[MSTG] Basics Of MicroStrategy Platform

 

 

Basics of MicroStrategy Platform

 

 

MicroStrategy is a Business Intelligence (BI) solution by MicroStrategy, Inc., a BI, enterprise reporting and on-line analytical processing (OLAP) software providing company. MicroStrategy is a fully integrated BI platform that makes Business Intelligence faster, easier, and more user-friendly and delivers high performance, sophisticated analytics and rapid report creation. It allows a non-technical person to build state-of-the-art reports. This document introduces the basic process to create reports using MicroStrategy.

Building a sophisticated report using MicroStrategy is quite simple and comprises of a few easy steps. In this blog, we will be using the MicroStrategy Desktop tool for demonstrating the creation of reports.

1.   Introduction to the MicroStrategy Components

Before we delve into the actual activity of creating the report, let us first get familiar with the various components of MicroStrategy, depicted in Figure 1 below.

1.1. Intelligence Server (I-Server)

The core engine of the MicroStrategy platform comprises of Reporting Services, Analytical Services and OLAP Services.

1.2. Metadata

This is a data repository that stores information about various objects that you create under MicroStrategy.

1.3. Data Warehouse

This is the database that holds the business data collected and processed by the external application. MicroStrategy pulls and processes this data in order to create various reports.

1.4. Client

This is a computer used to interact with I-Server. This is mainly used for development and performing other maintenance tasks.

1.5. Web Server

The Web server interacts with I-Server in order to display the reports in a browser.

2. Starting a New Project

In MicroStrategy, a project is a collection of objects that you create. It also stores information about the warehouse database.

To create a new project, follow the steps below:

• Open Desktop and click on the Create New Project option under the Schema menu. Click on the Create Project button on this screen.
• Provide the information asked on this popup dialog (Project Name is mandatory) and click on the OK button. MicroStrategy will create the project for you and come back to the screen of Figure 1. Ignore the remaining steps of the popup and click on OK. The project will appear in the Desktop. Select the project and go to Schema > Warehouse Catalog.
• Select the Database Instance that you want to use for connecting to the required warehouse database from the dropdown.

3.   Setting up the Warehouse Catalog

The Warehouse catalog is mainly used to configure the database connectivity for the Warehouse database. To set up the catalog, follow the steps below:

• Select the project and go to Schema > Warehouse Catalog.

Select the Database Instance that you want to use for connecting to the required warehouse database from the Select current database instance dropdown.

• The available tables in the database will be listed on the left-hand side. Select the tables you require for your project by clicking on the > button, and then save and close the Warehouse Catalog.

4.   Creating Schema Objects

Once you have selected the tables, the next step is to create the basic building blocks (schema objects) of your project. These schema objects are tightly coupled with the tables you have selected in Step 3. Expand the Schema Objects section under the project and you will see the list of schema object types. Typical schema objects are:

4.1 Facts

Facts are numeric data values that you want to show on the report, for e.g., sales, revenue, profit etc. Select the source table and then the column on which the fact will be based on.

4.2 Attributes

An attribute is the context of the fact. Without an attribute, the facts won’t make any sense. For e.g., month, region, branch, state etc.

• Similar to Fact, select the source table and the column. Repeat this process for all the tables that consist of the attribute.

A typical attribute comprises of 2 forms – the ID, which is used in the query joins and the description which is used for the display. The table highlighted in bold in the screenshot below is the primary table for the attribute.

• Click on the New button to create the description form. It will allow you to select the column for the description. The description is always from the primary table.

5.   Creating Public Objects

Once the schema objects are ready, you start weaving the report. The first step is to build the necessary public objects that will be required for the report. These public objects are based on the schema objects. Expand the Public Objects section of the project to see the available types. Typical public objects are:

5.1 Metrics

Mere facts won’t make any sense. You need to aggregate the facts, perform some computations based on some formulae, and apply conditions to the facts to arrive at the data that is useful to the audience of the report. A metric is a processed fact.

A metric could be derived from one or more facts. You could also create a compound metric, which is derived from one or more metrics. MicroStrategy provides commonly used functions to aggregate and/or compute values from the facts. It also provides a way to create your own computational formula.

Select the fact you want to use for the metric. You can also choose the functions for your calculation. For doing so, click on the f(x) button which will present you the list of the available functions. Each function will ask for necessary parameters. Please provide them when prompted for.

5.2 Filters

A filter defines the condition that extracts only the required rows from the underlying tables.

• Select the attribute that you want to use in the filtering condition and then create the condition expression using the parameters available on the screen.

6.   Creating a Basic Report

Once the schema objects and public objects are created, you pick the necessary objects (mix of schema objects and public objects) and form a basic report. You can apply necessary formatting at this level.

• Select the attributes from the Object Browser and add them to the rows.
• Select the metrics from the Object Browser and add them to the columns.
• If you need any filters in the report, select them from the Object Browser and drag them to the Report Filter window.
• Your report is ready. Execute the report by clicking on the Grid button in the button bar.

7.   Deploying the Reports on a Web Server

The MicroStrategy Web module can be deployed on various commonly used Web servers. To deploy the Web module on Tomcat, for instance, follow these steps:

• Locate the MicroStrategy.war file. This file should be in the WebJSP folder in your MicroStrategy folder. (The typical path would be C:Program FilesMicroStrategyWebJSP)
• Copy it to the <tomcat-directory>webapps directory.
• Restart Tomcat.
• MicroStrategy can be accessed through a web browser at: http://<web server>/MicroStrategy/servlet/mstrWeb >