function or a scalar function is also a compound metric. The following example shows a compound metric that uses a non-group function, the running average:

RunningAvg(Cost) where

Cost is a metric.

You create compound metrics using the Formula Editor mode of the Metric Editor.

This mode allows you to view the metric formula, type the metric formula directly, and create compound metrics.

Advanced Reporting Creating Metrics and Filters 2

Building filters to filter data on reports

A filter screens data from your data source to determine whether the data should be included in, or excluded from, the calculations of the report results. Filters are helpful in reducing large quantities of data and only displaying pertinent subsets of that data, so the reports show you what you really need to see.

Filter Examples

If you are familiar with SQL syntax, it may help to know that a filter is equivalent to the

WHERE clause in a SQL statement.

Applying filters to reports allows you to reuse the same report with different filters to achieve different results, tailored to a specific scenario or business question to be answered. For example, consider the following diagram, which shows a table of data filtered by three different report filter conditions:

Filter Conditions

Building filters to filter data on reports

Creating Metrics and Filters Advanced Reporting

As you can see, each report filter condition returns a different result set. You need to know how to design the correct report filter to retrieve the desired data.

You can create:

•

Report filters: Are used in the SQL that is generated to retrieve the report results from the data source. Report filters can use any object in the project, whether or not it is part of the report.

•

View filters: Are applied to the report results after the SQL is executed and the results are returned from the data source. View filters do not modify what data is retrieved from the data source. This can help improve report execution performance. A view filter is created on the fly in a report, based only on those objects that exist in the Report Objects pane.

The advantage of using both report filters and view filters on a report is that the report can use the report filter to bring back more data than can usefully be displayed at any one time. An analyst can then use a view filter to change which data is displayed. A view filter does not trigger re-execution against the data source. This capability translates to improved response time and decreased database load.

Limiting data displayed on the report: View filters

Once a report is displayed, you can narrow its results by creating a view filter and applying it to the report. The view filter restricts data based only on the report results already displayed on the screen.

View filters are created within a report, based only on the objects in the Report

Objects pane. A view filter dynamically limits the data being displayed on a report without re-executing the report against the data source. This feature allows analysts to create multiple reports out of a larger parent report, without stressing the system or your data source. This can help improve report execution performance. It also allows different users to access the same report cache but see different data according to their needs.

The View Filter pane allows you to create conditions for the view filter. A condition defines what the data must meet to be included on the report. The View Filter pane also displays the view filter conditions that are applied to your report.

View Filter Pane

Advanced Reporting Creating Metrics and Filters 2

Exercise 2.2: Create a view filter

We will create a view filter to restrict an existing report to the Music and Movies categories, with profit values less than $3000. This exercise uses both an attribute filter (on Category) and a metric filter (on Profit).

Open the report

1 In the MicroStrategy Tutorial project, click the Shared Reports icon

2 Click Subject Areas, then Sales and Profitability Analysis, and click the report named Revenue and Profit Trends by Region, Category, and

Quarter to run it.

3 Drag Region from the Page-by pane to the left of Category on the report grid.

Removing the page-by is not a requirement for creating a view filter. In this example, it provides another attribute on the report grid, and allows us to focus on how view filters affect the report results.

4 The resulting report looks like the following. Notice that the report filter and page-by are both blank now. The report contains 338 rows. Take note of the profit value for Central, Movies, 2013 Q4, which is $2,370. This will help us

Building filters to filter data on reports

Creating Metrics and Filters Advanced Reporting monitor if and how metric values change when we create and apply the view filter.

Create a view filter

1 From the Tools menu, select View Filter, to open the View Filter pane.

2 In the View Filter pane, click Add Condition.

Data must meet the defined condition to be included on the report.

3 From the Filter On drop-down list, select Category.

Advanced Reporting Creating Metrics and Filters 2

The Filter On list contains only the objects on the report.

4 By default, a view filter on an attribute allows you to create a list of the attribute elements to include in the report. You can instead use the list to exclude elements (by selecting Not in List). For this example, keep the operator as In List, and add Movies and Music to the list.

•

The elements of an attribute are the unique values for that attribute. In this case, the attribute is Category, and its elements are Books, Electronics, Movies, and Music.

•

Instead of creating a list, you can create a qualification, which compares the attribute to a specific value. You will create a qualification using a metric later in this exercise.

5 Click Apply. The view filter is applied to the report data, and only data for the

Movies and Music categories is included on the report. The View Filter pane now displays the condition that you created.

The number of rows has decreased from 338 to 178, but the data values have not changed.

•

The number of rows has decreased because only half the categories are now included on the report.

Building filters to filter data on reports

Creating Metrics and Filters Advanced Reporting

•

The calculations are not affected by the view filter; the view filter affects what data is displayed. For example, the profit value for Central, Movies,

2013 Q4 is $2,370, the same as in the unfiltered report.

Add another condition to the view filter

6 You want to further focus your analysis, to identify categories with a low profit.

Click Add Condition in the View Filter pane.

7 From the Filter On drop-down list, select Profit.

8 Select Less Than from the list of operators.

9 Type 3000 in the value box.

10 Click Apply. The view filter is applied to the report data, and only data for the

Movies and Music categories that have profit values below $3000 is included on the report. The View Filter pane now displays both conditions that you created.

The number of rows has decreased from 178 to 132, but the data values have not changed.

•

The number of rows decreases because the quarters that have more than

$3000 profit are no longer displayed on the report. For example, the row for Central, Movies, 2013 Q1 is no longer displayed (its profit was $4,083).

Advanced Reporting Creating Metrics and Filters 2

•

Since the view filter affects what data is displayed, the calculations are not affected by the view filter. The profit value for Central, Movies, 2013 Q4 is

$2,370, the same as in the previous reports.

Save the report

1 Save the report in the My Reports folder as View Filter, and close the report.

Limiting the data retrieved from the data source: Report filters

You can create a report filter:

•

When you create the report, dynamically. The difference between this type of report filter and a view filter is that you can use any object in your data source, whereas a view filter uses only those objects on the report. When you create a report filter this way, it is saved within the report and cannot be used on other reports.

•

As a stand-alone object. The object can be used on multiple reports, as well as other objects, such as metrics. This saves time—you can create one filter and use it in multiple objects, instead of creating a filter on each object.

In Design Mode, a dynamic report filter displays the filter definition, while a stand-alone filter displays its name. In the example below, the stand-alone filter is

Building filters to filter data on reports

Creating Metrics and Filters Advanced Reporting named Movies & Music, while the dynamic report filter uses the Subcategory attribute in its definition.

Filter types

A filter is composed of at least one qualification. A qualification defines the condition that the data must meet to be included in a report, for example,

“Region = Northeast” or “Revenue > $1 million”.

You can create the following types of filter qualifications:

Filter Type Description

Attribute Qualification: Restricts data based on attributes

Example

Attribute element list qualification

Attribute form qualification

Filter based on attribute elements, such as North, South, and West for Region attribute

Filter based on attribute forms, such as the ID or description

(which is the name) of the

Customer attribute

Region In List North, South, and

West

•

Customer Description Begins

With SMITH

•

Customer ID = 001 - 100

•

Ship Date between 1/1/2016 and 6/30/2016

Set Qualification: Create a subset of attributes, generated dynamically based on the metrics associated with those attributes or the relationships between those attributes.

Metric qualification Filter based on a metric’s value, rank, or percent

•

Revenue > 300,000

•

Rank of Profit = 1

Relationship qualification

Filter based on relationships between two attributes

Stores selling Nike shoes in the

Northeast (relationship between the Item and Region attributes)

Shortcut qualifications: Restrict data related to an existing report or filter.

Advanced Reporting Creating Metrics and Filters 2

Filter Type

Shortcut-to-a-report qualification

Shortcut-to-a-filter qualification

Description

Filter based on the results from an existing report, with additional qualifications, if needed

Example

The intersection of the 1/1/2015

Active Customers report and 12/

31/2015 Active Customers report to display continuing customers

Filter based on an existing filter, with additional qualifications, if needed

Add a qualification to determine active customers to the Region In

List North, South, and West filter described above

You can also create advanced qualifications such as attribute-to-attribute qualifications and prompted filters. For more information on all types of advanced filters, refer to the Advanced Filters chapter of the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting

Guide. This course will discuss most of the filter types listed above; relationship qualifications are presented in the Advanced Analytics class

Building filters to filter data on reports

Creating Metrics and Filters Advanced Reporting

EPORT

ERVICES

OCUMENTS

Introduction to Report Services documents

Basic reporting in grids and simple graphs can provide the concise information required to answer simple or individual business questions. However, most organizations have more sophisticated information requirements that can only be satisfied with multi-faceted reporting and analytics. Businesses need to have a holistic view of their organization while maintaining the ability to easily distribute key information. Organizations frequently need to do the following:

•

Communicate effectively to large audiences using compelling data visualizations

•

Provide users the ability to easily explore business data at the enterprise, departmental, or personal level

•

Reduce time to design and deploy scorecards, dashboards, or enterprise reports

•

Provide users the ability to collaborate easily, using verified and well-governed data

•

Provide users the ability to create high-throughput production reporting

Introduction to Report Services documents

Report Services Documents Advanced Reporting

•

Provide executives the ability to quickly access relevant Key Performance

Indicator information

•

Provide users with highly formatted views or information such as financial reports, budgets, or even invoices

Report Services documents and interactive (dashboard-style) documents deliver all of these business goals.

Formatted data displays: Basic documents

A document is a container for objects representing data coming from one or more reports, as well as positioning and formatting information. A document is used to format data from multiple reports in a single display of presentation quality.

Document Example

Advanced Reporting Report Services Documents 3

Documents display multiple grid and graph reports simultaneously, along with images and text. High-quality, Pixel Perfect™ documents allow the display of business data in a user-friendly style that is suitable for the boardroom. Examples include scorecards, dashboards, managed metrics documents, and production and operation documents. Simple documents tend to be non-interactive but highly formatted, such as production reports or financial statements.

Activity: Open a MicroStrategy document

1 From the MicroStrategy Tutorial Home page, click Shared Reports.

2 Click the Enterprise Reporting Documents folder.

3 Scroll down, and open the Shipping Analysis document.

Formatted data displays: Basic documents

Report Services Documents Advanced Reporting

Creating your document: Document Editor

When you want to create a new document or edit an existing document in

MicroStrategy Web, you use the Document Editor in Design Mode. This document display mode shows the following sections:

•

Accordion with the following panes:



Dataset Objects: Contains all of the objects that can be placed on the document, organized by dataset.



Document Structure: Displays the sections and objects in the document as a hierarchical list.



Notes: Displays the notes or comments added to the document, and allows you to add your own notes.



Related Reports: Displays links to documents, reports, and Intelligent

Cubes that are saved in the same folder as the current document.

•

Layout area: Displays the objects that will be displayed in the document. To add an object to the document, drag it from the Dataset Objects pane to the

Layout area.

Advanced Reporting Report Services Documents 3

•

Grouping panel: Displays the objects that the document is grouped by. Each attribute element of a grouping attribute is a subset, or group, of data that a user can view.

Document Editor

Building your document: Document objects

There are a variety of objects that can be added to a document. You will learn more about these in the upcoming exercise. These objects are briefly explained below:

Visual displays of data: grids and graphs

After you add a dataset in the Dataset Objects pane, you can add it to any header or footer section in the Layout area. When you drag a dataset into a header or footer section, it becomes a grid/graph object. A grid/graph object displays like a

MicroStrategy grid or graph report.



You cannot include grid/graphs in the Detail section.

Building your document: Document objects

Report Services Documents Advanced Reporting

Dataset objects: Attributes and metrics

You can add the individual attributes or metrics from the datasets to any section of a document. All of these objects can come from one or more datasets.

When you add any of these objects to the document layout, they become dynamic text. This means that the values can change based on other objects on the document. Attributes and Metrics that are dragged from the dataset onto the document, are denoted with curly braces { }. For example, {Region}. MicroStrategy objects that contain spaces or special characters must be surrounded by square brackets [ ], for example, {[Call Center]}.

Formatting objects: Text

You can insert text into any section of a document using text boxes. These are referred to as static text. Some examples of how static text boxes can be used include:

•

Label data, grids, or graphs

•

Add additional information or instructions

•

Add headings and titles to your document

Formatting objects: Images

You can insert images into any section of a document. The image must be available to both the Intelligence Server and to the designers of the document. If the designers do not have access to the image, they cannot see the image while creating the document.

To ensure that the image is available as needed, you can use any of the following options:

•

An http reference to a central Web server machine, such as http:// microstrategy/Test/myimage.jpg (example only).

Advanced Reporting Report Services Documents 3

•

A full path to the image on a shared network drive, such as

\\ my_computer\shared\myimage.jpg.

Properties and Formatting: Image URL

Formatting objects: Lines and rectangles

Lines and rectangles are a great way to enhance the appearance of your documents by delineating areas where data changes. You can add lines and rectangles to any section of a document

Organizing the document: Document sections

When you open a blank document, it is divided into the following sections:

•

Page Header

•

Document Header

•

Detail Header

•

Detail

•

Detail Footer

•

Document Footer

Organizing the document: Document sections

Report Services Documents

•

Page Footer

Advanced Reporting

Each section can be collapsed, expanded, or removed from the document. Each section is commonly used for a specific purpose, or for a certain type of information.

Detail section

When you place attributes and metrics into this section, the document displays data for each row that exists in the dataset. As a general rule, when the dataset you use in a document contains multiple attributes and you want to display the data in the Detail section, your best design approach is to use custom sections.

Custom sections are possible through grouping.

Detail Section in Design Mode

Advanced Reporting Report Services Documents 3

Grouping sections

Grouping is a powerful design technique that enables you to create custom bands so that data can be arranged and sorted in an efficient and easily consumable layout.

To group a document, add attributes to the Grouping panel in the Document

Editor. For each grouping attribute, a header and footer are displayed for each attribute element.

In the example below, the Customer, Category, and Subcategory attributes have been placed in the Grouping panel. Corresponding header and footer sections

(Category Header, Subcategory Header, Region Header, Category Footer,

Subcategory Footer, and Region Footer) display in the Layout area.

Grouped Document in Design Mode

Headers and footers

Header and footer sections are useful for:

•

Labeling columns of data that display in the Detail section

Organizing the document: Document sections

Report Services Documents Advanced Reporting

•

Displaying MicroStrategy grids or graphs

•

Displaying totals and subtotals

Exercise 3.1: Create a basic document

In this exercise, you will create a basic document using MicroStrategy Web.

Create the document

1 In MicroStrategy Web, on the MicroStrategy Tutorial project home page, click

Create Document.

2 Under Document Templates, click Blank Document.

A new, blank document is displayed in Design Mode in the Document Editor.

3 In the Dataset Objects pane, click the Add Dataset icon.

4 In the Select Dataset window, in the Shared Reports\MicroStrategy

Platform Capabilities\MicroStrategy Report Services\

Datasets\Transactional Sales Detail Reports folder, select the Customer Sales report. Click OK.

5 Leave the default prompt answer (Bloomfield) selected and click Edit in

Design Mode.

6 On the toolbar, click the Save icon

to save the document.

It is a good idea to save your work frequently because in your classroom environment, Intelligence Server is likely configured to disconnect you from your project source after a certain period of idle time. The time you take while you format your document is not considered “active” time by Intelligence

Server, so to avoid losing your work, save your document every few minutes.

Advanced Reporting Report Services Documents 3

7 In the Save As dialog box, select the My Reports folder in the drop-down list.

Name the document Transactional Sales Detail by Customer.

8 Under Advanced, keep Display prompt and use the current answers as

default answers selected.

9 Click OK.

10 Click Run Newly Saved Document.

11 Click the menu icon

on the right, and select Edit. You are returned to

Design Mode.

Group the document and start a new page for each group

1 To group the document by specific objects, in Design Mode, drag the following attributes (in this order) from the Dataset Objects pane to the

Grouping field:

•

Customer

•

NTERACTIVE

OCUMENTS

Introduction to interactive documents

An interactive, or dashboard-style, document is a set of consolidated report views, which strive to make data consumable for everyone. At its simplest, it is a document with interactive and visually appealing objects that help display data in an intuitive way. With its focus on graphical representation and at-a-glance viewing, any type of business user can benefit from retrieving information through these types of documents. Because you can create a document using data from multiple sources, documents offer a unified view of the business to users from different areas within the business.

Interactive documents have the following key characteristics:

•

Emphasis on graphics: A well-designed graphical representation can often communicate more effectively than text alone.

•

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Documents highlight metrics, as well as other important data, that help business users make informed decisions.

•

Use of a single screen: Users digest data more efficiently when it is all displayed on a single screen.

Introduction to interactive documents

Interactive Documents Advanced Reporting

•

Emphasis on summary-level data and exception reporting: Most documents focus on providing summary-level data and often highlight data exceptions.

•

Emphasis on customization: Typically, the most effective documents are the ones that target a specific audience and display the types of visual indicators that appeal to the target audience.

Activity: Open an interactive document

1 From the MicroStrategy Tutorial Home page, click Shared Reports.

2 Click the Documents and Scorecards folder.

3 Scroll down, and click the Support Center Dashboard document.

4 Follow the steps below to learn about the different components of a dashboard-style document.

a Click the Support Region Performance and Production Adoption selector buttons to change the information on the interactive document.

•

The information on this document is organized into a panel stack.

•

A panel stack is a layer of data, which is used to group related objects.

Advanced Reporting Interactive Documents 4

•

Use selectors to navigate between the different panels in the panel stack.

b On the Overview panel, click Month Ending in Dec 2012.

•

The Key Performance Indicators section of the document is on a nested panel stack.

•

A nested panel stack is a panel stack within a panel stack.

•

This selector switches between the two panels.

c Click the different radio buttons and watch the graph transform.

•

These radio buttons are part of a metric selector.

•

Theses metrics are part of the dataset for this graph, and the selectors essentially filter the data.

d Deselect South America in the Visible column to remove it from the graph.

5 Navigate to the Support Region Performance panel.

One of the many beneficial features of an interactive document is to be able to view and create interactive visualizations, called widgets, that expand beyond the basic capabilities of standard graphs and grids. In this example you see the

Bubble Chart and Microcharts widgets.

Introduction to interactive documents

Interactive Documents

Adding interactivity to a document

Advanced Reporting

Grouping and layering data: Panels and panel stacks

In an interactive document, objects can be grouped and placed in a holder called a panel. Panels are placed in a container called a panel stack. The panel stack allows one panel (or group of objects) to be displayed to a user at a time. This lets the designer create several different views (or panels) of data, each view (panel) containing a logical grouping of objects that display data that is related in some meaningful way.

In the following image, the panel stack has four panels. Each panel has a different display of data. You navigate between the panels using a selector, which are the buttons labeled: Book, Rates, Markets, and FX. Click the selector to switch panels in the stack.

Panel Stack Components

Advanced Reporting Interactive Documents 4

When you use panel stacks in a document, the data and formatting elements of each panel in the panel stack transfer to the Web browser, resulting in a longer initial response time. The performance impact of using multiple panel stacks in a document varies depending on the size of the data associated with each panel, the format of each panel, and so on. This behavior should be considered as you create your dashboards.

You can specify whether or not to display the panel stack’s title bar, which is the area across the top of the panels that shows the title. You can specify whether the title displays the name of the panel stack or of the panel currently being displayed.

Switching between data: Selectors

A selector allows users to interact with the document by selecting:

•

Which panel to display in a panel stack

•

Which attribute element or metric to display in a grid/graph

You can also use a grid or a graph as the source for a selector. When you use a grid or graph to control another grid/graph, you synchronize data across the grids and graphs.

Data visualizations: Graphs

Basic graph types include:

•

Bar charts

•

Combination charts

•

Line charts

•

Pie charts

•

Stacked Bar charts

•

Ring/donut graph

Adding interactivity to a document

Interactive Documents Advanced Reporting

•

Scatter plots

Compare the following graph types, and the general types of analysis easiest to perform with each graph type:

Interactive graphs: Widgets

A widget is a interactive display of the results of a dataset, allowing users to visualize data in different ways than a traditional report displayed as a grid or a

Advanced Reporting Interactive Documents 4 graph does. Widgets are sophisticated visualization techniques that can combine with rich interactivity to enable users to understand their data more effectively.

Exercise 4.1: Create an interactive document

You will create the Human Resource Analysis document in the Human Resource

Analysis Module project. You will complete the workshop document in the following phases:

1 Headcount Summary: In this phase, you will create a document with specific

Headcount KPIs, monthly trends of current versus planned headcount trends, and a departmental and regional headcount breakdown.

2 Compensation Summary: In this phase, you will add compensation quarterly trends and compensation by department quarterly trends to the document.

All datasets for this exercise are located in: Shared Reports\Dashboards and

Scorecards\Datasets\Human Resources Analysis Dashboard.

Open the Human Resources Analysis Module project

1 From the MicroStrategy Tutorial Home screen, click the down arrow next to the MicroStrategy “M”.

2 Click Projects.

Exercise 4.1: Create an interactive document

Interactive Documents Advanced Reporting

3 From the projects list, click Human Resources Analysis Module.

4 On the project home page, click Create Document.

5 In the Create Document window, click 01 Blank Dashboard.

A new, blank dashboard-style document is displayed in Design Mode in the

Document Editor. Notice that this document contains only one document section, and already contains a panel stack (the gray rectangle in the middle of the Layout area).

Create the Headcount Summary panel

Define and name the panel

Name the panel stack

1 Right-click the panel and select Properties and Formatting.

2 In the General properties, type: Main Panel Stack in the Name field.

It is recommended that you assign meaningful names to document objects, such as panel stacks, grid/graphs, and even text boxes, so that you can locate them by name once the document contains many similar objects.

3 Clear the Show Title Bar check box.

4 In the Layout properties, change the Content Overflow to Clip.

5 Click OK.

Rename the individual panel in the stack

6 Using the Panel Stack toolbar, rename the current panel for the main panel stack as Headcount Summary. To view the toolbar, hover your pointer over the panel stack.

Advanced Reporting Interactive Documents 4

Add objects to the panel

Add a title to the panel

1 Add a text box on the top left of the document above the Headcount

Summary panel, and type: Human Resources Analysis. a Set the Font to bold and size14.

To add a text box, select Text from the Insert menu. To format the text, right-click the text box and select Properties and Formatting.

Add a dataset

2 Add a dataset to the document, to provide data: a In the Dataset Objects pane, click the Add Dataset icon. b Navigate to the Shared Reports\Dashboards and Scorecards\Datasets\

Human Resources Analysis Dashboard folder. c Select the Headcount - KPIs report and click OK.

Add text boxes to display data

3 Add a text box below the Human Resources Analysis text box and type:

Headcount.

a Change the style to bold.

b Change the font size to 12.

4 Add a dynamic text box to the right of the Headcount text box. Click and drag the Employees-Current metric onto the document.

a Resize and align the text box so that it matches the Headcount text box.

b Change the font size to 12.

Exercise 4.1: Create an interactive document

Interactive Documents c Change the alignment to center.

Advanced Reporting

5 Save the document as Human Resources Dashboard in the My Reports folder.

When prompted, click Run newly saved document.

6 Return to Design mode.

Add a second dataset to the document

1 Add the Headcount vs. Planned - Monthly Trend report as a dataset from the following folder: Shared Reports\Dashboards and Scorecards\Datasets\

Human Resources Analysis Dashboard.

2 Display the new dataset as a graph in the document. To do this, drag and drop the Headcount vs. Planned - Monthly Trend dataset from Dataset Objects to the upper right area of the Headcount Summary panel.

3 Change the graph to a Vertical Line Graph: a Select the graph.

b Click Graph in the toolbar.

c In the drop-down list of graph types, select Vertical Line.

Advanced Reporting Interactive Documents 4

Create a nested panel stack on the Headcount Summary panel

Add another panel stack

1 From the insert menu select Panel Stack.

2 Add the panel stack to cover the bottom portion of the Headcount Summary panel, and define it with the following properties: a Rename the panel stack Nested Panel Stack in the Properties and

Formatting window.

b Clear the Show Title Bar check box. c Change the Content Overflow to Clip.

d Rename the current panel for this panel stack Department Breakdown using the panel stack tools menu.

Insert a new dataset

3 From the Human Resources Analysis Dashboard folder, add the Headcount

by Department report as a dataset.

4 Drag the Headcount by Department dataset and place it on the Department

Breakdown panel. Resize the grid so it occupies the entire panel.

Exercise 4.1: Create an interactive document

Interactive Documents Advanced Reporting

5 Remove metrics from the Headcount by Department grid, so that it displays as shown below. To remove a metric, right-click it in the grid and select Remove

from Grid.

6 Right-click the Headcount by Department grid, point to View Mode, and select Graph View.

Add another panel to the stack

7 Using the panel stack toolbar, add a second panel and name it Regional

Breakdown using the panel stack tools.

8 From the Human Resources Analysis Dashboard folder, add the Headcount

by Region report as a dataset.

9 Add the Headcount by Region dataset to the Regional Breakdown panel.

Resize the grid so it occupies the entire panel.

10 Remove the following metrics from the grid: FTE-Current,% Total, Net Change, and Change (%).

11 Display the Headcount by Region grid as a graph.

Add a selector to navigate the panels

1 Add a panel selector for the nested panel stack. A panel selector allows a user to flip through the panels in a panel stack. a From the Insert menu, point to Selector, and select Radio Buttons. Add the selector immediately above the nested panel stack. b Right-click the selector and select Properties and Formatting.

c In the General properties, clear the Show Title Bar check box.

d In the Selector properties, change Action Type to Select Panel.

Advanced Reporting Interactive Documents 4 e In the Panel Stack drop-down list, select Nested Panel Stack.

f Click OK.

2 Click Save and view the document in Presentation Mode.

Exercise 4.1: Create an interactive document

Interactive Documents Advanced Reporting

Your document should start to resemble the following images. Size and position text boxes and graphs, in Design Mode or Editable Mode, to match the following images:

Create the Compensation Summary panel

Add a new panel and dataset

1 In Design Mode, add a new panel to Main Panel Stack (the Hiring Summary panel should be in view) and name it Compensation Summary.

Advanced Reporting Interactive Documents 4

2 From the Human Resources Analysis Dashboard folder, add the Compensation

- Quarterly Trends report as a dataset.

3 Add the Compensation - Quarterly Trends dataset as a graph on the

Compensation Summary panel. Size the graph to take up only the top half of the panel.

4 Click Save.

Add more visualizations

5 In Design Mode, add the following reports as datasets:

•

Compensation by Department

•

Compensation by Department - Quarterly Trends

6 Add the Compensation by Department dataset to the panel, but retain the report’s formatting: a Right-click the dataset in the Dataset Objects panel and select Add to

Section with Formatting. The graph is added to the document.

b Drag the graph onto the Compensation Summary panel, on the bottom left.

7 Repeat the previous step with the Compensation by Department - Quarterly

Trends dataset. Move it to the bottom right of the panel.

Exercise 4.1: Create an interactive document

Interactive Documents

Resize and place the visualizations as needed.

Advanced Reporting

Show title bars

8 To enable the title bars for each visualization, right-click each grid or graph and click Properties and Formatting. Select Show Title Bar.

Format a grid using Editable Mode

1 Click the Editable Mode icon in the toolbar. Editable Mode allows you to design and format while viewing the data content.

2 Select the Compensation by Department grid.

3 Click Grid in the toolbar. This grid is displayed in a Custom format. Click

(Custom) in the toolbar, and select Small Type.

The Small Type auto-style is toward the bottom of the list. Hover your mouse over each autostyle to see its name.

Advanced Reporting Interactive Documents 4

Remove the blank Metrics column

4 Right-click the grid, and select Properties and Formatting. In the Grid properties, select the Remove Extra Column check box.

Add panel stack selectors

Now that we have two panels on the Main Panel Stack (Headcount Summary and

Compensation Summary) we need to add a selector to navigate between the panels.

1 From the Insert menu click Selector, then Button Bar.

2 Place the selector above the Main Panel Stack, and to the right of the Human

Resources Analysis text box.

3 Right-click the Selector and choose Properties and Formatting.

4 On the Selector window, change the Action Type to Select Panel. Ensure that

Main Panel Stack is listed in the Targets area.

5 Click OK.

6 View the document in Editable mode. Resize the button bar if needed.

7 Click Save.

Exercise 4.1: Create an interactive document

Interactive Documents Advanced Reporting

8 Run the document in Presentation Mode. Compare your results to the image below.

9 Click the Headcount Summary button to switch panels.

DVANCED

EPORTING

Introduction to advanced reporting

In addition to the basic reporting concepts mentioned throughout this course, many additional features allow you to perform more complex data analysis. In this lesson we will explore the following features:

•

Enable smart totals for compound metrics using smart metrics

•

Modify the context of data with level metrics

•

Compare values from different time periods with transformation metrics

•

Create a collection of elements with custom groups

•

Ask users questions about the report data they want to view with prompts

Add smart totals to compound metrics: Smart metrics

Compound metrics are metrics made up of other metrics. For example,

Sum(Cost) + Sum(Profit)is a compound metric.An advantage of compound metrics compared to simple metrics is that compound metrics can use smart totals.

Introduction to advanced reporting

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting

Smart totals define the evaluation order for the final calculation. Evaluation order is the order in which objects are calculated by MicroStrategy’s Analytical Engine.

The default order of calculations is as follows:

•

Compound smart metrics

•

Consolidations

•

Report limits

•

Subtotals

Compound metric calculations occur first, whereas standard report subtotals are the last to be calculated.

A smart total calculates subtotals on individual pieces of the compound metric, while a regular total calculates subtotals by adding all the values for each row of the report. For example, a smart metric uses the formula:

Sum (Metric1)/Sum

(Metric2) rather than Sum (Metric1/Metric2). A compound metric with smart totals enabled is often called a smart metric.

For example, say that you have created a compound metric named Profit Margin using the calculation below.

Smart totals are enabled by clicking Metric Options and selecting Allow Smart

Metric from the Advanced metric options window.

So how does a smart metric differ from a compound metric on a report?

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting 5

Assume that we have added the compound Profit Margin metric to a report. We also add the same compound metric with smart totals enabled onto the same report, and name the smart metric Profit Margin-Smart.

Notice how the values in the Total column are very different.

•

The totals for the Profit Margin metric (the third metric displayed) are very high, at 501.13% and 4514.57%. It is displaying a sum of all the metric values.

In other words, the metric is calculated for each row of the report, and then rolled up to the correct level.

•

The totals for the Profit Margin-Smart metric (the last metric displayed) are more reasonable, at 4.62% and 15.11%. This is because smart metrics calculate subtotals on individual elements of the compound metric. This means that the smart metric adds all the revenue values together, adds all the cost values together, subtracts the cost sum from the revenue sum, and divides that by the revenue sum.

Specify the attribute to use in the metric calculation:

Level metrics

By default, metrics are evaluated at the level of the attributes on the report; this is called the report level. For example, a Revenue metric is set to the report level.

When the metric is placed on a report containing Region, the metric calculates regional revenue. When it is placed on a report containing Customer, the revenue is calculated for each customer.

You can set the level within the metric, allowing you to specify the attribute(s) to use in the metric calculation, regardless of what is contained on any report the

Introduction to advanced reporting

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting metric is placed on. When creating a new metric, you can change the level at which the metric calculates.

In the example below, you can see two different metrics have been added to the report. The level of each metric is indicated in the metric name:

•

Revenue: Report Level

•

Revenue: Item

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting 5

The Revenue: Report Level and Revenue: Report & Item metrics calculate the same result, providing the revenue for each region. The Revenue: Item metric calculates the revenue for all items, for all regions. The number is therefore the same for each row, since the metric does note differentiate between regions (the report level attribute). The number is the same as the grand total for the report.

Example of level metrics in action

Level metrics allow you to determine the contribution of one object to the whole.

In the example below, the level metrics % of all Revenue (by product) and % of

all Profit (by product) allow you to view each product’s contribution to the total

Revenue and Profit.

Components of a level metric

Three elements are needed to specify the level of a metric:

•

Target: The attribute level at which the metric calculation groups.

•

Grouping: Determines how the metric aggregates.

•

Filtering: How the report filter interacts with the metric calculation.

More information on creating and using level metrics can be found in the

MicroStrategy course: 10.412 Advanced Analytics Reporting.

Introduction to advanced reporting

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting

Make time-based comparisons: Transformation metrics

Transformation metrics are used to compare two different values for two different times. For example, you may want to compare last month’s revenue to this month’s revenue. Transformations allow you to apply an attribute-based offset to compare metric data. You can create your own transformations, or choose from the numerous prebuilt transformations.

Time-based transformations

Although transformations can be applied to any attribute hierarchy, the Time hierarchy is used most often. For the Time hierarchy, the offset can be set as a fixed number of days, weeks, months, or years. Some examples of time transformations include:

•

The Last Year transformation that maps each time period to its corresponding time period last year.

•

The Month-to-Date transformation that maps each time period to a set of time periods that comprise the entire month to date.

In the image below, the Actual Amount metric displays revenue values from the current quarter. The Last Quarter transformation is applied to the Actual Amount metric to create the Actual Amount - Last Quarter metric, which displays last quarter's revenue numbers. The difference between the sets of numbers can then be calculated and displayed in the Actual Amount - Last Quarter Difference metric.

Transformations are useful for such time-series analyses, which are relevant to many industries, including retail, banking, and telecommunications.

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting 5

Non-time-based transformations

While transformations are most often used for discovering and analyzing time-based trends in your data, not all transformations have to be time-based. For example, a transformation can map defunct product codes to new ones. An example of a non-time-based transformation is This Catalog/Last Catalog, which might subtract a number from an old product code to convert it into a new one.

If you are familiar with MicroStrategy functions, transformation-style analysis can also be supported using the Lag and Lead functions. These functions can be used to define metrics that compare values from different time periods without the use of

transformation metrics.

Add a transformation to a metric

This step assumes that the transformation already exists. The majority of the time, you will use transformations already included with MicroStrategy. If you need to create a new transformation, this must be done by the project designer in

MicroStrategy Developer.

When creating a new metric, you can add a transformation from the Metric Editor-

New Metric function editor window.

Grouping attribute elements: Custom groups

A custom group collects attribute elements together in a way that is not defined in the data warehouse. A custom group is made up of an ordered collection of

Introduction to advanced reporting

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting components called custom group elements, each consisting of a header and one or more filter qualifications that must be met for data to be included in the custom group element. Using filters, custom groups create virtual attributes that are similar to a collection of smaller reports.

For example, you want to display data in a report for each season in a year, but you do not have a Season attribute. You can create a custom group with elements representing each season, such as Winter and Spring, then add a filter to each custom group element to display data only for months in a specific season. In the image below, the Winter custom group element displays data for the months of

December, January, and February; the Spring element displays data for March,

April, and May; and so on.

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting 5

You create a custom group using the Custom Group Editor. In the example below, elements of the Region attribute are being included in a custom group.

More information on custom groups, and how to add them to your report, can be found in the MicroStrategy course 10.412 Advanced Analytics Reporting.

Dynamically modify the contents of a report: Prompts

A prompt is a question the system presents to a user when the report is executed.

How the user answers the question determines what data is displayed on the report. You can make different prompt selections each time you run the report.

A report designer can include one or more prompts in any report. Prompts are an effective tool to:

•

Allow each user who executes the report to request individualized sets of data from your data source when he answers the prompts and runs the report.

Effectively, each user creates his own filter for the report.

•

Allow the report designer to create a smaller number of reports overall, using more inclusive objects, rather than having to create numerous, more specific reports that are individualized to each analyst.

•

Allow the report designer to ensure that the objects on a report are the latest available objects in the project. This is possible using a search object in a prompt. When a user launches a prompt by running a report, the search

Introduction to advanced reporting

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting object retrieves the latest objects that fit the search criteria the report designer defined. Thus, no matter when the prompt was created, each time a user executes the report, the user chooses prompt answers from a list of the most up-to-date objects available in the project, including objects that may not have existed when the prompt was created.

•

Allow users to keep the objects on their saved reports up-to-date. Users can save a prompted report so that the objects within the prompt remain connected to the objects that they were originally based on when the prompt was created. If objects are modified or deleted, the report can reflect those changes the next time the prompted report is run.

When you open an prompted report, you see a page similar to the image below.

Once you make your selections and run the report, only data for the selected objects will be displayed.

100

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting 5

Types of prompts

The correct prompt type to create depends on what report objects you want users to be able to filter on:

•

Attribute Element List prompts: Are based on attribute elements. Users select prompt answers from a limited list of specific attribute elements.

Attribute Element List Prompt

This prompt is the most restrictive of the attribute and hierarchy prompts because the user has the fewest number of attribute elements from a single attribute to select answers from.

•

Attribute Qualification prompts: Are based on an attribute form. Depending on how you create the prompt, users either:



Select from a list of all the attribute elements from specific attributes.

Attribute Qualification Prompt (Selection)

Introduction to advanced reporting

101

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting



Are guided through creating a qualification to filter on an attribute form.

Attribute Qualification Prompt (Qualification)

This prompt is less restrictive than the attribute element list prompt, because the user can select from multiple attributes. It is more restrictive than the hierarchy prompt, because the user has fewer attributes to select answers from.

•

Hierarchy Qualification prompts: Are based on attribute elements from one or more attributes in a hierarchy. Users select attribute elements from a list of attributes.

Hierarchy Qualification Prompt

This prompt lets you give users the largest number of attribute elements to choose from when they answer the prompt to define their filtering criteria.

Users can select multiple attributes from multiple hierarchies.

A hierarchy is a group of attributes that are conceptually related; for example, the

Time hierarchy might consist of a Year attribute, a Month attribute, and a Day attribute.

102

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting 5

•

Metric Qualification prompts: Are based on metrics. Users are guided through creating a metric qualification, which determines what data should be displayed for one or more specific metrics on the report.

Metric Qualification Prompt

•

Value prompts: Are based on a value for any object. Users type a single value to filter the report data on. The value can be a date, text, or a number, including Big Decimal numbers.

Value Prompt (Numeric)

A value prompt is usually used in a filter, but a value prompt can also be used in a metric. The filter or metric is then placed on a report.

•

Object prompts: Are based on any object. Users select objects to include in a report, such as attributes, metrics, or filters. Users can use this prompt to add

Introduction to advanced reporting

103

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting more data to a report, or choose from a selection of filters to apply a filter that is most useful for their analysis purposes.

Object Prompts

The correct prompt type to create also depends on where on and how you want to add the prompt:

To add a prompt to a report:

•

On the report template, use:



Object prompt containing attributes or metrics

•

On the report filter, use:



Attribute Element List prompt



Attribute Qualification prompt



Hierarchy Qualification prompt



Metric Qualification prompt



Object prompt containing filters or reports

•

On the report’s page-by pane:



Object prompt containing attributes or metrics

104

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting 5

To add a prompt to a metric, use:



Object prompt containing attributes, filters, or metrics



Value prompt containing numbers

To add a prompt to a filter, use:



Attribute Element List prompt



Attribute Qualification prompt



Hierarchy Qualification prompt



Metric Qualification prompt



Object prompt containing attributes, filters, or reports



Value prompt containing dates, numbers, or text

Components of a prompt

The pieces that make up a prompt control how a prompt appears and how it functions. These components include the following:

•

Answer requirement: Determines whether users are required to answer the prompt or an answer is optional. If an answer is required, a report cannot be executed until an answer is provided.

•

Default prompt answers: Pre-selected answers for the prompt, which the user can then accept, replace with a different answer, or accept and add more answers.

•

Title and description: Name and description for the prompt, which can significantly impact whether a user finds prompts to be simple or complex.

These should be useful and descriptive.

•

Style: Determines the appearance of the prompt and the layout of how users select answers for the prompt.

Stand-alone prompt vs. prompt as part of a report or filter

A stand-alone prompt is a prompt that is created as an independent

MicroStrategy object. A stand-alone prompt can then be used on many different reports, as well as on filters, metrics, and other objects, and can be used by other report designers. A stand-alone prompt gives report designers flexibility.

Introduction to advanced reporting

105

Advanced Reporting Advanced Reporting

Prompts can also be created as an intrinsic part of a given report, filter, or custom group, at the same time the report, filter, or custom group itself is being created.

Prompts created as part of another object are saved with the definition of that object. Therefore, a prompt created as part of another object cannot be used on any other object.

More information on creating and adding prompts to reports, can be found in the

MicroStrategy course 10.412 Advanced Analytics Reporting.

106

Advanced Reporting

Copyright Information

Trademark Information

MicroStrategy, MicroStrategy 10, MicroStrategy 10 Secure Enterprise, MicroStrategy 9,

MicroStrategy 9s, MicroStrategy Analytics, MicroStrategy Analytics Platform, MicroStrategy

Desktop, MicroStrategy Operations Manager, MicroStrategy Analytics Enterprise,

MicroStrategy Evaluation Edition, MicroStrategy Secure Enterprise, MicroStrategy Web,

MicroStrategy Mobile, MicroStrategy Server, MicroStrategy Parallel Relational In-Memory

Engine (MicroStrategy PRIME), MicroStrategy MultiSource, MicroStrategy OLAP Services,

MicroStrategy Intelligence Server, MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Universal, MicroStrategy

Distribution Services, MicroStrategy Report Services, MicroStrategy Transaction Services,

MicroStrategy Visual Insight, MicroStrategy Web Reporter, MicroStrategy Web Analyst,

MicroStrategy Office, MicroStrategy Data Mining Services, MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server,

MicroStrategy Health Center, MicroStrategy Analyst, MicroStrategy Developer, MicroStrategy

Web Professional, MicroStrategy Architect, MicroStrategy SDK, MicroStrategy Command

Manager, MicroStrategy Enterprise Manager, MicroStrategy Object Manager, MicroStrategy

Integrity Manager, MicroStrategy System Manager, MicroStrategy Analytics App,

MicroStrategy Mobile App, MicroStrategy Tech Support App, MicroStrategy Mobile App

Platform, MicroStrategy Cloud, MicroStrategy R Integration, Dossier, Usher, MicroStrategy

Usher, Usher Badge, Usher Security, Usher Security Server, Usher Mobile, Usher Analytics, Usher

Network Manager, Usher Professional, MicroStrategy Services, MicroStrategy Professional

Services, MicroStrategy Consulting, MicroStrategy Customer Services, MicroStrategy

Education, MicroStrategy University, MicroStrategy Managed Services, BI QuickStrike, Mobile

QuickStrike, Transaction Services QuickStrike Perennial Education Pass, MicroStrategy Web

Based Training (WBT), MicroStrategy World, Best in Business Intelligence, Pixel Perfect, Global

Delivery Center, Direct Connect, Enterprise Grade Security For Every Business, Build Your Own

Business Apps, Code-Free, Welcome to Ideal, The World’s Most Comprehensive Analytics

Platform, The World’s Most Comprehensive Analytics Platform. Period.

All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Specifications are subject to change without notice. MicroStrategy is not responsible for errors or omissions. MicroStrategy makes no warranties or commitments concerning the availability of future products or versions that may be planned or under development.

Patent Information

This product is patented. One or more of the following patents may apply to the product sold herein: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,154,766, 6,173,310, 6,260,050, 6,263,051, 6,269,393, 6,279,033,

6,567,796, 6,587,547, 6,606,596, 6,658,093, 6,658,432, 6,662,195, 6,671,715, 6,691,100,

6,694,316, 6,697,808, 6,704,723, 6,741,980, 6,765,997, 6,768,788, 6,772,137, 6,788,768,

6,798,867, 6,801,910, 6,820,073, 6,829,334, 6,836,537, 6,850,603, 6,859,798, 6,873,693,

6,885,734, 6,940,953, 6,964,012, 6,977,992, 6,996,568, 6,996,569, 7,003,512, 7,010,518,

107

Advanced Reporting

7,016,480, 7,020,251, 7,039,165, 7,082,422, 7,113,474, 7,113,993, 7,127,403, 7,174,349,

7,181,417, 7,194,457, 7,197,461, 7,228,303, 7,260,577, 7,266,181, 7,272,212, 7,302,639,

7,324,942, 7,330,847, 7,340,040, 7,356,758, 7,356,840, 7,415,438, 7,428,302, 7,430,562,

7,440,898, 7,486,780, 7,509,671, 7,516,181, 7,559,048, 7,574,376, 7,617,201, 7,725,811,

7,801,967, 7,836,178, 7,861,161, 7,861,253, 7,881,443, 7,925,616, 7,945,584, 7,970,782,

8,005,870, 8,035,382, 8,051,168, 8,051,369, 8,094,788, 8,130,918, 8,296,287, 8,321,411,

8,452,755, 8,521,733, 8,522,192, 8,577,902, 8,606,813, 8,607,138, 8,645,313, 8,761,659,

8,775,807, 8,782,083, 8,812,490, 8,832,588, 8,943,044, 8,943,187. 8,958,537, 8,966,597,

8,983,440, 8,984,274, 8,984,288, 8,995,628, 9,027,099, 9,027,105, 9,037, 577, 9,038,152,

9,076,006, 9,086,837, 9,116,954, 9,124,630, 9,154,303, 9,154,486, 9,160,727, 9,166,986,

9,171,073, 9,172,699, 9,173,101, 9,183, 317, 9,195,814, 9,208,213, 9,208,444, 9,262,481,

9,264,415, 9,264,480, 9,269,358, 9,275,127, 9,292,571, 9,300,646, 9,311,683 9,313,206,

9,330,174, 9,338,157, 9,361,392, 9,378,386, 9,386,416, 9,391,782, 9,397,838, 9,397,980,

9,405,804, 9,413,710, 9,413,794, 9,430,629, 9,432,808, 9,438,597, 9,444,805, 9,450,942,

9,450,958, and 9,454,594. Other patent applications are pending.

This Course (course and course materials) and any Software are provided “as is” and without express or limited warranty of any kind by either MicroStrategy Incorporated (“MicroStrategy”) or anyone who has been involved in the creation, production, or distribution of the Course or

Software, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the Course and

Software is with you. Should the Course or Software prove defective, you (and not

MicroStrategy or anyone else who has been involved with the creation, production, or distribution of the Course or Software) assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair, or correction.

In no event will MicroStrategy or any other person involved with the creation, production, or distribution of the Course or Software be liable to you on account of any claim for damage, including any lost profits, lost savings, or other special, incidental, consequential, or exemplary damages, including but not limited to any damages assessed against or paid by you to any third party, arising from the use, inability to use, quality, or performance of such Course and

Software, even if MicroStrategy or any such other person or entity has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for the claim by any other party. In addition, MicroStrategy or any other person involved in the creation, production, or distribution of the Course and

Software shall not be liable for any claim by you or any other party for damages arising from the use, inability to use, quality, or performance of such Course and Software, based upon principles of contract warranty, negligence, strict liability for the negligence of indemnity or contribution, the failure of any remedy to achieve its essential purpose, or otherwise.

The Course and the Software are copyrighted and all rights are reserved by MicroStrategy.

MicroStrategy reserves the right to make periodic modifications to the Course or the Software without obligation to notify any person or entity of such revision. Copying, duplicating, selling, or otherwise distributing any part of the Course or Software without prior written consent of an authorized representative of MicroStrategy are prohibited.

108

Key features

Create and edit complex reports
Build custom metrics and filters
Design interactive dashboards and documents
Utilize pre-designed report templates
Drill down into data for detailed analysis

Frequently asked questions

Advanced reporting is a more complex way of reporting using calculations and filters to provide more detailed information on a report.

To create a metric, you can use the Metric Editor, which allows you to define calculations and functions. You can also use the Formula Editor to create more complex metrics.

There are two main types of filters: view filters and report filters. View filters are applied to the results of a report, while report filters are applied to the data source before the report is run.