Introduction to

Analytics Reporting

Core learning for: Analysts

CONTENTS

1. Instant Data Analysis

Empowering Your Interactive data display: Dossiers ......................................................................... 4
Organization with Exercise 1.1: Add a dossier to MicroStrategy............................................ 7
Interactive Adding data to a dossier................................................................................10
Visualizations
Interactive graphs: Visualizations.......................................................................11
Exercise 1.2: Create a grid visualization....................................................14
Analyzing and formatting data in a grid visualization........................21
Exercise 1.3: Create a bubble chart visualization..................................22
Filtering data on a dossier.....................................................................................28
Exercise 1.4: Create a filter using the Filter panel .................................29
Filtering different visualizations separately............................................31
Exercise 1.5: Create and rename a chapter .............................................33
Sharing a dossier everywhere: Library on Web and mobile devices .....35
Exercise 1.6: Add a dossier to your Library..............................................38
Elevating dossier data analysis with HyperIntelligence.............................42
Demo: Enhance dossier analysis with HyperIntelligence ..................44

2. Foundation for
Creating Reports
The Intelligence Center..........................................................................................45
MicroStrategy Web and the Intelligent Enterprise ..............................46
Reports and the Intelligent Enterprise .....................................................47
Calculating business data: Metrics.....................................................................48
Business context on a report: Attributes .........................................................49
Attribute elements...........................................................................................50
Attribute forms..................................................................................................51

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Contents Introduction to Analytics Reporting

Grouping related attributes: Hierarchies.................................................51

Drilling into related data................................................................................53
Exercise 2.1: Report basics ....................................................................................56
Exercise 2.2: Report data manipulation............................................................66

3. Creating Reports
Overview .....................................................................................................................73
Building reports based on pre-designed reports .........................................75
Categories of pre-designed reports ..........................................................76
Building reports using templates.......................................................................76
Exercise 3.1: Create a report using the Employee Analysis template.
78
Building reports from scratch ..............................................................................83
Exercise 3.2: Create a simple report from scratch.................................85

4. Filtering Reports
Creating Filters and Overview .....................................................................................................................90
Prompts
Building filters to filter data on reports ............................................................90
Viewing filter details: Report Details pane ..............................................92
View filters...........................................................................................................93
Exercise 4.1: Create a view filter ..................................................................95
Report filters.......................................................................................................99
Exercise 4.2: Create a report filter in a report .......................................104
Exercise 4.3: Create stand-alone filters ...................................................107
Building prompts to allow user input.............................................................114
Prompt types ...................................................................................................116
Prompt creation..............................................................................................120
Exercise 4.4: Create prompts to use in a filter ......................................122
Exercise 4.5: Create object prompts to select the objects displayed
on a report ........................................................................................................129

5. Calculating Data on
Reports
Creating Metrics Overview ...................................................................................................................136
Building metrics to calculate data....................................................................136
Calculating metric values ............................................................................139
Exercise 5.1: Create simple metrics..........................................................141
Compound metrics: Metrics made up of other metrics ...................146
Exercise 5.2: Create compound metrics and smart totals................148

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Contents

Selecting subtotals and totals for metrics.............................................153

Exercise 5.3: Display subtotals ...................................................................156
Building metrics within reports: Derived metrics.......................................159
Exercise 5.4: Create a derived metric.......................................................161

6. Delivering and
Sharing Reports
Exporting reports ...................................................................................................167
Subscribing to reports for automatic delivery.............................................168
Sharing reports with other users ......................................................................168
Sending reports and bursting large reports into smaller files .......169
Sharing a link URL reflecting latest changes and prompt answers.....
169

A. Workshop: Test Analyze customer attrition using conditional metrics .............................171

Yourself on Your
Reporting Knowledge

B. Workshop: Schedule a Deliver a report to your History List on a schedule....................................185

Report

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 1
INSTANT DATA ANALYSIS
Empowering Your Organization with
Interactive Visualizations

Interactive data display: Dossiers

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Instant Data Analysis 1

The visualization above shows earthquakes that occurred in 2017 around the
world. You can quickly identify how many earthquakes occurred in a specific
country to make informed decisions about where earthquakes are common or
uncommon.

Instead of scrolling through rows and rows of data in a spreadsheet, visualizations

are visually-compelling modern alternatives to analyzing data. Use visualizations
to interact with your information by searching, zooming in/out, and hovering
over or clicking data points to gain deeper insights. You can highlight trends or
anomalies in your data by sorting, rearranging, filtering, and drilling on the
information you’re interested in.

A dossier, as shown above, is composed of visualizations. Use dossiers to quickly

and easily explore various parts of your business data. Creating a dossier is easy
because you can drag and drop objects to instantly see the results of your
changes, helping improve data literacy across the workforce.

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The above dossier displays different types of visualizations:

• The Key performance indicators (KPIs) on the top display quick answers to
important business questions such as what was our net income/loss in Q4 for
2017?

• The bar chart to the left allows for quick comparisons between categories
such as operating income and revenue trend quarterly, over three years.

• The heat map to the right quickly identifies volume or importance using the
size of the rectangles so your company can quickly identify top (or bottom)
performing areas.

To learn more about building best-in-class dossiers, take the Dashboarding with
Dossiers and Visualizations 11.142 course.

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Exercise 1.1: Add a dossier to MicroStrategy

You are an analyst for a tutoring and university prep company, Educational.ly. A
large component of Educational.ly is helping students find the right universities
to apply to. In the following exercises, you are updating a dossier another analyst
created to help both students and advisors access key admissions data.

As part of this exercise, you will first learn how to access your Education Sandbox.
As an Education Pass holder, you have your own sandbox environment to learn
about and experiment with MicroStrategy. The Education Sandbox is a
cloud-based environment that includes MicroStrategy Web and Library, with
ready-made sample reports, dossiers, and documents to help spark ideas for your
business intelligence analysis.

Access Your Education Sandbox

1 In your browser, navigate to one of the following links:

• For MicroStrategy customers, use:


https://education.microstrategy.com/MicroStrategy/servlet/
mstrWeb

• For MicroStrategy employees, use:


https://education.microstrategy.com/MicroStrategyEmployee/
servlet/mstrWeb

2 Log in to the Sandbox with your MicroStrategy Account credentials.

Open the Tutorial Project

3 The MicroStrategy Landing page opens. Click the MicroStrategy Tutorial

project.

4 Click Go to MicroStrategy Web.

The Shared Reports folder of the MicroStrategy Tutorial project opens.

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5 Click My Reports.

 Note that you can only save your work in the My Reports folder in your
Sandbox.

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Upload an existing dossier

1 From the My Reports folder, click Create, and then select Upload
MicroStrategy File.

You can also upload and create dossiers in MicroStrategy Desktop and
Workstation.

2 Select the University Dossier.mstr file, and click Open.

3 In the Upload window, click View Dossier.

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Your dossier is uploaded and displayed, containing a bar chart visualization.

Edit Mode

The dossier opens in Edit Mode, which is the primary view that you use to create
and interact with your dossier. You can easily drag and drop objects to create
visualizations that display data, create filters for the data, group data, and more.

You can manipulate the data on visualizations to modify how the visualizations
display, including filtering, formatting, and rearranging the data in the
visualizations. You can add other objects, such as:

• Text boxes

• Images
• Filters on visualizations

• HTML containers, which display web content

• Selectors, which determine the objects displayed

Adding data to a dossier

In Edit Mode, import the data that you want to analyze. Your data can come from:

• An external data source, such as a file, Freeform script, database, or

Salesforce.com report.

• An existing MicroStrategy report, including Intelligent Cube reports and MDX

reports.

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• A report that you create within the dossier.

• An existing Intelligent Cube, including imported data.

An Intelligent Cube is a multi-dimensional set of data saved on a MicroStrategy

server. Intelligent Cubes can be shared as a single in-memory copy, to be used by
many different dossiers and documents created by multiple users.

• Data in the current MicroStrategy project.

Interactive graphs: Visualizations

Now that you have uploaded your dossier, your next step is to determine the best
way to display the data. Visualizations provide a variety of ways for you to display
and interact with the data in a dossier. For example, you can:

• Explore the relationships between data elements by creating a network

visualization

• Summarize key business indicators in clear, easy-to-understand, visually

striking bar charts, bubble charts, and other graphs

• Display markers, density maps, or areas on an interactive map

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• Display a high-performance vector map using a Geospatial Service map,

which allows you to:
 Show geographic areas down to the detail of the postal code level for
most countries


Zoom through layers from the entire world to the street level

Tilt the map for a 3D view

Color areas by an element, such as region or population

• Understand the distribution of numeric data with a histogram, which

captures how data falls within specific intervals

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• Interpret the frequency distribution of data in a box plot, which provides

more detail than a histogram while displaying multiple sets of data in the
same graph

• View the cumulative effect of positive and negative values that are introduced
sequentially in a waterfall, like an income statement or profit and loss
statement

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Exercise 1.2: Create a grid visualization

Best This exercise creates the quickest and easiest visualization, a simple grid. A grid
Practice visualization displays data in rows and columns, so you can pivot, sort, move, drill,
filter, and perform additional manipulations to analyze the data. Since a grid
visualization displays the actual data, rather than graphic elements like bars or
circles, you can use it to understand and prepare your data before displaying it on
another type of visualization.

University applicants need to know tuition cost before submitting their

applications. Add a grid visualization to the dossier that looks like the following:
Grid Visualization Sample

Create a grid visualization

1 Open the University dossier, if it is not already open.

2 On the toolbar, click the Visualization icon .

A new, blank visualization is added below the bar chart.

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3 Drag the new visualization (automatically labeled Visualization 1) to the left of

the Average SAT Scores bar chart. When the blue line is to the left of the bar
chart visualization, you have the blank visualization in the correct location.

Add University to the grid

4 Drag the University attribute from the Datasets panel to the visualization.

An attribute represents a business concept such as Product, Employee,

Product, and so on.

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By default, the visualization is displayed as a grid. The University attribute is

now displayed on the Rows drop zone in the Editor panel. The row header in
the visualization is University. The various universities, or attribute elements,
and their additional descriptive information, or attribute forms, are displayed.

Attribute elements are the unique values for an attribute. Attribute forms are
additional descriptive information about a business attribute. The attribute
forms for University include city (Synonym 3), state (Synonym 1), and website
(DESC).

Analysts can decide which form of an attribute to display on a visualization.

You only want the university name and tuition in this visualization.

Remove attribute forms

5 Right-click the University attribute in the Rows drop zone.

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6 Point to Display Attribute Forms, then clear Synonym 3, Synonym 1, and

DESC attribute forms.

7 Click OK.

Visualization 1 now displays only University names.

Add tuition to the grid

8 Drag the In-State Tuition metric from the Datasets panel to the Columns
drop zone in the Editor panel.

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A metric is a calculation such as Revenue, Profit, Employee Headcount, and so

on.

The in-state tuition amounts are displayed to the right of University in the
grid:

9 Drag OOS Tuition (Out-of-State Tuition) from the Datasets panel to the right
of Instate Tuition in the grid.

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You can add, remove, and move objects in either the visualization itself or in the
Editor panel.

Change the metric and visualization names

10 Right-click In-State Tuition in the Column drop zone, then click Rename.

11 Rename the metric In-State.

The metric column name changes in Visualization 1.

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12 Right-click OOS Tuition in Visualization 1, then click Rename.

You can rename attributes and metrics in either the Editor panel or the
visualization itself.

13 Rename the metric Out-of-State.

14 Rename the visualization by clicking the menu icon in the visualization’s

title bar, and selecting Rename. Type Tuition.

The grid should now look like the sample provided at the beginning of this
exercise, Grid Visualization Sample, page 14.

Save your dossier

15 Save your dossier by clicking the Save icon on the toolbar and then
clicking OK.

It is helpful to save your dossier throughout the class, to ensure that all your
changes have been saved.

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Analyzing and formatting data in a grid visualization

You can manipulate a grid visualization to display data in different ways for
analysis, similar to how you can manipulate a grid report. We will work on a grid
report later, in Exercise 2.2: Report data manipulation, page 66. On a grid
visualization, you can:

• Pivot the grid’s data. To do this, you can move an object between the columns
and rows, either on the grid itself or by using the drop zones in the Editor
panel. If you want to swap the rows and columns, use the Swap icon on the
Editor panel.

• Drill to view a different level of data.

• Sort data based on a single object or multiple objects.

• Display subtotals.

• Copy rows of data and paste them into another program for further analysis.

The standard, default grid formatting and available formatting options ensure
consistency for all grids in all dossiers. The formatting options accelerate the
speed of designing a dossier. You can change the display of the grid, including the
font, background color, and borders for each part of the grid, such as the column
headers, row headers, and so on. You can highlight metric values by creating a
threshold, which automatically applies formatting when the data meets a
condition that you define.

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Exercise 1.3: Create a bubble chart visualization

The next visualization to add to our dossier provides a visual representation of our
SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) data. The SAT is a standardized test used for college
admissions that gauges math and verbal reasoning skills on a scale of 200 - 800.
While the bubble chart displays much of the same information as the bar chart
visualization, you can more easily see the differences in SAT scores among the
different universities.

A bubble chart visualization highlights the trends for the values of three metrics.
Each attribute element (University) is represented by a bubble. The bubbles are
graphed on a scatter plot and can be sized and colored by metric values and
attributes.

The final bubble chart will look like the following:

Bubble Chart Sample

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Create a bubble chart visualization

1 Open the University dossier, if it is not already open.

2 Click the Average SAT Scores visualization to select it.

A blue border indicates which visualization is selected.

3 Click the Bubble Chart icon in the Visualization Gallery.

The Visualization Gallery, displayed on the right of the dossier, displays all the
available types of visualizations. Use it to instantly change the selected
visualization. If you hover your cursor over a visualization icon in the gallery,
you can quickly view the data requirements for that visualization type.

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The Average SAT Scores visualization now looks like this:

Bubble Charts display one metric for each axis, but more metrics can be added
to Size By, Color By, and Tooltip. Writing and Verbal Reasoning are the current
horizontal axis and vertical axis. Many universities do not report SAT Writing
data because they use admissions essays to determine writing ability instead.
Since we want our data to be relevant to our customers, change the horizontal
axis to Math.

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4 Drag the Math metric from the Vertical drop zone to the Horizontal drop
zone in the Editor panel.

The position of each bubble on the graph’s horizontal axis (or X-axis) will be
calculated from the Math values.

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5 Drag the Writing metric to the Tooltip drop zone. The Tooltip now displays
Writing scores when you hover over a University bubble.

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6 Drag ADM RATE to the Color By drop zone. Each university is assigned a color
according to its admission rate.

7 Right-click ADM RATE in the Color By drop zone, then click Thresholds.

8 In the Thresholds - ADM Rate window, change Color to Tropical Jungle.

A threshold is formatting that is automatically applied when data meets a

condition that you define. In this example, admission rates display in red (the
format) when they are part of the 20% (the condition) of universities with the

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lowest admission rates. Thresholds help make analyzing large amounts of

data easier because different colors are easily identified.

9 Click OK.

The bubble chart should look like the sample provided in the beginning of the
exercise, Bubble Chart Sample, page 22.

10 Save your dossier by clicking the Save icon on the toolbar and then
clicking OK.

Filtering data on a dossier

A filter specifies conditions that data must meet to be included in the results.
Filters are helpful in limiting and customizing large quantities of data, to help you
focus on what you really need to see and analyze. You can use attributes or
metrics for filtering data. Filters are used on both dossiers and reports.

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Exercise 1.4: Create a filter using the Filter panel

You want to focus on the data for large universities only. You want both
visualizations to display data for large universities, so create a filter on the Filter
panel. Filters on the Filter panel apply to both the visualizations.

Create a filter on undergraduate enrollment

1 Open the University dossier, if it is not already open.

2 Click the Filter icon to display the Filter panel.

3 Drag Undergrad Enrollment from the Datasets panel to the Filter panel.

4 By default, enrollment is displayed as a slider. Since we want to allow only

large universities (15,000+ students), we need to change the display style.
Click the menu icon next to Undergrad Enrollment.

Other formatting options are also available on this menu, such as whether filter
selections include or exclude data.

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5 Point to Display Style, then select Qualification.

6 Set the qualification to Greater than or equal to 15000.

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7 Press Enter to update the dossier. The filter is applied to both visualizations.
Your dossier should look like this:

8 Save your dossier by clicking the Save icon on the toolbar and then
clicking OK.

Filtering different visualizations separately

The filters in the Filter panel filter both the visualizations. However, you can apply
different filters to different visualizations, which lets analysts dive deeper into
data trends on each visualization independently. To achieve this goal, you can do
any of the following:

• You want both visualizations to be displayed on the same screen (as shown in
the previous examples). To do this, create a separate stand-alone filter for each
visualization.

• You want to see the visualizations on different screens. To do this, create a

second chapter for the second visualization, and create each filter on the Filter
panel for the chapter.

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Filtering visualizations separately in different chapters

A chapter is a layer of data that helps provide a logical flow to your dossier. Each
chapter contains its own Filter panel, which filters the objects in that chapter only.
The Filter panel on each chapter is independent of the Filter panels on any other
chapter in the dossier.

The dossier below contains multiple chapters, as shown in the Contents pane. The
chapters in this example are named Analysis by Time and Analysis by Location.

A chapter has at least one page; in this example, each chapter has two. Chapters
and pages let you add different layers of data to your dossier. A dossier can
contain multiple chapters, and each chapter can contain multiple pages, like a
book. Use chapters and pages to group related visualizations and differentiate
between less-related visualizations. This example dossier separates time-related
visualizations from location-based visualizations.

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The second key difference between chapters and pages is filtering. All pages in a
single chapter are filtered the same way, using the Filter panel. Below is the result
of the undergraduate enrollment filter on the Selected University page.

Use chapters and pages to group visualizations according to the filters that each
needs. Another reason to use the different layers of pages and chapters is to
provide the maximum amount of space to view visualizations.

You design the filter for the University dossier chapter, and any filtering choices
apply to all pages within the chapter. The Selected University page above does
not return data because the University of Mobile does not have an undergraduate
enrollment greater than or equal to 15,000 students. To change this, either
remove the chapter filter or move the Selected University page to a new chapter.

Each chapter has its own Filter panel, allowing each chapter to be filtered
differently.

Exercise 1.5: Create and rename a chapter

We want to create a separate chapter for the Selected University page, which will
let us remove the undergraduate enrollment filter so that we can view all
universities instead of only large universities that meet the filter’s conditions.

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Create and rename the chapter

1 Open the University dossier, if it is not already open.

2 In the Contents panel, right-click and select Insert Chapter.

A new chapter contains a page by default. New chapters are named Chapter 1
and new pages are named Page 1, by default. We’ll rename these later.

3 Drag Selected University below Page 1 of Chapter 1.

4 Click Continue in the Notification window.

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The undergraduate enrollment filter no longer applies to the Selected

University page as shown below:

5 In the Contents panel, right-click Page 1 and select Delete.

6 Click the menu icon next to Chapter 1, then click Rename. Rename
Chapter 1 to All Universities.

7 Rename the University Dossier chapter to Large Universities.

8 You can also rename pages. Right-click the Overview page under Large
Universities, then click Rename. Rename to Tuition and SAT Scores.

9 Save your dossier by clicking the Save icon on the toolbar and then
clicking OK.

Sharing a dossier everywhere: Library on Web

and mobile devices
After you complete your dossier, you want to share its information and the
insights that you have discovered with others. You want to encourage those other

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users to provide feedback and suggestions. Share the dossier using MicroStrategy
Library, which provides a collaboration solution with a unified landing page that
allows everyone to interact with dossiers.

Library is a simple visual bookshelf with a fast and efficient search, so that you can
find the dossiers that you need. Use Library to:

• Easily collaborate with other users, by commenting on dossiers and tagging

other users in those comments.

• Share your dossier with other users in their own personal libraries.

• Receive notifications when a dossier changes, you receive a shared dossier, or

you are tagged in a dossier’s comments.

Your Library contains dossiers that you created, as well as dossiers created and
shared by other users.

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MicroStrategy Library is available from MicroStrategy Web.

Your Library is also available on your mobile device. Using Library on a mobile
device provides the same features as the Web-based Library, including storing
your dossiers to view them on the go and receiving notifications about dossier
changes.

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Exercise 1.6: Add a dossier to your Library

Best Before you add your dossier to Library, create a cover page thumbnail. Cover
Practice pages help you quickly identify the dossiers in your Library. You can choose a
MicroStrategy stock image or add a web URL to an image.

Add a cover page

1 Open the University dossier, if it is not already open.

2 In the Contents panel, hover your cursor over the book icon, so that Change
Cover is displayed. Click Change Cover.

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3 In the Change Cover window, select the graduation cap image, and click Save.

The image is displayed in the Contents panel and will be the thumbnail image
in Library.

Save the dossier

4 Click the Save icon in the toolbar.

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Add your dossier to Library and view it

1 From the Share menu, select Get a link to MicroStrategy Library.

2 On the Share window, click Launch, which will automatically launch your
Library in a separate window.

To share your dossier with other users, select either Email Link or copy the link to
your clipboard. When you send the link to another user, she can access the dossier
in her own MicroStrategy Library.

3 If prompted to log in to Library, type (or copy and paste) your MicroStrategy
account credentials.

4 On the Show Notifications dialog box, click Allow.

In a Chrome browser, this allows Library to send notifications when a dossier

in your Library is changed or has a comment added.

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Your dossier is now displayed in Library.

5 At the top of the dossier, a message is displayed indicating that you have not
yet added the dossier to your Library. Click Add to Library.

Adding the dossier saves the file in your Library, allowing you to access it
again later in your Library.

6 Click the Library icon in the top left corner to view your virtual bookshelf.

You are now in your Library home page, which contains the dossier that you
just created and sample dossiers provided by MicroStrategy. This page serves
as your virtual bookshelf to store your MicroStrategy dossiers. You can search
for and select a dossier to view.

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Elevating dossier data analysis with

HyperIntelligence
To elevate your dossiers and data analysis even further, users can hover over key
words to view more information without needing to navigate to another dossier
page, or log into another system. MicroStrategy HyperIntelligence helps
organizations inject business intelligence in their users’ daily workflows with
zero-click analysis in dossiers, Outlook, and Chrome.

MicroStrategy HyperIntelligence enables you to deliver critical information to

people in your organization through informative cards that contain key
performance indicators about a given topic, such as contacts, customers, or
products through a Chrome browser plug-in. By integrating your data with the
web applications that people already use, you remove traditional barriers to data
analysis and disperse knowledge throughout your organization.

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Instant Data Analysis 1

For example, a salesperson receives an email from a customer that she has not
met, asking for a product that she has not encountered. Directly in the email web
app, the salesperson can scroll over the customer name and see a picture, a
phone number, current title, and past purchases. She can scroll over the
customer's company name to identify the quarterly sales figures generated,
current contract date, and VIP status.

To help with her sales pitch, the salesperson can scroll over the product and see
the product price, margin, current discount, and inventory figures. MicroStrategy
HyperIntelligence provides her with critical business information in bite-sized
chunks to support the thousands of decisions she makes every day.

The power of HyperIntelligence lies in its ability to seamlessly distribute data as a

user scrolls her cursor over underlined keywords.

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Demo: Enhance dossier analysis with HyperIntelligence

To learn more about empowering your organization with fast answers, take the
11.001: Zero-Click Analysis: MicroStrategy HyperIntelligence e-Learning course.

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FOUNDATION FOR CREATING
REPORTS

The Intelligence Center

MicroStrategy provides self-service Business Intelligence (BI) with MicroStrategy
Desktop, and Enterprise BI with data governance, enterprise-level security, user
administration, and big data support, all centered around the Intelligence Server.
The Intelligence Server delivers world-class monitoring, reporting, and analysis on
one integrated platform, offering next-generation BI capabilities for the full range
of BI applications. MicroStrategy's enterprise platform is the core of the Intelligent
Enterprise.

MicroStrategy Desktop can be:

• Used in an agile environment as a stand-alone, personal sand box for testing.

Because stand-alone dossiers are not bound by application requirements and
environment standards and controls, you can test your data and create
dossiers best suited to your needs at the moment.

• Connected to your enterprise MicroStrategy Intelligence Server. When

connected, you can access your enterprise data in your MicroStrategy projects.
The enterprise structure provides standardized, consistent data to counteract
data silos, redundancy, and the lack of a “single truth” in the data.

© 2020 MicroStrategy, Inc. The Intelligence Center 45

 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

Supporting the Intelligent Enterprise is the Intelligence Center, comprised of a

team of expert architects who define, develop, and provide guidance across the
enterprise. This class focuses on creating reports in MicroStrategy Web, a key BI
tool leveraged within the Intelligent Enterprise. As a crucial aspect of their roles,
the architects work to optimize MicroStrategy Web, from the federated data layer
used to build reports to maintaining the infrastructure environment where users
access Web and enterprise data.

With the collective know-how to maximize BI investments, the Intelligence Center

drives optimization of system architecture, upgrades, configuration, performance,
scalability, and stability.

MicroStrategy Web and the Intelligent Enterprise

MicroStrategy Web is a highly interactive, intuitive, and simple-to-use interface
for reporting, analysis, and continuous business monitoring. With a look and feel
that is exceptionally crisp and clean, MicroStrategy Web has been designed
specifically to fit the needs of business users. It helps Intelligent Enterprises
maximize their BI investments, driving user adoption, and ultimately leading to
the success of enterprise BI.

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Foundation for Creating Reports 2

Reports and the Intelligent Enterprise

Reports are a focus of business intelligence analysis, because they enable you to
gather business insight through data analysis. The results from any MicroStrategy
Web report are often just a starting point for further BI investigations. For
example, you can extend your report’s capabilities by using it as a dataset to
create Pixel Perfect documents and transaction-enabled documents that write
back to data sources in real time. You can also use a report as a dataset in a
dossier, which allows you to visualize your data in interactive graphs that display
KPIs at a glance.

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:

• 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: .

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

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

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 and any prompts the
user answered. 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. You can change the report’s formatting details to suit your
requirements and preferences.
Formatted simple report

Calculating business data: Metrics

Metrics are MicroStrategy objects that represent business measures and key
performance indicators. From a practical perspective, metrics are the calculations
performed on data stored in your database, the results of which are displayed on

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Foundation for Creating Reports 2

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

Business context on a report: Attributes

Attributes are the business concepts reflected in your stored business data 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,

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

knowing where and when the sales took place provides the kind of analytical
depth users require on a daily basis.
Attributes Example

In the example above, the report contains the Region and Call Center attributes,
as well as a Profit metric. When executed, the report displays your company’s
profit for each geographical region, broken down further based on call center
locations. Because of the attributes on the report, a substantial amount of
information is available, including which regions produced the lowest profit and
which call centers saw the highest profit. If you remove the attributes from the
report, you can only find out how much profit the company made in total. An
attribute on a report serves as a label for specifically calculated metric values.

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.

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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
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. A
form is a descriptive category for any data your organization saves about any of its
attributes.
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 form of an attribute is more useful. However, as you
can see with the example of the Customer attribute above, displaying several
attribute forms might be most useful, depending on user needs.

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

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

Month attribute? To understand an attribute’s level, picture a hierarchy of related

business attributes. An example is shown below:
Year Hierarchy

The example above shows a hierarchy of all the attributes that relate to the
business concept of Time. (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.

In another example, suppose that your company is an Internet-based retailer and

has its call centers all over the U.S. Your company therefore stores its employee
data in your data source within the concept of geographical regions within the
U.S. The related business attributes within this idea of geographical region

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Foundation for Creating Reports 2

become part of the Geography hierarchy. An example using sample data from the
Tutorial project is shown below:
Geography Hierarchy

In the Geography hierarchy above, Country is the highest-level attribute and

Employee is the lowest-level attribute.

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.

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

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

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

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.

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Foundation for Creating Reports 2

From Region, you can drill down to Call Center or Employee.

Revenue Report by Call Center

You can also drill across to another hierarchy. From Region, you can drill across to
Category, in the Products hierarchy.
Revenue Report by Category

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

Exercise 2.1: Report basics

The goal of this exercise is to become familiar with MicroStrategy Web’s report
development environment, screen navigation, basic use of Web’s report
development functionality, along with executing and then modifying a basic
pre-designed report using attributes and metrics.

In the following exercise, you will perform the following:

• Open a pre-designed report

• Modify the report by adding additional attributes and metrics

• View the report in Grid, Graph, and Grid/Graph modes

• Drill into the report to view a different level of data

Open the Regional Profit and Margins report

1 In the Shared Reports folder, click the Subject Areas folder, then the
Enterprise Performance Management folder.

2 Click the Regional Profit and Margins report to open it. The report should
look like this:

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3 Locate the attributes in the report. Attributes can reside in both rows and
columns. In this report, the Region and Call Center attributes are displayed in
the rows, while the Year attribute is shown in the columns.

4 Locate the metrics in the report. Metrics can reside in both rows and columns.
This report’s metrics, which are all displayed in the columns, are Profit and
Profit Margin. The metrics are repeated for each year, but calculate different
values.

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

Add attributes and metrics to the report

1 Add an attribute to the rows of the report:

a If the All Objects pane is not displayed on the left, click the All Objects tab
at the bottom of the left pane. The All Objects pane displays all the objects
in the project, instead of just the objects in the report.

b In the All Objects pane, click Attributes, then click Geography.

c Select and drag Country onto the report grid; drop the attribute when the
yellow positioning line is displayed vertically at the far left edge of the
Region rows, as shown below:

Country is now displayed at the far left of the report:

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2 Add another attribute to the columns:

a In the All Objects pane on the left, click the Up One Level icon , to
return to the Attributes folder.

b Click the Time folder.

c Select and drag Quarter to the columns in the grid report, below Year. A
yellow object positioning line displays horizontally, as shown in the
example below:

3 Add a metric to the columns:

a In the All Objects pane, select Metrics from the drop-down list.

b Click Sales Metrics.

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

c Select and drag Revenue to the right of Profit in the report grid, as shown
in the image below.

Your report should look like the following. Notice that only one year of data is
displayed. At the top right of the report, the number of rows and columns are
provided. Only 10 of the 36 columns are displayed. To view additional
columns not visible on the right side of the report, click the More Columns
icon .

How much revenue did Boston generate in the third quarter of 2015?

Save the modified report as your own report

1 From the Report Home menu, select Save As.

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

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3 In the Name box, type Yearly Regional Profit and Revenue, then click OK.

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

View the report as a grid, a graph, and both a grid and a graph

1 The report originally displayed as a grid, but you can view it as a graph instead.
On the toolbar, click the Graph icon. Your report should look like the
following. Notice that this graph includes two quarters of data for six call
centers. For more quarters and call centers, display other pages and data
columns.

Q: Which region on this page of the graph has the lowest profit? Highest profit?
Use a graph report to more easily recognize overall trends in your data than a
grid report. Use a grid report to view very detail of the data, instead of trends.

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2 View the report as both a grid and a graph at the same time. Click the Grid
And Graph icon on the toolbar. Your report should like this:

Drill into the report to view a different level of data

1 In the Call Center column of the grid report, drill down into details of the data
by clicking the attribute element Milwaukee. Along with the change in the
grid report data, the graph display of the data automatically updates based on

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your selection. Your report should like this, displaying data for the employees
in the Milwaukee call center:

The drill action is displayed in the file path at the top of the interface. You have
drilled from the Regional Profit and Margins report down to Employee.

2 Return to the original report results by clicking the Back icon in the file path.

3 Click the Grid icon to return to the grid view of the report.

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

4 To view the report for all employees, not just those in the Milwaukee call
center, right-click the Call Center header, point to Drill, and select Employee.

5 You can drill on multiple attribute elements, such as multiple call centers.
Press CTRL while clicking Fargo and Washington, DC. Right-click the
selections, point to Drill, and select Distribution Center.

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The resulting report displays information for the distribution centers for the
selected call centers.

Q: Which Fargo or Washington, DC employee had the highest profit in the first
quarter of 2014?

6 Close this report to prepare for the next exercise. Click My Reports in the file
path at the top of the interface.

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

Exercise 2.2: Report data manipulation

In this exercise, we will manipulate a pre-designed report to display data in
different ways for analysis. The data manipulations include:

• Pivot the report data. Move the Quarter attribute to the columns. Swap the
rows and columns to move the Call Center attribute to the columns and the
Quarter attribute to the rows.

Pivoting lets you rearrange the columns and rows in a report so that you can
view data from different perspectives. You can move an object from a row to a
column, a column to a row, and change the order of objects in rows or
columns.

All metrics are kept together, so they are moved as a group when you pivot
data. For a graph report, you cannot move one metric to a row and another to
a column. For graph reports, metrics must all be together on only one axis. To
pivot metric data, select Metric in the header to move all the metrics together.

• Page the report by the Call Center attribute.

Page-by turns a long report into a set of individual pages, allowing you to
focus on one page (or subset of data) at a time. Page-by makes viewing a large
report easier than scrolling through long lists of data. You can page by
attributes; each page of the report will contain data for one attribute element
(each city, for example). You can also select the report’s metrics, as a group
(not individual metrics); each page of the report will contain data for one
metric.

• Drill on the entire report from the Quarter attribute to the Subcategory
attribute.
Drilling allows you to view the report at another level of detail.

• Change the background fill of the Revenue metric to grey.

Formatting a report allows you to accentuate data to enhance analysis, as well

as changing the overall display or look and feel of a report. For example, you
can highlight important numbers, put the focus on specific sets of data,
rename an object, and apply your corporate look. Applying a band of color to
a group of rows or columns, such as the Revenue metric, can make large
quantities of data easier to analyze.

• Save this report with a different name.

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Foundation for Creating Reports 2

Open the report

1 In the MicroStrategy Tutorial project, click the Shared Reports folder in

the navigation pane on the left.

2 Click Subject Areas, then Sales and Profitability Analysis.

3 Click the report named Revenue, Costs, and Units Sold by Call Center to run
it. (The report sample shown below displays only a portion of the report.)

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

Pivot data to move attributes

Move Quarter from rows to columns

1 Right-click the Quarter row header, point to Move, and select To Columns.

The report should look like the following sample.

Swap the rows and columns

2 Click the Data menu to display the Data toolbar.

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Foundation for Creating Reports 2

3 On the Data toolbar, click the Swap Rows and Columns icon .

The Call Center attribute is moved to the columns, and the Quarter attribute
to the rows. Note that the metrics do not move in the swap; they are still
displayed in the columns.

4 Swap the rows and columns again, so that Call Center is returned to the rows
and Quarter to the columns.

Page the report by the Call Center attribute

1 Right-click the Call Center column header, point to Move, and select To
Page-by Axis.

The report should look like the following report sample. Notice the Page-By
pane, which now displays Call Center. Atlanta is selected, but you can display
another call center by selecting it from the drop-down list. Notice that the

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

metric values are the same as those listed for Atlanta in the previous report
samples.

Drill from Quarter to Subcategory

1 Right-click the Quarter row header, point to Drill, point to Products, and
select Subcategory.

The resulting report is shown below. The quarters displayed previously on the
column headers have been replaced by subcategories.

Format the Revenue metric with a grey background

1 Right-click the Revenue column header and select Advanced Formatting.

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Foundation for Creating Reports 2

2 In the Format: Template window, confirm that the first drop-down list shows
Revenue and the second drop-down list shows Values.

These lists allow you to format different areas of the report. Click the first list,
to view your options. Each object in the report is listed, as well as different
areas such as grid borders, grid cells, and all metrics. Keep the selection at
Revenue. Click the second list, to view your options. For a metric, you can
format the header, the values, or all. For other objects, you can also format
subtotal values or names. Do not change the selection from Values.

3 Click the Color and Lines tab.

4 From the Fill Color palette, select Grey-25%, then click OK.

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 2 Foundation for Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

Your results should look like the following:

Notice that the column of Revenue values has a grey background, but the
headers are still blue. If you want to change the Metric headers, select
Revenue and Header in the Format toolbar, click the Fill Color icon, and select
Grey-25%, as shown below:

Save the report

1 Click the Save As icon in the toolbar.

2 Save the report in the My Reports folder, named Revenue, Costs, and Units
Sold by Call Center and Subcategory.

3 Close the report.

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 3
CREATING REPORTS

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

• Using a pre-designed report by either:


Using one of the pre-designed reports that come out of the box with
MicroStrategy
 Saving a pre-designed report to your My Reports folder and creating a
new report based on it

• Using a pre-made template

• Starting from scratch with a blank report

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.

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A new report automatically opens in Design Mode of the Report Editor. Design
Mode allows you to create or edit the report’s template and definition. A report’s
definition is the definitions 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 panes of the Report Editor that you use most frequently when you
start creating reports:

• All Objects pane: Lets you search for and select objects within the project, to
add them 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

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improve report execution performance. In addition, multiple reports can be

created from the same parent report.

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 based on pre-designed reports

The MicroStrategy Tutorial project includes sample data, such as actual customer
names and items purchased, as well as predesigned sample reports. The
reporting areas are grouped logically so you can see reports based on business
roles, MicroStrategy platform capabilities, or various subject areas such as
customer analysis, inventory and supply chain analysis, sales and profitability
analysis, and so on.

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

You did this when you opened the Regional Profit and Margins report in
Exercise 2.1: Report basics.

• Saving a pre-designed report to your My Reports folder and creating a new

report based on it

You did this in Exercise 2.1: Report basics when you added attributes and
metrics to the Regional Profit and Margins report, and then saved it as Yearly
Regional Profit and Revenue.

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 3 Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

Categories of pre-designed reports

Pre-designed reports are saved in the following subfolders in the Shared Reports
folder of the Tutorial project:

• Business Roles: Contains reports for different types of business intelligence

users, such as billing managers, brand managers, company executives, sales
managers, and operations managers. For example, brand managers can see a
report for Brand Performance by Region. A billing manager can see data in a
report called Invoice Statements by Selected Customers, as well as a
customer-level transaction detail report.

• MicroStrategy Platform Capabilities: Contains examples of the

sophisticated capabilities within the MicroStrategy platform. Use the reports
and documents to get a better feel for platform functionality. For example, the
Graph Styles folder contains examples of most of the graph types that can be
created in MicroStrategy. The Ad Hoc Reporting folder shows examples of
commonly used features like sorting and thresholds.

• Subject Areas: Contains reports that cover various topics such as customer
analysis, enterprise performance management, human resources analysis,
inventory and supply chain analysis, sales and profitability analysis, and
supplier analysis.

Building reports using templates

A template provides the underlying structure of a report. It specifies the set of
information that the report should retrieve from your data source, and it also
determines the structure in which the information is displayed in the report’s
results. A template’s structure is the location of objects on the template, such as
showing that metrics have been placed in the report’s columns, and attributes
have been placed in the rows; the Revenue metric has been placed to the left of
the Revenue Forecast metric so that a user reading left to right can see current
revenue before seeing forecasted revenue; and so on.

The templates let you create a new report quickly because the template already
contains common objects and basic filters. When you create any new report, you
can start with an existing template, which will shorten the time it takes to
produce the finished report. You just select which objects to display on the report,
and in what order. You can then customize the report, by adding subtotals,
filtering the data, and formatting the report.

In the MicroStrategy Tutorial project, you will find several report templates to
choose from.

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Report Templates

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 3 Creating Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

Exercise 3.1: 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.

The final report should look like the following. (Only two regions of the report are
provided in this sample.)
Employee Revenue by Region Report

Create a report using the Employee Analysis template

1 On any folder page in the Tutorial project, click Create, point to New Report,
and then select Employee Analysis.

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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

2 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.

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

Select the metrics for the report

4 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.

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

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6 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

7 Click the Save As icon in the toolbar.

8 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:

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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”

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.

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Remove Manager First Name

4 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.

5 Click First Name to remove it from the report.

Add Employee ID

6 Add the ID attribute form for employees.

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

Save the report

7 Click the Save icon .

8 In the Confirm Save window, click No, because we want to save this version of
the report with a different name.

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

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

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

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Remove the extra Metrics column

1 From the Tools menu, select Report Options.

2 On the General tab of the Report Options window, select the Remove extra
column check box, in the View area.

3 Click OK.

Review results and save the final report

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

1 Save and close the report.

Building reports from scratch

A simple report generally has at least one attribute, one metric, and one filter.
While it is not necessary to have all these objects in the report, the data returned
is more meaningful if all these objects are present in the report.

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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 begins 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.

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Exercise 3.2: Create a simple report from scratch

Create a report from scratch, to display profit data for subcategories. Filter the
report to display only the regions in the East (Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Southeast,
and South).

We will use the Blank Report as a starting point, and add the following objects to
the template: Region, Subcategory, Profit, and Profit Margin. Add the East Region
filter.

The result should look like the following. Although only Mid-Atlantic is shown,
note that the Report Details pane indicates the regions included in the filter and
therefore the report.
Profit for Subcategories in Eastern Regions

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Create a report using the Blank Report template

1. On any folder page in the Tutorial project, click Create, point to New Report,
and then select 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

2. 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.

3. Add the Subcategory attribute to the right of Region.

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

4. 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.)

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Add a filter to the report

5 At the top of the All Objects pane, select MicroStrategy Tutorial from the
drop-down list.

6 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.

Review the results

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

Check your results against the report sample at the beginning of the exercise.
Only the following regions should be displayed:

• Mid-Atlantic

• Northeast

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• Southeast

• South

10 Close the report.

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 4
FILTERING REPORTS
Creating Filters and Prompts

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

• Filter: Specifies conditions that data must meet to be included in the report
results. For example, a report containing employee data can be filtered to
display only the Northeast region.
• Prompt: Asks the user, when a report is run, to provide an answer. Prompts are
often used in filters. For example, the employee data report can prompt you to
select which region to display.

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

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of that data, so reports show you what you really need to see. You can filter
attributes or metric values, as shown in the examples below.
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.

Best Applying filters to reports allows you to reuse the same report with different filters
Practice 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

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.

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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.

Best The advantage of using both report filters and view filters on a report is that the
Practice 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.

Filters are most commonly used on reports, to filter all the data the report would
otherwise retrieve from the data source and display to users. However, filters can also
be used with a specific object on a report, such as on a metric. A filter placed on a
metric only filters data related to that metric. This type of metric is called a conditional
metric. The metric is filtered by the attached filter, no matter what report the metric is
placed on. Conditional metrics are taught in the 11.414 Designing Metrics for the
Intelligent Enterprise class.

Viewing filter details: Report Details pane

To successfully interpret the data displayed in a report, it is important that you
understand what data was specifically included in that report, as well as what
data was excluded. For example, the following image shows a report that is
filtered based on specific categories. While the Category attribute is included in

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the report filter, it is not included in the report template—the attribute is not
displayed on the grid, and it is not available in the Report Objects pane.
Report Filter Based on Categories

The Report Details pane displays the definition of a report, that is, all the objects
being used for a report, including any filters and the details of those filters. You
can open and close the Report Details pane by selecting Report Details from the
Tools menu.

The following image shows the previous report with its report filter, and now with
a view filter added. The view filter has a condition of Region=Mid-Atlantic,
Northeast, and Southeast. As you can see, the Region attribute is in the Report
Objects pane (and on the report template), and only data for the selected regions
displays in the report view, even though data for the other regions was retrieved
from the data source.
View Filter Based on Region

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.

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

Notice that the Auto-Apply Changes check box is selected. This means that as
soon as you create a view filter condition, the report is updated. If you add
another condition or delete one, the data is updated again.

You can instead control when the update occurs. Applying a number of filter
changes all at once can be helpful when your report contains large amounts of
data, so that you update the data once, after all the changes are made. Updating
the data repeatedly takes longer than updating it once.

If you are familiar with SQL, it may help to know that view filters do not modify the
SQL for the report like 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.

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Exercise 4.1: 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).

Note: These reports use dates, and the dates available in MicroStrategy Tutorial
may have changed from those displayed in the report samples. The metric values
should remain the same.

Open the report

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

the left.

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, 2015 Q4, which is $2,370. This will help us

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monitor if and how metric values change when we create and apply the view
filter.

Create a view filter on the Category attribute

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.

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

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.

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

• 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,
2015 Q4 is $2,370, the same as in the unfiltered report.

The condition was immediately applied to the report because Auto-Apply

Changes is selected. If the check box was cleared, another Apply button displays
after you complete a condition. When you have added all the conditions, click
Apply to apply all the conditions at once.

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.

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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, 2015 Q1 is no longer displayed (its profit was $4,083).

• Since the view filter affects what data is displayed, the calculations are not
affected by the view filter. The profit value for Central, Movies, 2015 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.

Report filters
You can create a report filter:

• When you create the report, dynamically. One of the differences between this
type of report filter and a view filter is that you can use any object in your data

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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
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:

Goal Filter Type Example

Attribute Qualification: Restricts data based on attributes

Filter based on attribute Attribute element list Region In List North, South, and
elements, such as North, South, qualification West
and West for Region attribute

Filter based on attribute forms, Attribute form • Customer Description Begins

such as the ID or description qualification With SMITH
(which is the name) of the
Customer attribute • Customer ID = 001 - 100

• Ship Date between 1/1/2016

and 6/30/2016

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Goal Filter Type Example

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

Filter based on a metric’s value, Metric qualification • Revenue > 300,000

rank, or percent
• Rank of Profit = 1

Filter based on relationships Relationship Stores selling Nike shoes in the

between two attributes qualification Northeast (relationship between
the Item and Region attributes)

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

Filter based on the results from Shortcut-to-a-report The intersection of the 1/1/2015
an existing report, with qualification Active Customers report and 12/
additional qualifications, if 31/2015 Active Customers report
needed to display continuing customers

Filter based on an existing filter, Shortcut-to-a-filter Add a qualification to determine

with additional qualifications, if qualification active customers to the Region In
needed 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 11.412 Advanced Analytics class.

Joining filter qualifications with logical operators

If you add multiple qualifications to a filter, the qualifications are joined by logical
operators, which determine how the qualifications interact with each other.

• AND operator: The object must meet both qualifications to be included in the
report. This is the default operator.

In the following Venn diagram, the AND operator is represented by the

intersection of the circles—revenue values generated in the Northeast region

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in 2014. Revenue values calculated for 2014 in the Southeast region are not
included, and no 2013 values are included in the report results.
AND operator

• OR operator: The object must meet either qualification to be included in the

report.

In the following Venn diagram, the OR operator is represented by the area in

yellow—revenue values generated in 2014, the Northeast, or in both 2014
and Northeast. Revenue values for 2011 in the Southeast region are not
included, for example.
OR Operator

• OR NOT operator: The object must not meet the second qualification (the
qualification following the operator) to be included in the report.
In the following Venn diagram, the OR NOT operator is represented by the
yellow area—all revenue values are included in the results, except for those

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generated in the Northeast for any year except 2014. Revenue values for 2011
in the Southeast region are included, for example.
OR NOT Operator

• AND NOT operator: The object must meet the first qualification (the
qualification before the operator) and not meet the second qualification to be
included in the report.

In the following Venn diagram, the AND NOT operator is represented by the
yellow crescent—all 2014 revenue values, except for those generated in the
Northeast, are included. Revenue values for 2011 in the Southeast region are
not included, while those for 2014 in the Southeast are.
AND NOT Operator

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Exercise 4.2: Create a report filter in a report

We will create a report filter in the report that we applied a view filter to. The filter
uses the Subcategory attribute, which is not included on the report. Only data
from the Action, Comedy, Alternative, and Country subcategories will be included
in the report’s data.

Open the report

1 Edit the View Filter report that you created in the previous exercise. To edit a
report, hover your cursor over the report name and click Edit. The report
opens in Design Mode.

Design Mode allows you to create report filters.

Create a report filter in the report

1 If the Report Filter pane is not displayed, click the Filter icon in the toolbar.

2 Click All Objects in the accordion pane on the left, to choose objects that are
not in the report.

3 In the All Objects pane, click Attributes, then Products.

4 Drag Subcategory from the All Objects pane to the Report Filter pane.

5 Select Qualify, to create an attribute form qualification, which compares a

selected attribute form to a specific value.

Instead of creating an attribute form qualification, you can select a list of attribute
elements to include in or exclude from the report.

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6 The first drop-down list contains the attribute forms of the selected attribute.
Select DESC, to filter on the attribute’s description.

The forms are additional descriptive information about an attribute. In this case,
the Subcategory attribute’s forms are ID and DESC.

7 The next drop-down list contains operators. Select Equals.

8 In the box, type Action, the value to compare the Subcategory description to.

9 Click Apply.

Run the report to see the results

10 Click the Run Report icon in the toolbar. The view filter and report filter
conditions are both displayed in the Report Details pane.

Before you applied the report filter, the report had 132 rows, and the profit
value for Central, Movies, 2015 Q4 was $2,370. After you applied the report
filter:

• The number of rows has decreased to 98, because the Action subcategory
is available only for the Movies category. The rows for Music are no longer
displayed on the report.

• The profit value for Central, Movies, 2015 Q4 is now $346, because it
contains profits only from Action movies, not Comedy, Drama, and so on.

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A report filter can affect the calculations, while a view filter does not.

Save the report

11 Save the report as View Filter + Report Filter, in the My Reports folder.
Change the Description as well as the report Name. Because the report filter
uses an object that is not included in the report, it is important to document
how the report’s calculations are affected, for other users. If the Report Details
pane is not displayed, another user may not realize that only Action movies
are included, not all the movie subcategories.

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Exercise 4.3: Create stand-alone filters

In this exercise, we will create a:

• Filter for revenue values over $5,000,000 (a metric qualification)

• Filter for specific items (an attribute list qualification)

• Filter using a shortcut to a report

• Report with the Region attribute and Revenue metric, filtered by the revenue
filter

Finally, we will replace the revenue filter in the report with the item and
shortcut-to-a-report filters.

Create a metric qualification filter on revenue

1 From a page in MicroStrategy Web, select Create, then select New Filter.

2 On the New Filter page, in the pane on the left, click Metrics.

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3 Click the Sales Metrics folder.

4 Drag the Revenue metric to the filter definition pane on the right.

5 In the first drop-down list, select Greater than.

6 In the second text box, type 5000000 (without commas).

7 Click Apply to save the metric qualification.

8 In the toolbar, click Save .

9 Save the filter in the My Reports folder as Revenue > $5,000,000.

10 Close the filter.

Create an attribute element list filter on item

1 From a page in MicroStrategy Web, click Create, and select New Filter.

2 On the New Filter page, in the pane on the left, click Hierarchies, and then
click the Products hierarchy.

3 Click the Subcategory attribute to view its elements.

4 Click Business to view its child attributes (any attributes below it in the
hierarchy).

5 Click the Item attribute to view its elements.

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6 Select Jump Start Your Brain and The Joy of Work, then drag them both to
the filter definition pane on the right. You have started creating an attribute
element list qualification.

7 In the pane on the left, click the Up One Level icon twice to return to the
list of attribute elements for the Subcategory attribute.

8 Click Sports & Health, then Item.

9 Select Nutrition 101 and Pilates: The Way Forward and drag them to the
filter definition pane. The items are added to the list.

10 Click the Up One Level icon twice to return to the list of subcategories.

11 Click Science & Technology, then Item.

12 Select Nanotechnology and Being Digital, and drag them to the filter
definition pane. You should now have six items listed in your qualification in
the filter definition pane.

13 Save the filter in the My Reports folder as List of Items.

14 Close the filter.

Create a shortcut-to-a-report filter

1 From a page in MicroStrategy Web, click Create, and select New Filter.

2 On the New Filter page, in the pane on the left, type Revenue, Costs, and
Units Sold in the Search box, then click the Search icon .

3 Drag the Revenue, Costs, and Units Sold by Call Center report from the list
of found objects to the filter definition pane.

4 Save the filter in the My Reports folder as Shortcut to Call Center Report.

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5 Close the filter.

Create and run a report using the metric qualification filter

1 From a page in MicroStrategy Web, select Create, select New Report, then
select Blank Report.

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

3 Drag the Region attribute to the rows of the template definition pane.

4 In the All Objects pane, select Metrics from the drop-down list.

5 Click the Sales Metrics folder.

6 Drag the Revenue metric to the metrics drop zone of the template definition
pane.

Add the filter to the report

7 In the All Objects pane, select My Personal Objects from the drop-down list.

8 Click the My Reports folder.

9 Drag the Revenue > $5,000,000 filter to the Report Filter definition pane.

If the Report Filter pane is not displayed, click the Filter icon on the
toolbar.

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10 In the toolbar, click the Run Report icon . The report should look like the
following:

Q: What is the revenue amount for Central?

11 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Report Filter: Metric.

12 Select Run newly saved report.

Combine two filters in a report

1 Return to Design Mode by clicking the Design icon .

2 In the Report Filter definition pane, delete the Revenue > $5,000,000 filter by
clicking the X next to its name.

3 In the All Objects pane, click My Personal Objects.

4 Click the My Reports folder.

5 Drag both the List of Items and Shortcut to Call Center Report filters to the
Report Filter definition pane. Notice that the two filters are joined by the AND
operator, by default. Objects have to meet both filters to be included in the
report.

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6 In the toolbar, click Run Report. Compare your results to the expected report
results shown below:

Q: What is the revenue amount for Central? Why is that value different from the
revenue amount in the previous report?

A: This report calculates revenue only for the items in the filter’s list. The previous
report calculated revenue for all items.

Q: Why are there seven rows on this report, but only three in the previous report?

A: This report returns all the regions in the Revenue, Costs, and Units Sold by Call
Center report (only the Web region is not included in that report). The previous
report returned only the regions with revenue over $5 million.

7 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Report Filter: Item List and
Shortcut.

Change the operator between the filters

8 In the toolbar, click the Design icon .

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9 In the Report Filter definition pane, click the AND operator between the two
filters, and select OR. Now, objects have to meet only one of the filters to be
included in the report.

10 In the toolbar, click Run Report. Compare your results to the expected report
results shown below:

Q: Why are there eight rows on this report, but only seven in the previous report?
A: The report contains all eight regions in the project, because Web is now
displayed. The Web region had sales of the selected items, so it is included in the
report even though it is not included in the report shortcut. A region has to satisfy
only one of the filters to be included in this report.

11 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Report Filter: Item List or
Shortcut.

12 Close the report.

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Building prompts to allow user input

A prompt is a question the system presents to a user during report execution.
How the user answers the question determines what data is displayed on the
report.

For example, when a user runs a report, he is prompted to select a book supplier
from a list.
Book Supplier Prompt

The report displays revenue only for the selected supplier.

Prompted Report Results

The next time that the user runs the report, he can answer the prompt with a
different supplier, or the same one.

Best Prompts allow the report designer to create fewer reports, because each analyst
Practice can answer the report’s prompts to identify specific data they want to see in the
final report. Effectively, each user creates his own filter for the report.

The difference, from a report designer’s perspective, is that a filter is created to

provide a single, specific definition for the report. The filtered report then displays
the same set of data to every user who executes that report. In contrast, a prompt
dynamically modifies the contents of a report. With prompts, users can determine
the objects (attributes, attribute elements, metrics, and so on) that they want to
be part of, or excluded from, the report query that is sent to the data source.
Therefore, a prompt can be seen as a way for users to create their own filter for a
given report.

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The designer presents the question to analysts who execute the report, by placing
a prompt object on the report. A prompt can be placed in the:

• Report filter, to let analysts determine the data that is included in the report.
For example, the following prompt allows the user to select which supplier to
display.
Prompt in Report Filter

• Report template, to let analysts select which objects to include on the report.
These objects can include attributes, metrics, or filters.
Prompt in Report Template

• Page-by, to let analysts select which objects to use to split a long report into a
set of individual pages.
Prompt in Page-by

Prompts can also be used in a filter or metric.

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Prompt types
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)

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
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.

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• 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

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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

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• 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

Prompt creation
After selecting the type of prompt, the next step in creating a prompt is defining
the characteristics for your prompt. These characteristics are grouped onto tabs in
MicroStrategy Web’s prompt creation page:

• Definition: Set limits on the amount of content that can be selected in the
prompt.

Allows you to select the object(s) to base the prompt on. For attribute element
list prompts, you can also select the attribute elements to display.

• General: Provide a title and prompt instructions, which are displayed when
the report is run. Determine whether a prompt is required. Define the
minimum/maximum limits. Determine whether personal answers are allowed.
Personal answers allow a user to save prompt answers for the prompt, and
then reuse the answers on any report that uses the prompt. Personal answers
can help reduce the storage space used by multiple saved static reports.

• Style: Define how the prompt will be displayed (style, size, and so on). If you
selected a search object in the Definition tab, select whether to allow users to
use a search box to locate prompt answers. Searching for objects allows users
to quickly locate specific objects to use to answer the prompt.
• Qualification: Choose whether to allow users to select prompt answers,
create a qualification, or select which to use. Define the expression that
qualifies the prompt answer.

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Available for Attribute Qualification, Hierarchy Qualification, and Metric

Qualification prompts.

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Exercise 4.4: Create prompts to use in a filter

We will create prompts and use them in the filter of a report.

1 Create the following prompts:

• Prompt on the Product hierarchy: Users see all the attributes and attribute
elements in the Product hierarchy.

• Prompt on the Region attribute element list: Users see the entire list of
attribute elements (regions). Answering the prompt is required.

• Metric Qualification prompt on Revenue: Users are guided through

creating a metric qualification (filter) on the Revenue metric.

2 Create a report with Item and Revenue, and add the prompts to its report
filter.

3 Run the report, and select the following answers to the prompts:

• Books category

• Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Southeast regions

• Revenue value greater than $20,000

The report results should look like the following:

Create a prompt on the Product hierarchy

1 On a page in MicroStrategy Web, click Create, point to New Prompt, and then
select Hierarchy Qualification Prompt.

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We use a Hierarchy Qualification prompt because we want the user to select an

attribute element from a specific hierarchy.

2 On the Definition tab, select Choose a Hierarchy.

3 Click Select Hierarchy.

4 From the Available list, select Products, and click OK.

5 On the General tab, type Choose from all attributes in the Products
hierarchy in the Title box.

6 Click Save on the toolbar.

7 Select the My Objects folder from the drop-down list.

8 Type Choose from all attributes in the Products hierarchy in the Name box
and click OK.

9 Click Close on the toolbar.

Create an Attribute Element List prompt on the Region attribute

1 On a page in MicroStrategy Web, click Create, point to New Prompt, and then
select Attribute Element List.

We use an Attribute Element List prompt because we want the user to select an
attribute element from a restricted list of attribute element.

2 On the Definition tab, click Select Attribute.

3 Click the Geography folder, select Region in the Available list, and click OK.

4 On the General Tab, type Choose from all elements of Region in the Title
box.

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5 Select the Prompt Answer Is Required check box.

6 Save the prompt as Choose from all elements of Region in the My Objects
folder.

7 Close the prompt.

Create a Metric Qualification prompt on Revenue

1 On a page in MicroStrategy Web, click Create, point to New Prompt, and then
select Metric Qualification Prompt.
We use a Metric Qualification prompt because we want the user to decide how to
filter on the metric.

2 On the Definition tab, click Choose a metric.

3 Click Select Metric.

4 Click the Sales Metrics folder, select Revenue in the Available list, and click
OK.

5 On the General tab, type Qualify on Revenue metric in the Title box.

6 Save the prompt as Qualify on Revenue metric in the My Objects folder.

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Create a report that uses the prompts

1 Click Create, point to New Report, then select Blank Report.

2 In the All Objects pane, click My Personal Objects, then click the My Objects
folder.

3 Drag the following three prompts into the Report Filter definition pane:

• Choose from all attributes in the Products hierarchy

• Choose from all elements of Region

• Qualify on Revenue metric

4 In the All Objects pane, select Attributes from the drop-down list.

5 Click the Products folder.

6 Drag the Item attribute into the rows of the template definition pane.

7 In the All Objects pane, select Metrics from the drop-down list.

8 Click the Sales Metrics folder.

9 Drag the Revenue metric into the columns of the template definition pane.

Run the report with prompted filters

1 On the toolbar, click Run Report.

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2 Answer Books for the Products hierarchy prompt:

a In the Available list, expand the Category attribute. Double-click Books to

add it to the Selected list.

3 Answer Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Southeast for the Region prompt. Notice
that an answer is required.

a In the Available list, hold the CTRL key while selecting Mid-Atlantic,
Northeast, and Southeast, then click the > button to add them to the
Selected list.

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4 Create the “Revenue greater than 20,000” metric qualification for the Revenue
prompt:

a In the Available list, double-click Revenue to add it to the Selected list.

b In the Selected list, click the operator to change it to Greater Than.

c Click Value, type 20000 in the Enter Value box, then click OK.

d Leave the level at Default.

5 At the bottom of the prompts window, click Run Report.

6 Compare your results to the expected results at the beginning of this exercise.

Save the report as a prompted report

1 On the toolbar, click Save.

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2 Select the Keep Report Prompted check box.

If you do not keep the report prompted, your prompt answers are saved, to create
a static report. The next time that the report is run, the prompt selection page is
not displayed because the saved answers are used to automatically answer the
prompts.

3 Expand Advanced Options.

4 Click Only filter will be prompted.

These options allow you to determine which prompts are presented to users when
the report is run. You can choose to display prompts that are part of the report’s
filter (as these are), prompts that have been placed on the report’s template, or
both.

5 Clear the Set the current prompt answers to be the default prompt
answers.

If you select the default prompt answer option, the next time that the report is run,
the prompt selection page is displayed, with your prompt answers as the default.
The user can change the prompt answers.

6 Click OK.

7 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Filter Definition Prompts.

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Exercise 4.5: Create object prompts to select the objects

displayed on a report
We will create object prompts, which allow users to select the objects to display
on a report, as described below:

• The metric prompt allows you to choose the Average Revenue metric, the
Units Sold metric, or both.

• The attribute prompt allows you to select any attributes returned by the
“Search for all objects of type Attribute” search.

This search object is already built for you and can be found in the Public
Object\Searches folder. A search object searches for and displays specific
objects when the user executes the report. This allows the prompt to display
the most up-to-date objects in the project.

Create the report and place both object prompts on the report template. When
you run the report, select Units Sold, Category, and Region for the prompt
answers, so the report results look like the following:

Note: This is only a sample of the report results, not the full report.

Save the report as a prompted report, and use the prompt answers as the default
answers. When you run the report again, you are prompted to provide answers,
but are provided with these default answers.

Save the report as a static report. When you run the report again, you are not
prompted, and the last prompt answers are used to define the report.

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Create a prompt to select metrics

1 On a page in MicroStrategy Web, click Create, point to New Prompt, and

select Object Prompt.

We use an Object prompt because we want the user to select the metrics to display
on the report.

2 On the Definition tab, select Use a Pre-defined List of Objects, and then click
Add.

3 From the Look In drop-down list, select the Metrics folder.

4 In the Available list, click the Sales Metrics folder.

5 Add Average Revenue and Units Sold to the Selected list. You may need to
click the arrows to scroll through all the Sales Metrics to find both of these
metrics.

6 Click OK.

7 On the General tab, type Choose from a list of metrics in the Title box.

8 Save the prompt in the My Objects folder as Choose from a list of metrics.

9 Close the prompt.

Create a prompt to select attributes

1 On a page in MicroStrategy Web, click Create, point to New Prompt, and

select Object Prompt.

We use an Object prompt because we want the user to select the attributes to
display on the report.

2 On the Definition tab, select Use the Result of a Search Object, then click
Select Search.

3 Select Search for all objects of type Attribute, and click OK.

4 On the General tab, type Choose from a list of attributes in the Title box.

5 Save the prompt in the My Objects folder as Choose from a list of attributes.

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6 Close the prompt.

Create a report using the object prompts

1 On a page in MicroStrategy Web, select Create, point to New Report, then

select Blank Report.

2 In the All Objects pane, click My Personal Objects, then click the My Objects
folder.

3 Drag the Choose from a list of metrics prompt into the columns of the
template definition pane.

4 Drag the Choose from a list of attributes prompt into the rows of the
template definition pane.

By default, the order in which you add prompts to a report determines the display
sequence of the prompts when the user runs the report. However, you can change
this order by selecting Prompt Ordering from the Data menu. In the Prompt
Ordering window, use the arrow keys to re-order the prompt objects in the report.
The Prompt Ordering option under the Data menu is only available when a report
has more than one prompt object.

Save the report

5 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Prompts-Original.

Run the report, answering the prompts

6 Select Run newly saved report.

7 For the metrics prompt, in the Available list, select Units Sold, and click > to
move it to the Selected list.

8 For the attributes prompt, move Category and Region to the Selected list.

You can search for Region by typing Region in the Search for box and
clicking the Search icon .

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9 To display Category to the right of Region on the report template, move

Category below Region. In the Selected list, select Category, and click the
Move Down button.

10 Click Run Report.

11 Compare your results to the expected report at the beginning of this exercise.

Save and run the report with a prompted template

1 From the Report Home menu, select Save As.

2 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Prompts-Template Prompted.

3 Expand Advanced Options.

4 In the Prompts area, select Only template will be prompted.

5 Leave the Set the Current Prompt Answers to be the Default Prompt
Answers check box selected.

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When this check box is selected, prompt answers selected when the report is run
become the new default prompt answers. When the report runs again, these
answers display as default prompt answers, although the user can change them.

6 Click OK, then select Run newly saved report. Notice that the prompt
answers you selected the last time are displayed as the default answers.

7 Click Run Report. Because you used the same prompt answers, the report is
identical to the first time that you ran it.

Save and run the report as a static, non-prompted report

1 From the Report Home menu, select Save As.

2 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Prompts-Static.

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3 In the Prompts area, select Save Report as Static.

4 Click OK, then select Run newly saved report.

You are no longer prompted since you saved the report as a static report. Since the
report runs with your previously saved prompt answers, it is identical to the
previous reports.

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 5
CALCULATING DATA ON
REPORTS
Creating Metrics

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

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cost, create a metric that adds ups (or sums) the Cost fact. 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.

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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, to count the number of employees.
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.

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• Metrics perform aggregations on fact columns.

Calculating metric values

A metric value is calculated based on a business concept, or attribute. For
example, you want a metric that calculates the cost for each product category.
Create a metric that sums the Cost fact:

Sum (Cost)

Place the metric on a report with the Category attribute. The metric calculates the
cost value for each product category.

You can use the same Cost metric on another report, to calculate the cost value
for each region.

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What if the report contains more than a single attribute?

This sample displays only a portion of the complete report.

The report calculates the cost values for each subcategory. Why doesn’t the report
provide category values? A metric calculates based on the least-inclusive business
concept on the report. In this case, Subcategory is a less inclusive attribute than
Category. The least-inclusive attribute is referred to as the lowest level on the
report. It is also called the report level, since the metrics are calculated at the level
of the attribute on each report. It provides flexibility because you can reuse your
metrics on many different reports.

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Exercise 5.1: 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.
The first few rows of the report should look like the following:

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

2 From the Functions list on the left, 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.

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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.

Check how the metric values are calculated (the level of the metric)

4 Click Show All. Notice that Level is set to Report Level. This allows the metric
to calculate at the level of the lowest attribute on any report that the metric is
placed on.

Optionally, you can use these settings to:

• Select the attribute level that the metric calculates at, by adding a level.

• Filter the data included in the metric, by adding a condition.

• Apply offset values such as “four months ago” or “last year”, by adding a
transformation.
Level, condition, and transformation metrics are covered in the 11.414
Designing Metrics for the Intelligent Enterprise course.

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Format the metric’s values

5 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.

6 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).

7 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.

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

9 Click OK to close the Format window.

Save the Cost metric

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

11 Click Create New Folder.

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

13 Click the My Metric Exercises folder.

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14 Save the new metric as Cost.

15 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

Click Format at the top right of the Metric Editor. In the Format window, select
Metric Values from the drop-down list.

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.

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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 a metric made up of other 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 are 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.

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Smart metrics
One advantage of compound metrics compared to simple metrics is that
compound metrics can use smart totals. A compound metric with smart totals
enabled is often called a smart metric.

Smart totals define the evaluation order for the final calculation. 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).

This is explained with a report in the following exercise.

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Exercise 5.2: Create compound metrics and smart totals

We will create a compound metric called Profit Margin, using the Revenue and
Cost metrics that we created in the previous exercise. We will create a copy of the
compound metric that uses smart totals, and compare the subtotals of each
metric on a report.

• Define the Profit Margin metric as:

Sum(Revenue - Cost)/Revenue

• Edit the Profit Margin metric to allow smart totals, and save the metric as
Smart Profit Margin.

• Add the following to the Item, Cost, Revenue Report (created in the previous
exercise):

Category attribute

Profit Margin metric

Smart Profit Margin metric

When you run the new report, the first few rows should look like the following.
Notice that the two profit margin metrics calculate the same values.

Create the Profit Margin compound metric

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

2 Click Switch to Formula Editor.

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

4 Add the Revenue metric to the metric formula:

a In the All Objects drop-down list, select My Objects.

b Select the My Metric Exercises folder.

c Double-click the Revenue metric.

5 In the metric definition pane, keep the cursor at the end of Revenue but inside
the parenthesis (as shown above). Click the Subtraction icon .

6 In the All Objects area, double-click the Cost metric to add it to the formula.

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7 In the metric definition pane, move the cursor to the far right of the metric
definition (outside the parenthesis), then click the Division icon .

8 In the All Objects area, double-click the Revenue metric. The following
formula should display in the metric definition pane:

9 Click Validate above the metric definition.

If a green check mark displays at the bottom of the definition pane, you
defined the metric formula correctly. Otherwise, review the formula and try
again.

10 Format the metric values as percentage, with two decimal places:

a Click Format.

b Select Metric Values from the drop-down list.

c Change the Category to Percentage.

d Set Decimal Places to 2.

e Click OK.

11 Save the metric in the My Metrics Exercises folder, as Profit Margin.

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

Create the Smart Profit Margin compound metric

1 Navigate to the My Metrics Exercises folder, under My Objects.

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2 Click the Profit Margin metric, to edit it.

3 In the Metric Editor, click Metric Options at the top right

4 Select Allow Smart Metric, then click OK.

5 Click Save As.

6 Save the metric in the My Metrics Exercises folder as Smart Profit Margin.

Add the compound metrics to a report

1 On any MicroStrategy Web page, click the My Reports folder (listed on the left
side).

2 Right-click the Item, Cost, Revenue report, and select Edit.

3 Click the All Objects tab in the accordion at the bottom left.

4 In the All Objects pane, click Hierarchies, then the Products hierarchy.

5 Drag the Category attribute to the left of Item in the template definition
pane.

6 In the All Objects pane, select My Personal Objects from the drop-down list.

7 Click the My Objects folder, then the My Metrics Exercises folder.

8 Drag Profit Margin and Smart Profit Margin to the right of Cost in the
template definition pane.

9 Run the report.

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10 Display the Category values at the top of the row, so that you can view them
easier:

a Right-click the Category header and select Advanced Formatting.

b In the Format: Template window, click the Alignment tab.

c In the Text Alignment area, from the Vertical drop-down list, select Top.

Notice that you are formatting the values for Category, not the header.

d Click OK.

11 Compare your results to the expected report at the beginning of this exercise.
The Profit Margin and Smart Profit Margin metrics should calculate the same
values for each row.

Display subtotals

12 From the Data menu, select Show Totals.

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13 Display the last page of the report, by clicking the Last icon at the bottom
of the window. Scroll down to the end of the report, to display the music
subtotals and the report’s grand totals.

• Notice that 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 (category or
grand total).

• The totals for the Smart Profit Margin 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.

14 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Compound Metric-Profit Margin

with Subtotals.

Selecting subtotals and totals for metrics

When you show totals in a report, the metric totals are calculated using the sum
function by default. This means that the metric values are added together.
Total = Sum of Revenue

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When you define a metric, you can change the default subtotal function, so that
the default subtotal is calculated with a different function, such as average or
count.
Total = Average Revenue

In a report, you can select additional subtotals, such as standard deviation or

maximum, to display.
Totals = Minimum and Maximum Revenue

When you define a metric, you can select which subtotal functions are available
for the metric. Different metrics on the same report can display different

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subtotals. If a selected subtotal is not available for a metric, the subtotal is

displayed as dashes (--).
Unavailable Totals

You can also create your own functions to be used with subtotal calculations. For
details on creating your own function, see the MicroStrategy Advanced Reporting
Guide.

Disabling subtotals
You can remove, or disable, a grand total or subtotals for a particular metric. For
example, if the metric counts inventory numbers, subtotals are irrelevant and
should therefore not be displayed on a report.

• To disable all totals, set the default subtotal function to None and clear all the
available subtotals for the metric.
• To disable grand totals but allow users to select subtotals, set the default
subtotal function to None but do not clear available subtotals.

• To restrict subtotals to a single function, select the default subtotal function

and clear all the available subtotals.

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Exercise 5.3: Display subtotals

We will create a Cost - Subtotals metric that allows only the following subtotals:

• Average

• Maximum

• Standard Deviation

Then, we will create a report that contains:

• Item attribute

• Revenue metric

• Cost - Subtotals metric

We will display Average, Maximum, and Standard Deviation subtotals on the

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

Select the subtotals for the Cost metric

1 Navigate to your My Metric Exercises folder, located in the My Objects folder.

2 Right-click the Cost metric, and select Edit.

3 In the Metric Editor, click Metric Options at the top right.

4 In the Advanced Metric Options window, click Subtotals in the list of options
on the left.

5 When you display totals in a report, this metric uses the Sum function,
because Sum is selected by default. While you can select a different function,
such as average or count, for this metric, we are going to disable the default

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subtotal. This means that the metric does not display totals when you display
totals in a report.

In the Subtotals pane, in the Function for default subtotal (Total)

drop-down list, select None.

6 You can select the subtotals that are available for this metric. Expand the
Select the Subtotals You Want Available for this Metric list, then clear all
except the Average, Maximum, and Standard Deviation subtotals.

7 Click OK.

8 Save the metric as Cost - Subtotals, in the My Metric Exercises folder.

Add the Cost - Subtotals metric to a report and display subtotals

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 Hierarchies, then the Products
hierarchy.

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

4 In the All Objects pane, select My Personal Objects from the drop-down list.

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5 In the All Objects pane, click the My Objects folder, then the My Metrics
Exercises folder.

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

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

8 Run the report.

Display default totals

9 From the Data menu, select Show Totals to display the totals.

10 You cannot see the subtotals, because by default they are displayed at the end
of the report. This report has two pages, so you can either switch to the
second page, or display totals at the top of the report, as described below.

a From the Data menu, select Edit Totals.

b In the Subtotals Editor, click the Display tab.

c In the Subtotal Positions by Row area, click Top of Each Level.

d Click OK to close the Subtotals Editor.

Now the totals are displayed at the top of the report, so that you can easily
view them. Because we disabled all subtotals for the Cost - Subtotals
metric, the total is not calculated. The Revenue metric is totaled using the
Sum function by default.

Select the subtotals to display

11 From the Data menu, select Edit Totals.

12 In the Subtotals Editor, on the Definitions tab, in the All Subtotals column,
clear the Total check box. Select the Average, Maximum, and Standard
Deviation check boxes. The Cost - Subtotals metric can be subtotaled using

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these functions, because they are the same subtotals that you selected when
you defined the metric.

13 Click OK to close the Subtotals Editor.

14 Compare your results to the expected report at the beginning of this exercise.
Subtotals are calculated for both metrics, because the subtotal functions
selected for the report match those selected for the metrics.

15 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Item, Cost, and Revenue with
Subtotals.

Building metrics within reports: Derived

metrics
Derived metrics are metrics that you can use to perform calculations based on
report results, when you are viewing the report. A derived metric performs a
calculation on the fly with the data available in a report without re-executing the
report against the database.

Derived metrics are created based on existing metrics in the report. A common
derived metric performs calculations between columns of metric values. For
example, a derived metric can add two metrics on a report together or divide one
by another to obtain a new metric calculation.

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They are an easy way to present data already available on the report in different
ways, providing further analysis of data. Use derived metrics to quickly perform
on-the-fly analyses such as margins, contributions, and differences between
metrics included on the report.

You can use a derived metric only on the report that it is created on. A derived
metric is saved within the report, not as an individual object saved in the project.
Therefore, it cannot be added to other reports. A derived metric is displayed in the
Report Objects of a report using a special icon, . The background is the same as
a regular metric icon, but the fx indicates that it was created within the report as a
derived metric.

If you are familiar with how the MicroStrategy system works, know that since derived
metrics are evaluated in memory, their computation does not require any SQL
execution in the database. For MicroStrategy Web, derived metrics are evaluated on
Intelligence Server.

You can create a derived metric from scratch, or you can use shortcuts to quickly
define a derived metric using rank, percent-to-total, or transformation metric
analysis.

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Exercise 5.4: Create a derived metric

We need to calculate the difference in revenue values between 2015 and 2016. To
do this, we will create a report filtered for 2016 that uses the Revenue metric
created in the previous exercise. Because of the report filter, this metric calculates
2016 values.

We will create, within the report, the following derived metrics:

• A transformation derived metric, called Last Year’s (Revenue)

The transformation used in the metric subtracts a year from the 2016 report
filter, so that the metric calculates 2015 values. The derived metric is a
shortcut, created from the Revenue metric.

• A derived metric, called Growth

This metric subtracts 2015’s revenue from 2016’s revenue, then divides the
result by 2015’s revenue. This is the growth percentage between the two
years. The derived metric uses the other two metrics on the report.

The final report should look like the following:

The Last Year’s (Revenue) metric is a transformation metric. Time transformations are
used to compare metric values at different times, such as this year versus last year or
current date versus month-to-date. The last year transformation, which is used in the
Last Year’s (Revenue) metric, maps each time period to its corresponding time period
last year. In other words, a transformation applies an offset value, in this case, 2016
minus one year. MicroStrategy provides numerous prebuilt transformations to use on

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 5 Calculating Data on Reports Introduction to Analytics Reporting

metrics. For steps to create transformation metrics, take the 11.414 Designing Metrics
for the Intelligent Enterprise class.

Create a report with derived metrics

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

2 In the All Objects pane, click Hierarchies, then click the Geography hierarchy.

3 Drag Call Center into the rows of the template definition pane.

4 Filter the report to include only 2016 data:

a In the All Objects pane, click the Up One Level icon . Click the Time
hierarchy, and then the Year attribute.

b Drag 2016 to the Report Filter definition pane. If 2016 is not available,
select a different year. (The years and data are frequently updated in
MicroStrategy Tutorial so 2016 may not be an option in your version.
Selecting a different year can mean that the metric values are different
from the example report.)

Filtering the report by a specific year gives the transformation used in the Last
Year’s (Revenue) metric a date to transform. Without a date, the transformation
metric would calculate all revenue for all years. If you filtered the report by 2017
instead, the Last Year’s (Revenue) metric would calculate revenue values for 2016.

5 In the All Objects pane, select My Personal Objects from the drop-down list.
Click the My Objects folder, and then My Metrics Exercises.

6 Double-click the Revenue metric to add it to the template definition pane.

7 Run the report.

8 Change the Revenue metric’s formatting, to remove decimal places:

a Right-click the Revenue header and select Advanced Formatting.

b In the Format: Template window, click the Number tab.

c Type 0 (zero) in the Decimal Places box.

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d Click OK.

This formatting applies only to the metric as displayed in this report; it does
not apply to any other report that the metric is used on.

The report results should look like the following. The Revenue metric
calculates the revenue for each call center in 2016, according to the report
filter.

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Create the revenue transformation metric as a derived metric

9 In the grid, right-click Revenue, point to Insert Metric, then Transformation,

then Last Year’s, and select Normal.

A derived metric is added to the report. It calculates the revenue for last year.
Because the report filter sets the year as 2016, the metric returns 2015 data. By
default, the name of the metric is the type of derived metric that you selected
(Last Year’s) and the metric that you selected to calculate (Revenue). You can
rename the metric if you want to.

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10 In the Report Objects pane, notice that the Last Year’s (Revenue) metric has a
different icon, although it is similar to the regular metric icon. This indicates
that it is a derived metric, created within the report.

11 Save the report in the My Reports folder as Growth Data.

Create the Growth derived metric

1 In the report, right-click a metric header, point to Insert Metric, and select
New.
It does not matter which metric you right-click. Unlike creating a shortcut metric,
like we did previously, creating a new metric does not base the derived metric on
the selected metric.

2 In the Metric Editor, in the Metric Name box, type Growth.

3 In the operator toolbar above the metric definition pane on the right, click the
parenthesis to add them to the metric definition.

4 In the Report Objects folder, double-click Revenue.

5 With the cursor still inside the parenthesis, click the subtraction operator
in the operator toolbar.

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6 In the Report Objects folder, double-click Last Year’s Revenue. The metric
definition should look like the following:

7 Move the cursor outside the parentheses, to the far right of the definition. In
the operator toolbar, click the division operator .

8 In the Report Objects folder, double-click Last Year’s Revenue. The metric
definition should look like the following:

Best The parentheses play a crucial role in the order of operations because calculations
Practice in parentheses are performed before other calculations in the metric formula. You
need to divide the difference between Revenue and Last Year’s Revenue by Last
Year’s Revenue. Without parentheses, the division would occur first, producing
incorrect metric values.

9 Click Save.

10 Format the metric as a percent:

a Right-click the Growth metric header and select Advanced Formatting.

b In the Format Template window, click the Number tab.

c Under Category, click Percentage.

d Click OK to close the window.

11 Compare your results to the expected report at the beginning of this exercise.
In the Report Objects pane, notice that the Growth metric is listed with the
derived metric icon .

12 Save the report.

If you want to check the numbers, you can change the report filter to 2015. The values
in the Revenue column match the values in the Last Year’s Revenue column in the
original report. Why? Because the Revenue metric is now calculating values for 2015
(according to the report filter). Last Year now refers to 2014.

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 6
DELIVERING AND SHARING
REPORTS

Exporting reports
You can export a report to convert it to any of these formats:

• CSV file (Comma-Separated Values)

• HTML

• Microsoft Excel
Best 
Plain text (recommended for large reports)
Practice

Formatted

• PDF

• Plain text

Before you export a grid report, you can adjust several export options, including
the following:
• Exporting the whole report or only the portion that is currently displayed

• Include the report title

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• Include the report filter details (information about the filters on the reports

• Update report data using MicroStrategy Office (must have Office installed)

• Save the current prompt answers to use them for the next export

Subscribing to reports for automatic delivery

You can have a report automatically delivered to:

• Your History List in MicroStrategy Web

The History List is a folder where you can store reports and documents.
Besides viewing the results of scheduled reports and documents, you can use
it to keep shortcuts to previously run reports and documents, similar to the
Favorites list available in web browsers.

• A mobile device (using MicroStrategy Mobile)

• An email address

• A network folder location

• A printer

• An FTP server

• Your cache

A cache is a pre-calculated and pre-processed result set that is stored in

memory on the Intelligence Server machine and on disk. A cache allows the
report to be run as quickly as possible using the latest available data, without
re-executing the request against the data source.

You can schedule deliveries to take place on a regular schedule or when a specific
event occurs. To do this, create a subscription to the report. Subscriptions allow
you to view reports when you need them.

For an exercise to deliver a report to your History List, see Appendix A, Workshop:
Schedule a Report.

Sharing reports with other users

You can share a report with other MicroStrategy users by:

• Emailing the report or a link to the report.

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Delivering and Sharing Reports 6

• Adding the link in a document. When users view the document, they can click
the link to open a related report.

You can determine which users or user groups have access to an object and what
level of access they have (such as view only, ability to edit, and so on), by editing
the object's access control list (ACL).

Sending reports and bursting large reports into smaller

files
The Send Now option allows you to send a report immediately to any email
address. You can choose to:

• Send the report in the email. Available formats are HTML, Excel, PDF, plain text,
or CSV.

• Send the report in the email and deliver it to the History List.

• Deliver the report to the History List, and send the report and a link in the
email.

• Deliver the report to the History List, and send a link in the email.

Sending a report delivers it immediately and only once. Creating an email

subscription delivers the report repeatedly on a schedule.

Large reports that contain a lot of data can be split into multiple, smaller files. This
is referred to as bursting. Each of the smaller files contains a portion of data based
on the attributes used to group the report in the page-by.

Recall that page-by turns a long report into a set of individual pages, allowing you to
focus on one page (or subset of data) at a time.

Sharing a link URL reflecting latest changes and prompt

answers
You can provide a link URL to a report to other users. The link URL contains the ID
of the object and any changes that were made to the report since the link URL
was generated. If the report has prompts, the link URL also contains any prompt
answers saved in the report.

You can share the link URL by:

• Emailing it to users.

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• Copying it and adding it to a document. When users view the document, they
can click the link to run the report.

• Embedding it in HTML code to display in an iFrame, and copying the HTML.

You can then embed the HTML code in a web page to display the object.

Besides a report, a link URL can also connect to:

• A dossier or document. When the link URL is clicked, the object is executed.

• A folder. When the link URL is clicked, the folder opens.

• Another object, such as a filter or prompt. When the link URL is clicked, the
object opens in its editor (Filter Editor, Prompt Editor, and so on).

Note: Your administrator must include session information, such as the server
name and port number, in the URL of pages displayed in MicroStrategy Web. This
setting is available to administrators in the MicroStrategy Web Administration
pages.

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 A
WORKSHOP: TEST YOURSELF ON
YOUR REPORTING KNOWLEDGE

Analyze customer attrition using conditional

metrics
Because this is a workshop, not all the steps are detailed; for example, you
are expected to be able to add objects to a report without step-by-step
directions.

This workshop teaches you how to compare two sets of users by using reports as
filters to create each set of users, applying Venn diagram analysis. You will build
compound metrics, conditional metrics, filters, prompts, and reports to create the
analysis.
• The first set of customers is created in a report, and are those customers who
made a purchase during the start month. This set is represented by the blue
circle. In the final report, it is the Count of Customers for Start Month metric.

• The second set of customers is also created in a report, and are those
customers who made a purchase during the end month. This set is

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 A Workshop: Test Yourself on Your Reporting Knowledge Introduction to Analytics Reporting

represented by the red circle. In the final report, it is the Count of Customers
for End Month metric.

• The intersection of the two customer sets is created in a filter, and are those
customers who bought in both the start month and the end month. This set is
represented by the purple intersection of the two circles. In the final report, it
is the Count of Customers who Continue to Buy metric.

• The customers who bought in the start month but did not buy in the end
month are represented by the blue crescent. In the final report, it is the Count
of Customers who Stopped Buying metric.

• The customers who bought in the end month but did not buy in the start
month are represented by the red crescent. In the final report, it is the Count
of New Customers metric.

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The final report, containing the various metrics described above, is shown below:
Customer Attrition Analysis Report

Create prompts on month

These prompts will be used to filter the reports for the start month and the end
month. Effectively, when each user runs the report, he creates his own filter for
the report. Creating two separate prompts ensures that you answer two distinct
prompts when you run the final report based on these objects.

Create the start month prompt

1 Create an attribute element list prompt based on the following requirements:

• Specified attribute: Month

• Title: Select the Start Month

• Require a prompt answer

2 Save the prompt as Select a Start Month in the My Reports folder.

Create the end month prompt

3 Create an attribute element list prompt based on the following requirements:

• Specified attribute: Month

• Title: Select the End Month

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 A Workshop: Test Yourself on Your Reporting Knowledge Introduction to Analytics Reporting

• Require a prompt answer

4 Save the prompt as Select an End Month in the My Reports folder.

Create the Customers for Start Month report

Use the Select a Start Month prompt in this report. When a user runs this report,
she selects the end month for the time period. The report retrieves the list of
customers who made a purchase during the start month, represented by the blue
circle below.

1 Create a new report based on the Blank Report template.

2 Add the Select a Start Month prompt to the report filter.

3 Add Customer and Revenue to the report.

4 Run the report, selecting November 2016 at the prompt.

5 Format the Revenue metric as Currency with two decimal places.

The report returns 4936 rows and the first few rows should display as shown
below:

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6 Save the report as Customers for Start Month in the My Reports folder. Do
not clear the Keep Report Prompted check box.

Create the Customers for End Month report

Use the Select an End Month prompt in this report; the month selected in the
prompt is the end month for the time period. The report retrieves the list of
customers who made a purchase during the end month, represented by the red
circle below.

 This report is almost identical to the Customers for Start Month report that
you created above. However, do not copy and edit the Customers for Start
Month report to define this new report. If you do, the final report will not
display two distinct prompts. Create both reports from scratch.

1 Create a new report based on the Blank Report template.

2 Add the Select an End Month prompt to the report filter.

3 Add Customer and Revenue to the report.

4 Run the report, selecting December 2016 at the prompt.

5 Format the Revenue metric as Currency with two decimal places.

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The report returns 4911 rows and the first few rows should display as shown
below:

6 Save the report as Customers for End Month in the My Reports folder. Do
not clear the Keep Report Prompted check box.

Create shortcut-to-a-report filters

The customers returned in the results of the reports that you created above are
used as filters (or conditions) in metrics that you will build later. One conditional
metric will represent the number of customers in the start month and the other
the customer count in the end month.

1 Create a filter that uses the Customers for Start Month report as the filter
definition.

2 Save the filter as Customers for Start Month in the My Reports folder.

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3 Create another filter that uses the Customers for End Month report as the
filter definition.

4 Save the filter as Customers for End Month in the My Reports folder.

Create a filter that combines the two shortcut-to-a-report filters

Create a filter that combines the two shortcut-to-a-report filters that you built
above. You will use this filter as the condition in the Count of Customers who
Continue to Buy metric, because this new filter returns the customers in the
intersection between the starting customers and the ending customers,
represented by the purple oval below.

1 Create a filter that combines the two shortcut-to-report filters.

2 Save the filter as Start and End Month Customers (intersection) in the My
Reports folder.

Create conditional metrics to count customers

A conditional metric contains its own filter, meaning a filter is applied to a specific
metric on a report while not affecting any other metrics on the report. Creating
conditional metrics, including explanations of their advanced options, is
presented in detail in the 11.414 Designing Metrics for the Intelligent Enterprise
class, but you can create simple conditional metrics following the detailed steps
below.

Each conditional metric that you create counts customers for a specific time: start
month, end month, and both start and end month.

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Create a conditional metric to count customers in the start month

1 Create a metric that counts the number of customers.

This metric will count all the customers in the project. To define this metric to
count only the customers who made purchases in the start month, add the
filter that identifies those customers.

2 Click Show All.

3 Click the Browse icon next to the Condition box.

4 In the Select an Object window, select My Reports from the drop-down list.

5 Click Start Month Customers.

6 In the Metric Name box, type Count of Customers for Start Month.

The complete metric should look like the following:

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Workshop: Test Yourself on Your Reporting Knowledge A

7 Save the metric in the My Reports folder.

Create a conditional metric to count customers in the end month

8 Create a conditional metric that counts the number of customers who made
purchases in the end month. Follow the steps in Create a conditional metric to
count customers in the start month, page 178, using:

• Condition: End Month Customers

• Name: Count of Customers for End Month

Create a conditional metric to count customers who continue to buy

9 Create a conditional metric that counts the number of customers who made
purchases in both the start month and the end month. In the Venn diagram, it
is the intersection, shown in purple, of the starting and ending customers. This
is why the metric uses the Start and End Month Customers (intersection) filter
that you created as the condition.

Follow the steps in Create a conditional metric to count customers in the start
month, page 178, using:

• Condition: Start and End Month Customers (intersection)

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 A Workshop: Test Yourself on Your Reporting Knowledge Introduction to Analytics Reporting

• Name: Count of Customers who Continue to Buy

Create compound metrics to count lost and new customers

A compound metric is a metric made up of other metrics. Combine the

conditional metrics to calculate the number of lost customers and of new
customers.

Create a compound metric to count customers who stopped buying

1 Create a compound metric that subtracts the number of continuing

customers (the intersection of the Venn diagram) from the number of starting
customers. Because these customers are in the starting customers set (the
blue circle in the Venn diagram) but are not in the ending customers set (the
red circle), they did not continue to buy. This set of customers is represented
as the blue crescent of starting customers, without the purple intersection of
continuing customers.

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Workshop: Test Yourself on Your Reporting Knowledge A

2 Save the metric as Customers who Stopped Buying in the My Reports

folder.

Create a compound metric to count new customers

3 Create a compound metric that subtracts the number of continuing

customers (the intersection of the Venn diagram) from the number of ending
customers. Because these customers are in the ending customers set (the red
circle in the Venn diagram) but are not in the starting customers set (the blue
circle), they are new customers. This set of customers is represented by the red
crescent of ending customers, without the purple intersection of continuing
customers.

Follow the steps in Create a compound metric to count customers who stopped
buying, page 180, using the metrics shown below:

4 Save the metric as Count of New Customers in the My Reports folder.

Create the Customer Attrition Analysis Report

1 Create a new report based on the Blank Report template.

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 A Workshop: Test Yourself on Your Reporting Knowledge Introduction to Analytics Reporting

2 Add the metrics that you created to the rows of the grid, in the order shown
below:

3 Run the report with the same prompt answers used in the original reports:

• Start month: November 2016

• End month: December 2016

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Workshop: Test Yourself on Your Reporting Knowledge A

The report results should look like the Customer Attrition Analysis Report,
page 173.

4 Save the report as Customer Attrition Analysis Report in the My Reports

folder.

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 A Workshop: Test Yourself on Your Reporting Knowledge Introduction to Analytics Reporting

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 B
WORKSHOP: SCHEDULE A REPORT

Deliver a report to your History List on a

schedule
In this workshop, we will:
• Subscribe a report to the History List

• View the report in the History List

• Remove the report subscription

Subscribe a report to the History List

1 Open the Revenue, Costs, and Units Sold by Call Center and Subcategory
report, saved in your My Reports folder.

You created this report in the second exercise in Chapter 1.

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 B Workshop: Schedule a Report Introduction to Analytics Reporting

2 From the Report Home menu, point to Subscribe To, and select History List.

3 In the Subscribe to History List window, select any schedule from the
Schedule drop-down list.
We will delete the subscription, so it is not important which schedule that you
choose.

The schedules listed are created in the MicroStrategy Developer Schedule

Manager.

4 Click To to locate the email address of the recipient.

5 In the Recipients Browser window, add MSTR User to the To List, and click OK.

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Introduction to Analytics Reporting Workshop: Schedule a Report B

6 Click the Run Subscription Immediately check box. This will allow you to
view the History List update.

7 Click OK.

Check the History List update

1 Click the arrow next to the MicroStrategy icon in the top left, and
select History List.

If you want to view the report, click the name of the report. You can also click
any of the icons in the Actions column to export the report, create a PDF, view
details, or rename it in the History List.

To cancel the subscription

1 Click arrow next to the MicroStrategy icon in the top left of the page,
and select My Subscriptions. The My Subscriptions page opens.

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 B Workshop: Schedule a Report Introduction to Analytics Reporting

The History List subscription is displayed, as shown below. If you want to view
the report, you can click its name.

2 Select the Unsubscribe check box for the subscription, then click the
Unsubscribe button above it.

188 Deliver a report to your History List on a schedule © 2020 MicroStrategy, Inc.
Copyright Information
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