advrpt 921 oct11 color

MICROSTRATEGY DESKTOP: ADVANCED REPORTING

Course Guide Version: ADVRPT-921-Oct11-CG

20002011 MicroStrategy Incorporated. All rights reserved.

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MicroStrategy Support, MicroStrategy Telecaster, MicroStrategy Transactor, MicroStrategy Web, MicroStrategy Web Business Analyzer, MicroStrategy World, Application Development and Sophisticated Analysis, Best In Business Intelligence, Centralized Application Management, Information Like Water, Intelligence Through Every Phone, Intelligence To Every Decision Maker, Intelligent E-Business, Personalized Intelligence Portal, Query Tone, Rapid Application Development, MicroStrategy Intelligent Cubes, The Foundation For Intelligent E-Business, The Integrated Business Intelligence Platform Built For The Enterprise, The Platform For Intelligent E-Business, The Scalable Business Intelligence Platform Built For The Internet, Industrial-Strength Business Intelligence, Office Intelligence, MicroStrategy Office, MicroStrategy Report Services, MicroStrategy Web MMT, MicroStrategy Web Services, Pixel Perfect, Pixel-Perfect, MicroStrategy Mobile, MicroStrategy Integrity Manager and MicroStrategy Data Mining Services are all registered trademarks or trademarks of MicroStrategy Incorporated.

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Patent Information

This product is patented. One or more of the following patents may apply to the product sold herein: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,154,766, 6,173,310, 6,260,050, 6,263,051, 6,269,393, 6,279,033, 6,567,796, 6,587,547, 6,606,596, 6,658,093, 6,658,432, 6,662,195, 6,671,715, 6,691,100, 6,694,316, 6,697,808, 6,704,723, 6,741,980, 6,765,997, 6,768,788, 6,772,137, 6,788,768, 6,798,867, 6,801,910, 6,820,073, 6,829,334, 6,836,537, 6,850,603, 6,859,798, 6,873,693, 6,885,734, 6,940,953, 6,964,012, 6,977,992, 6,996,568, 6,996,569, 7,003,512, 7,010,518, 7,016,480, 7,020,251, 7,039,165, 7,082,422, 7,113,993, 7,127,403, 7,174,349, 7,181,417, 7,194,457, 7,197,461, 7,228,303, 7,260,577, 7,266,181, 7,272,212, 7,302,639, 7,324,942, 7,330,847, 7,340,040, 7,356,758, 7,356,840, 7,415,438, 7,428,302, 7,430,562, 7,440,898, 7,486,780, 7,509,671, 7,516,181, 7,559,048, 7,574,376, 7,617,201, 7,725,811, 7,801,967, 7,836,178, 7,861,161, 7,861,253, 7,881,443, 7,925,616, 7,945,584 and 7,970,782. Other patent applications are pending.

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http://www.microstrategy.com

2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. 5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface Course Description.................................................................... 13Who Should Take This Course.............................................. 14Course Objectives ................................................................. 15

About the Course Materials ......................................................... 16Content Descriptions ............................................................. 16Learning Objectives ............................................................... 16Lessons ................................................................................. 17Opportunities for Practice ...................................................... 17Typographical Standards....................................................... 17Core Courses......................................................................... 20

1. Introduction to Advanced Reporting

Lesson Description ................................................................... 21Lesson Objectives ................................................................. 22

Business Intelligence Architecture............................................... 23Source Systems..................................................................... 24Data Warehouse.................................................................... 24MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform........................ 24Metadata Database ............................................................... 25

Basics of Reporting...................................................................... 27Review: What is a Report? .................................................... 27Three-tier Versus Four-Tier Reporting................................... 28Report Execution Query Flow................................................ 30Reporting and Caches ........................................................... 31Security Considerations in Report Development ................... 34

Lesson Summary......................................................................... 39

Table of Contents MicroStrategy Architect: Project Design Essentials

6 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.

2. Advanced Metrics Lesson Description ................................................................... 41Lesson Objectives ................................................................. 42

Level Metrics................................................................................ 43What Are Level Metrics?........................................................ 43The Metric Editor and Level Metrics ...................................... 44Using Level Metrics................................................................ 46Grouping Set to Standard ...................................................... 46Grouping Set to None ............................................................ 51Defining Level Metrics............................................................ 56Removing the Report Level Target ........................................ 57

Review: Level Metrics.................................................................. 60

Non-aggregatable Metrics ........................................................... 65What Is a Non-aggregatable Metric? ..................................... 65Defining Non-aggregatable Metrics ....................................... 66

Transformation Metrics ................................................................ 69What Are Transformations?................................................... 69Types of Transformations ...................................................... 70Transformation Components ................................................. 72Creating a Transformation Metric .......................................... 73

Base Formulas............................................................................. 76Reusing Formulas.................................................................. 76

Conditional Metrics ...................................................................... 78Removing Related Report Filter Elements............................. 79

Nested Metrics............................................................................. 82

Advanced Functions .................................................................... 85Overview of Built-in Advanced Functions .............................. 85Count Metrics......................................................................... 87Advanced FunctionsSelect Examples ................................ 90

Advanced Subtotals..................................................................... 96Custom Subtotals .................................................................. 96User-Defined Subtotals........................................................ 100

Exercises: Advanced Metrics..................................................... 104Level Metrics: Percent Contribution to Subcategory and Category .............................................................................. 104Level Metrics: All Item Sales................................................ 106Level Metrics: Metrics with Multiple Target Attributes.......... 108Non-aggregatable Metrics.................................................... 109Transformation Metrics ........................................................ 111Conditional Metrics: Geographic Comparisons.................... 112Count Metrics....................................................................... 115Use an Advanced FunctionRunning Revenue ................. 116

MicroStrategy Architect: Project Design Essentials Table of Contents


Optional Advanced Exercises.................................................... 119Monthly Sales for Top 3 Customer Regions ........................ 119Rank of Units Sold by Subcategory ..................................... 120

Lesson Summary....................................................................... 122

3. Advanced Filters Lesson Description ................................................................. 125Lesson Objectives ............................................................... 126

Attribute-to-Attribute Filtering..................................................... 127

Joint Element List ...................................................................... 129

Dynamic Dates .......................................................................... 132Creating Dynamic Dates...................................................... 132Order of Evaluation.............................................................. 134

Import Filter Elements................................................................ 135

Pass-through Functions............................................................. 137Pass-through Functions....................................................... 137Creating Custom Expressions With Apply Functions........... 139

Set Qualification: Qualifying on Metrics ..................................... 142Output Level ........................................................................ 142Break By .............................................................................. 144Metric-to-Metric Comparison................................................ 145

Set Qualification: Relationship Filters ........................................ 147Direct and Indirect Attribute Relationships........................... 147Relationship Filter ................................................................ 148Relationship Filter Editor...................................................... 151Relationship Filters vs. Shortcut-to-a-report Qualification.... 154

Exercises: Advanced Filters ...................................................... 156Attribute-to-attribute Filtering ............................................... 156Joint Element List ................................................................ 158Import Filter Elements.......................................................... 159Dynamic Dates .................................................................... 160Pass-through Functions....................................................... 163Set QualificationOutput Level........................................... 165Set QualificationBreak by................................................. 166Relationship Filter ................................................................ 167

Optional Advanced Exercises.................................................... 169Demographic Analysis ......................................................... 169Unit Sales for Bottom 5% of Items....................................... 170Market Basket Analysis........................................................ 171

Lesson Summary....................................................................... 173



4. Consolidations and Custom Groups

Lesson Description ................................................................. 175Lesson Objectives ............................................................... 176

Consolidations ........................................................................... 177Business Scenario: Seasonal Analysis................................ 177What Is a Consolidation?..................................................... 178Consolidation Elements ....................................................... 180Consolidation Editor............................................................. 181

Custom Groups.......................................................................... 184Business Scenario: Special Promotions .............................. 184What Is a Custom Group? ................................................... 185Custom Groups and SQL Query.......................................... 185Custom Group Editor ........................................................... 186Custom Group Banding ....................................................... 191Consolidations vs. Custom Groups...................................... 196

Exercises: Consolidations and Custom Groups ........................ 197ConsolidationAnalysis by Customer Geography.............. 197ConsolidationMore Analysis by Customer Geography..... 198Custom GroupsTop 5....................................................... 199Customer Banding ............................................................... 200

Optional Advanced Exercises.................................................... 202Brand Comparisons ............................................................. 202Employee Experience Analysis............................................ 203

Lesson Summary....................................................................... 204

5. Advanced OLAP Services


Intelligent Cubes ........................................................................ 207

Sharing Intelligent Cubes........................................................... 208Creating Intelligent Cubes ................................................... 210Enabling ROLAP Drilling for Reports Accessing Intelligent Cubes .................................................................................. 215Publishing Intelligent Cubes ................................................ 219

Reporting and Analyzing Data with Intelligent Cubes................ 222Run-time Reporting with Prompts........................................ 225Relational Analysis with Drilling ........................................... 227Unavailability of Intelligent Cubes........................................ 230Reporting on Intelligent Cubes with Dynamic Sourcing....... 231

View Filters and Dynamic Aggregation...................................... 232View Filter: Metric Qualification Level .................................. 232

Exercises: Intelligent Cubes ...................................................... 235



Creating and Reporting on Intelligent Cubes....................... 235Utilizing Prompts in Intelligent Cube Reports....................... 238View Filters in Intelligent Cube Report................................. 243

Lesson Summary....................................................................... 249

6. Derived Elements Lesson Description ................................................................. 251Lesson Objective ................................................................. 252

Introduction to Derived Elements............................................... 253

Types of Derived Elements........................................................ 255Group Derived Element ....................................................... 255Filter Derived Element ......................................................... 256Calculation Derived Element................................................ 259All Other ............................................................................... 261

Creating Derived Elements........................................................ 262Create Quick Groups and Calculations................................ 263Using the Derived Elements Editor ...................................... 268Create and Share Stand-Alone Derived Elements .............. 274

Derived Element Formatting ...................................................... 278

Interaction with Other Reporting Features................................. 280View filters ........................................................................... 280Derived Metrics .................................................................... 282Page-by ............................................................................... 283Thresholds ........................................................................... 284Drilling.................................................................................. 286Prompts ............................................................................... 287

Exercise: Derived Elements....................................................... 288Create Quick Calculations ................................................... 288Creating Derived Elements Using The Derived Elements Editor292

Lesson Summary....................................................................... 303

7. Report Data Options Lesson Description ................................................................. 305Lesson Objectives ............................................................... 306

Overview of Report Data Options .............................................. 307

Calculations ............................................................................... 309Report Limit ......................................................................... 309Metric Join Type .................................................................. 312Attribute Join Type............................................................... 315Evaluation Order .................................................................. 317Subtotals .............................................................................. 324



Display ....................................................................................... 326Alias ..................................................................................... 326Object Display...................................................................... 328Null Values........................................................................... 330Grid Graph Mode ................................................................. 334

General Options......................................................................... 335Drilling.................................................................................. 335Advanced............................................................................. 339MicroStrategy Mobile ........................................................... 340

Exercises: Report Data Options ................................................ 341Report Limit ......................................................................... 341Joins .................................................................................... 342Evaluation Order Compound Metric and Report Limit ...... 344Subtotals .............................................................................. 346Alias ..................................................................................... 347Drilling.................................................................................. 348

Lesson Summary....................................................................... 350

8. Drill Maps Lesson Description ................................................................. 353Lesson Objectives ............................................................... 354

What is Drilling?......................................................................... 355Drill Maps and Drill Paths..................................................... 355

Creating and Customizing Drill Maps ........................................ 358Create a Drill Map................................................................ 359The Drill Map Editor ............................................................. 360

Exercises: Drill Maps ................................................................. 365Drill to Template: Customer Details ..................................... 365

Lesson Summary....................................................................... 369

9. Report Developer Tools


Find and Replace....................................................................... 373

Project Documentation .............................................................. 377

Exercises: Report Developer Tools ........................................... 380Find and Replace................................................................. 380Project Documentation ........................................................ 381

Lesson Summary....................................................................... 384

A. MicroStrategy Tutorial The MicroStrategy Tutorial Data Model ..................................... 386



Geography Hierarchy........................................................... 388Customers Hierarchy ........................................................... 389Time Hierarchy..................................................................... 390Products Hierarchy .............................................................. 391

The MicroStrategy Tutorial Schema .......................................... 391Geography Schema............................................................. 395Customers Schema ............................................................. 396Time Schema....................................................................... 397Products Schema ................................................................ 398Fact Tables Schema............................................................ 399Partition Mapping Table....................................................... 399

B. Additional Topics Appendix Description.............................................................. 401Advanced Settings..................................................................... 402

Conditional Metrics: Embedding Method ............................. 402Filter Editor: Set Qualification Advanced Button.................. 405Dynamic Aggregation .......................................................... 407Prompt Editor: Level Prompt................................................ 413Prompted Custom Groups ................................................... 414Prompt-in-prompt Functionality............................................ 415Value-Prompted Metrics ...................................................... 417

Index ......................................................................................... 419


PREFACE

Course Description

This 3-day course explores advanced topics in MicroStrategy Desktop. The course assumes and builds on an understanding of basic report creation from the 2-day MicroStrategy Desktop: Reporting Essentials class. Desktop has a wealth of sophisticated reporting features designed to enable you to create almost any type of report. This course explores some of these options with the goal of equipping you to take advantage of them in your own projects.

You will learn about creating advanced metrics, such as level, transformation, and conditional metrics. You will also learn about creating and using advanced filters, such as relationship, metric-to-metric, and joint element list filters. You will also learn about custom groups and consolidations. You will learn about advanced MicroStrategy OLAP Services features and custom drill maps. Finally, will learn about using Report Data Options features to customize reports and working with other useful tools such as the Project Documentation Wizard.

At the end of this course, you will have an understanding of the important concepts required to build sophisticated reports using Desktop.

Preface MicroStrategy Desktop: Advanced Reporting

14 Who Should Take This Course 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Who Should Take This CourseThis course is designed for:

Report developers

Course PrerequisitesBefore starting this course, you should be familiar with:

MicroStrategy Desktop: Reporting Essentials

Basic knowledge of SQL

Follow-Up CoursesAfter taking this course, you might consider taking the following courses:

MicroStrategy Report Services: Document Essentials

MicroStrategy Report Services: Dynamic Dashboards

Related CertificationsTo validate your proficiency in the content of this course, you might consider taking the following certification:

Certified Report Developer

MicroStrategy Desktop: Advanced Reporting Preface

2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. Course Objectives 15

Course ObjectivesAfter completing this course, you will be able to:

Describe the MicroStrategy business intelligence architecture that serves as the foundation for creating reports. Explain report execution concepts. (Page 22)

Create level, non-aggregatable, transformation, conditional, and nested metrics. Describe the settings associated with these types of metrics. Execute reports using advanced metrics. (Page 40)

Create several types of advanced filters. (Page 118)

Create consolidations and custom groups and determine the appropriate use of both objects. (Page 164)

Explain the concept of Intelligent Cubes. Create Intelligent Cube reports that share Intelligent Cube caches. Understand how view filters and dynamic aggregation work while adding and moving objects from the grid to the Report Objects pane. (Page 194)

Explain derived elements feature, the different types of derived elements, and how they can be created in MicroStrategy Desktop. (Page 238)

Define all of the Report Data Options and understand how to enable them. (Page 288)

Describe the purpose of drill maps in reporting. Create and edit drill maps. (Page 334)

Use Find and Replace to change multiple objects simultaneously. Create project documentation HTML files. (Page 350)


16 About the Course Materials 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.

About the Course MaterialsThis course is organized into lessons and reference appendices. Each lesson focuses on major concepts and skills that help you to better understand MicroStrategy products and use them to implement MicroStrategy projects. The appendices provide you with supplemental information to enhance your knowledge of MicroStrategy products.

Content Descriptions

Each major section of this course begins with a Description heading. The Description introduces you to the content contained in that section.

Learning Objectives

Learning objectives enable you to focus on the key knowledge and skills you should obtain by successfully completing this course. Objectives are provided for you at the following three levels:

CourseYou achieve these overall objectives by successfully completing all the lessons in this course. The Course Objectives heading in this Preface contains the list of course objectives.

LessonYou achieve these main objectives by successfully completing all the topics in the lesson. You can find the primary lesson objective directly under the Lesson Objectives heading at the beginning of each lesson.

Main TopicYou achieve this secondary objective by successfully completing the content in the main topic. The topic objective is stated at the beginning of the topic text. You can find a list of all the topic objectives in each lesson under the Lesson Objectives heading at the beginning of each lesson.

Lessons

Each lesson sequentially presents concepts and guides you with step-by-step procedures. Illustrations, screen examples, bulleted text, notes, and definition tables help you to achieve the learning objectives.


2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. About the Course Materials 17

Opportunities for Practice

A Workshop is a reinforcement and assessment activity that follows two or more lessons. Because a Workshop covers content and applied skills presented in several lessons, it is a separate section on the level of a lesson.

The following sections within lessons provide you with opportunities to reinforce important concepts, practice new product and project skills, and monitor your own progress in achieving the lesson and course objectives:

Review

Case Study

Business Scenario

Exercises

Typographical Standards

The following sections explain the font style changes, icons, and different types of notes that you see in this course.

Actions

References to screen elements and keys that are the focus of actions are in bold Arial font style. The following example shows this style:

Click Select Warehouse.

Code

References to code, formulas, or calculations within paragraphs are formatted in regular Courier.New font style. The following example shows this style:

Sum(Sales)/Number of Months



Data Entry

References to literal data you must type in an exercise or procedure are in bold Arial font style. References to data you type that could vary from user to user or system to system are in bold italic Arial font style. The following example shows this style:

Type copy c:\filename d:\foldername\filename.

Keyboard Keys

References to a keyboard key or shortcut keys are in uppercase letters in bold Arial font style. The following example shows this style:

Press CTRL+B.

New Terms

New terms to note are in regular italic font style. These terms are defined when they are first encountered in the course. The following example shows this style:

The aggregation level is the level of calculation for the metric.


2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. About the Course Materials 19

Notes and Warnings

A note icon indicates helpful information. A warning icon calls your attention to very important information that you should read before continuing the course.Heading Icons

The following heading icons are used to indicate specific practice and review sections:

Precedes a Review section Precedes a Case Study Precedes a Business Scenario Precedes Exercises



MicroStrategy Courses

Core Courses Implementing MicroStrategy: Development and Deployment

MicroStrategy Architect: Project Design Essentials

MicroStrategy Desktop: Advanced Reporting

MicroStrategy Desktop: Reporting Essentials

MicroStrategy Report Services: Document Essentials

MicroStrategy Report Services: Dynamic Dashboards

MicroStrategy Web for Professionals

MicroStrategy Web for Reporters and Analysts

MicroStrategy Mobile for Apple iPad and iPhone

All courses are subject to change. Please visit the MicroStrategy Web site for the latest education offerings


1INTRODUCTION TO ADVANCED REPORTING

Lesson Description

This lesson covers two major topics related to creating and deploying MicroStrategy reports in a business intelligence system.

First, you will learn about the components of a business intelligence system so that you have a better understanding of the entire architecture that makes business intelligence reporting possible.

Second, you will learn about the basic concepts of report execution of which you should be aware, especially when creating reports for a large end-user audience. This lesson covers three main concepts related to reporting:

Report execution query flow

Reporting and caches

Reporting and security

Introduction to Advanced Reporting MicroStrategy Desktop: Advanced Reporting1

22 Lesson Objectives 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:Describe the MicroStrategy business intelligence architecture that serves as the foundation for creating reports. Explain report execution concepts.

After completing the topics in this lesson, you will be able to:

Define the components of a MicroStrategy business intelligence architecture. (Page 23)

Describe the basic concepts related to report execution that are useful to a report designer when devising a strategy to deploy advanced reports to end users. (Page 27)

MicroStrategy Desktop: Advanced Reporting Introduction to Advanced Reporting 1

2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. Business Intelligence Architecture 23

Business Intelligence Architecture

After completing this topic, you will be able to:Define the components of a MicroStrategy business intelligence architecture.

Business intelligence systems facilitate the analysis of volumes of complex data by giving you the ability to view this data from multiple perspectives. A quality business intelligence system gives users access to data at various levels, enables them to ask a variety of questions, and rapidly provides them with accurate and meaningful answers. Modern-day business intelligence systems must also provide a foundation for the proactive delivery of information to system subscribers. Today's businesses must be able to deliver relevant information to the right people at the right time. They must also have very close and personalized contact with their customers.

The following illustration shows a business intelligence architecture using MicroStrategy:

MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Architecture


24 Business Intelligence Architecture 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Source Systems

A source system refers to any system or file that captures or records transactions, such as sales, inventory, withdrawals, or deposits. Source systems are often described as online transaction processing (OLTP) systems.

Data Warehouse

A well-designed and robust data warehouse lies at the heart of the business intelligence system. The data warehouse provides the foundation for a robust online analytical processing (OLAP) system, which involves manipulating transaction records to calculate sales trends, growth patterns, percent-to-total contributions, trend reporting, profit analysis, and so forth.

While source systems are generally designed and optimized for transactional processing, data warehouses are generally designed and optimized for analytical processing. You populate a data warehouse with data from the existing operational systems using an extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) process.

MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform

The MicroStrategy business intelligence platform is the heart of your business intelligence environment. It encompasses the Engine and server components, which are designed to effectively communicate with the data warehouse and retrieve the exact results that a user requests at a given time.

The following components comprise the core of the platform:

SQL Engine and Query EngineWork together to generate and send optimized SQL to the Relational Database Management System

Analytical EngineAdds analytical power to greatly extend the capability of the system beyond what the Relational Database Management System provides

Server componentsHandle all aspects of report generation, element retrieval, object retrieval, and so forth

The MicroStrategy business intelligence platform also provides a number of applications that are built specifically to harness the power of its engine and server components:


2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. Business Intelligence Architecture 25

MicroStrategy Desktop

MicroStrategy Architect

MicroStrategy Web

MicroStrategy Intelligence Server

MicroStrategy Report Services

MicroStrategy OLAP Services

MicroStrategy Distribution Services

MicroStrategy SAP Services

MicroStrategy Data Mining Services

MicroStrategy Office

MicroStrategy SDK

MicroStrategy Mobile

MicroStrategy Transaction Services

Other MicroStrategy development tools

Metadata Database

The metadata database stores MicroStrategy object definitions and information about the data warehouse and maps MicroStrategy objects to the data warehouse structures and content.

MicroStrategy applications use the metadata database to translate user requests into SQL queries and then translate the results of those queries back into MicroStrategy objects like reports and documents.

The MicroStrategy metadata stores a variety of data. The following object types in the MicroStrategy environment describe these various types of data:

Application objectsReports and report-related objects built in Desktop

Configuration objectsAdministrative and connectivity-related objects built in Architect or in the Desktop administration console

Schema objectsLogical objects built in Architect that relate application objects to physical data warehouse structures


26 Basics of Reporting 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Basics of Reporting

After completing this topic, you will be able to:Describe the basic concepts related to report execution that are useful to a report designer when devising a strategy to deploy advanced reports to end users.

Review: What is a Report?

Reports are the focus of business intelligence investigations. A report is a request for specific, formatted data from the data warehouse. A report consists of a template, filter, and view. Although you may not specifically define and use a separate template, filter, or view, these are the objects that logically comprise the definition of a report.

A template specifies which information is to be retrieved from the data warehouse. You can create templates separately using the Template Editor, or you can create them on the fly in the Report Editor.

A filter specifies the conditions that the data must meet to be included in the report results. You can create filters separately using the Filter Editor, or you can create them on the fly in the Report Editor.

A view specifies the portion of the full report result set that is initially displayed to the user. A report may contain two attributes and two metrics, but the view or template that the end-user sees may contain only one of the original attributes and one metrics. Additionally, a report filter may contain data for the entire East region, but you can use a view filter to further restrict the data that is displayed.

The view of a report is a feature of MicroStrategy OLAP Services.


2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. Basics of Reporting 27

Three-tier Versus Four-Tier Reporting

As an advanced report designer, you use Desktop to create your reports in a three-tier environment. However, it is likely that most of the end-users who run these reports do so in a four-tier environment, using MicroStrategy Web or some other customized Web interface.

A three-tier business intelligence architecture consists of a data warehouse, metadata, Intelligence Server, and Desktop. The following illustration shows a three-tier architecture:

Three-Tier Architecture



A four-tier business intelligence architecture consists of a data warehouse, metadata, Intelligence Server, Desktop, and MicroStrategy Web. The following illustration shows a four-tier architecture:

Four-Tier Architecture

There is no difference between running a report in three tier and running the same report in four tier. In both instances, almost all of the tasks involved in report generation are completed by the Intelligence Server. The Intelligence Server generates and executes the SQL, performs advanced analytics on the data, manages report caches, and enforces security.

The only part of the report generation process that the client performs is to format the data for display purposes. Desktop gets the result set from Intelligence Server and then formats it for display in the Desktop interface. Similarly, MicroStrategy Web retrieves the result set from Intelligence Server and formats it for display in a Web browser.



Report Execution Query Flow

When you execute a report in Desktop, there are a number of things that Desktop and Intelligence Server need to do before the final result set is formatted and ready for display.

The following illustration and table describe at a high level, the major steps involved in executing a report in a three-tier environment:

Report Execution Query Flow

Report Execution Flow

Step Process

1 A request is made from the Client interface (Desktop, MicroStrategy Office, Web, etc.).

2 The request is passed to the Kernel which coordinates all the tasks necessary to execute the report.

3 The Kernel first checks the cache to see whether the report results are already there. The report results will already be in cache if another user or a schedule previously ran the report. If a valid cache exists, Intelligence Server skips directly to Step 10.



For reports with prompts, before step 3, Intelligence Server sends the request back to the user to obtain prompt answers. After the user provides the prompt answers, Intelligence Server continues with the remaining steps.

For reports that access an Intelligent Cube, the report result is returned from a published Intelligent Cube cache. For more information on Intelligent Cubes, see the Advanced OLAP Services lesson starting on page 193.

Reporting and Caches

Intelligence Server can retain the definition and results for every report that it has run to improve query response time if those same reports are run again. These stored result sets are called report caches.

Caches are created only when you save and close a report and execute it. It is not sufficient to execute the report from Design View.

Caches are managed by the administrator of Intelligence Server.

For more information on cache management, see the MicroStrategy Administration: Configuration and Security course.

4 If no valid cache exists for the report, the Kernel obtains the report definition and application objects from the metadata using the Metadata Server.

5 The Kernel sends this information to the SQL Engine. The SQL Engine generates the SQL optimized for the specific database being used. The SQL passes are then returned to the Kernel.

6 The Kernel sends the SQL to the Query Engine. The Query Engine runs the SQL against the data warehouse and the report results are returned to the Kernel.

7 The Query Engine sends the SQL to run against the data warehouse and the report results are returned to the Kernel.

8 The Kernel invokes the Analytical Engine which performs additional calculations, as necessary, and formats the results. The results are returned to the Kernel.

Report Execution Flow

Step Process



As a report designer, it is useful to understand at a high level how Intelligence Server identifies valid caches. Understanding how caching works helps you determine whether a cache will be used to satisfy a report request. Intelligence Server identifies a valid report cache by checking the following keys:

Report ID and Report Version ID

Template ID and Template Version ID

Filter ID and Filter Version ID

Security Filter ID (if any)

Prompt answers to the report, including system prompt answers (if any)

You can also associate the following keys with a report cache, depending on how cache properties are configured:

User ID

Database Connection ID

Database Login ID

The administrator can use these options to ensure that caches are not shared between users.Each object in the MicroStrategy project is identified with a unique ID. Examples of these unique object IDs are the Report ID, Template ID, and so forth. These IDs remain the same as long as the objects exist and are not deleted. However, every time you edit an object, it is given a new version ID so that the tool can determine whether it has been modified.

If any of these keys do not match between a report that you run and an existing cache, then the cache is not used, and the report is executed against the data warehouse.

In addition, if you modify any of the other user objects that comprise the template or filter of a report, such as metrics, custom groups, and so forth, the version ID of the object changes. Since the object is part of the report definition, when you execute the report again, a new cache is created.

As mentioned earlier, the administrator of your Intelligence Server typically manages caches for your MicroStrategy environment. Still, as a report developer, you should be aware that the overall caching configuration can be devised at the MicroStrategy project-level or at the individual report level. In other words, caching can be enabled or disabled for the entire project or on a report-by-report basis.



Re-executing a Report

You can re-execute every report you run in Desktop by using the Re-execute button. In general, re-executing a report means running the report against the data warehouse, thus bypassing any valid cache that might exist for that report. The following reporting scenarios explain the use of the Re-execute button:

Scenario 1: Nonprompted reportYou are viewing a report in Grid view. You click the Re-execute button. If a valid cache exists for that report, the Re-execute button overrides the cache by sending the same SQL query for the original report against the data warehouse. In this scenario, re-executing the report should only return a different result set if the data in the data warehouse has changed.

Scenario 2: Prompted reportsYou run a report that contains prompts. You answer the prompts at run time and view the results in Grid View. You click the Re-execute button, expecting to see the prompt options presented to you again. However, the Re-execute button does not work like the Re-prompt button. In other words, Intelligence Server does not try to resolve the prompt again if you re-execute a prompted report. Instead, the Re-execute button simply sends the same SQL query with the same prompt answers to the data warehouse. To see the prompt options again you use the Re-prompt button.

Security Considerations in Report Development

The MicroStrategy platform consists of a comprehensive security model with multiple levels of security interacting with one another. As a report designer, you need to be aware of how different security settings affect the end-users experience in the MicroStrategy environment.

An in-depth explanation of how security works in the MicroStrategy project environment is beyond the scope of this class. This topic is primarily applicable to administrators. For more information on security, see the MicroStrategy Administration: Configuration and Security course.

Object-Level Security

As a report developer, the object-level is the only level at which you can set security properties.



When you create any MicroStrategy object, you are given ownership (in other words, Full Control permissions) of the object. As the owner of the object, you can set its access control list. These access control list settings enable you to set object permissions on a user-by-user (or user group-by-user group) basis.

You can set the following permissions on an object:

BrowseSee the object in the Object Browser

ReadOpen the object in its editor to view its definition

WriteModify the access control list for the object

DeleteDelete the object

ControlModify the objects access control list

UseUse the object to define another object

ExecuteExecute the object as part of a report

To modify the permissions of an object:

1 Right-click the object and select Properties.

2 In the Properties window, in the Categories list, select Security.

3 If you want to add a user or user group, click Add.

4 In the Select Users and Groups window, select the user or user group.

You may need to select the Show users check box to see the members of the group in the list.5 Click OK.

6 In the Properties window, under Permissions, in the Object drop-down list, select the permissions you want to assign to the user or user group.



If you want to set permissions individually you can select Custom. In the Access Control Entry for window, you can grant or deny individual permissions:

Access Control List

While users may have permissions to write or edit an object, they are not able to do so if they do not also have the privilege to use the editor for that object. Only the administrator can assign privileges to use the different object editors. For more information about assigning privileges, see the MicroStrategy Administration: Configuration and Security course.



7 In the Properties window, click OK.

Object-Level Security

Security Filters

Like report filters, security filters narrow down a result set according to specified conditions. However, their purpose is to ensure that users see only the data to which they have the appropriate access. For example, if a sales manager for the UK is allowed to see data only for his own country, then the administrator for the MicroStrategy environment can create a filter that qualifies on the Country attribute to return only UK data. This filter can serve as the UK Sales Manager's security filter, so the condition "Country = UK" is automatically included in the WHERE clause of the SQL for all reports that the UK sales manager executes.

As you can see, security filters are assigned on a per-user basis. Every report the user runs uses both its security filter and the standard report filter.

Only an administrator has the ability to assign security filters.As a report developer, it is important for you to realize that your end-users might receive different result sets for the same report because of their security filters.



In addition to object-level security and security filters, there are other security-related concepts that can affect report results. As a report developer, you should work with the administrator of your MicroStrategy environment to ensure that the target users for your reports see only the information that is relevant to them.


2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. Lesson Summary 37

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, you learned the following:

The MicroStrategy metadata stores application objects, configuration objects, and schema objects.

A report consists of a template, filter and view. Views are a feature of MicroStrategy OLAP Services.

A three-tier business intelligence architecture consists of the data warehouse, metadata, Intelligence Server, and Desktop.

A four-tier business intelligence architecture consists of the data warehouse, metadata, Intelligence Server, Desktop, and MicroStrategy Web.

The report execution query flow is the process by which Desktop and Intelligence Server generate reports in a three-tier architecture.

Intelligence Server can retain the definition and results of every report that it runs to improve query response time the next time those same reports are run. These stored result sets are called report caches.

Intelligence Server identifies valid report caches by matching various keys.

Re-executing a report means running the report against the data warehouse, thus bypassing any valid cache that might exist for that report.

As a report developer, you should be aware of object-level security, security filters, and other security features that might affect the results end-users see when they run reports.


38 Lesson Summary 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.


2ADVANCED METRICS

Lesson Description

In the MicroStrategy Desktop: Reporting Essentials course, you learned how to create basic metrics. This lesson takes that knowledge to a deeper level.

In this lesson, you will learn to create various types of advanced metrics, such as level, non-aggregatable, conditional, and transformation metrics. These metrics empower you to answer questions like, What percentage of total company revenue did my business unit generate?, Are inventory levels being consistently replenished at the beginning of each week?, or What was the profit margin last year at this time?.

Advanced Metrics MicroStrategy Desktop: Advanced Reporting2

40 Lesson Objectives 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.

Lesson Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:Create level, non-aggregatable, transformation, conditional, and nested metrics. Describe the settings associated with these types of metrics. Execute reports using advanced metrics.

After completing the topics in this lesson, you will be able to:

Create level metrics and explain their use in percent-to-total calculations. (Page 41)

Describe and create non-aggregatable metrics. (Page 62)

Describe and create transformation metrics. (Page 65)

Save base formulas for reuse in creating other metrics. (Page 71)

Create conditional metrics. (Page 72)

Create nested metrics that involve multiple formulas calculated at different levels. (Page 76)

Use advanced functions to create metrics. (Page 79)

Define custom subtotals to use different naming conventions for totals and create user-defined subtotals that use nonstandard subtotal functions. (Page 90)

MicroStrategy Desktop: Advanced Reporting Advanced Metrics 2

2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. Level Metrics 41

Level Metrics

After completing this topic, you will be able to:Create level metrics and explain their use in percent-to-total calculations.

What Are Level Metrics?

Level, or dimensionality, enables you to determine the attribute level at which a metric is calculated. However, you can specify the grouping and filtering involved in a metric calculation.

By default, all metrics calculate at the report level, which means that the attributes on the report template dictate the level at which the metric calculates. However, you may specify any attributes as the calculation level of a metric. The metric-specified attribute levels override the default report level.

The Metric Editor and Level Metrics

When you define the level for a metric, you need to consider the following settings:

Target

Grouping

Filtering


42 Level Metrics 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.

The following image shows the Level (Dimensionality) pane in the Metric Editor:

Metric EditorLevel (Dimensionality Pane)

Target

The target is the attribute level at which the metric calculates. Any attribute or hierarchy can be the target.

Grouping

Grouping determines how the metric aggregates. The option you choose for the grouping of a metric affects the GROUP BY clause of the SQL pass that calculates the metric. The following grouping options are available in the Metric Editor for level metrics:

StandardGroups by the attribute level specified as the target

NoneExcludes the target (and its children) for the report grouping. This setting calculates one total for the target attribute and any of its child attributes that are included on the template.



Filtering

The filtering setting governs the relationship between the report filter and the calculation of the metric. The following filtering options are available in the Metric Editor:

The filtering setting only applies to filtering criteria that are related to the attribute that is specified as the target. A report filter is related to the target if it qualifies on an attribute that belongs to the same hierarchy as the target attribute.

StandardEnables the report filter to interact as usual in the metric calculation. The metric calculates only for the elements included in the report filter definition. The filter criteria for the report is included in the WHERE clause of the SQL pass that calculates the metric.

AbsoluteRaises the level of the report filter to that of the target

IgnoreCompletely ignores any related report filtering criteria. Any related report filtering conditions are not included anywhere in SQL pass that calculates the metric.

NoneDirects the MicroStrategy Engine to use a particular fact table to calculate a metric. You typically use this filtering option in combination with the None grouping option.

Using Level Metrics

You are the manager of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. You want to assess how each of the call centers in your region contributed to the overall revenue for the region. How can you accomplish this analysis using level metrics?

Solution

To answer this question:

1 Create a simple metric that calculates revenue at the report level.

2 Create a level metric using the Revenue fact and set the target to Region.

3 Create a third metric that calculates percent contribution by dividing the first metric by the second metric.

4 Create a report with Region, Call Center, and the first and the third metrics.



Grouping Set to Standard

Business Scenario

Your company has recently kicked off a new advertising campaign targeted at certain high-growth opportunity areas. In your regions, the high-growth areas are the Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C., call centers, so you need to focus your analysis on these areas. One of your requirements is to see how the revenue for each of these areas compares to the other areas in its region.

Filtering Set to Standard

When you select Standard filtering, all of the report filter elements are applied to the calculation of the metric. In the report SQL, the report filter is evaluated in the WHERE clause of the SQL pass that calculates the metric.

In the business scenario, the value for the Regional Revenue level metric for the Mid-Atlantic region includes revenue only for the Washington, D.C., call center. The metric calculates this way because the Washington D.C. call center is the only call center in the Mid-Atlantic region that is included in the report filter. Also, because you are using Standard grouping, the Regional Revenue metric calculates at the target attribute level of Region. The following image shows the report with values for level metric with Standard filtering:

Regional RevenueFiltering Set to Standard

If you include the totals for the Regional Revenue level metric, they are dimensionality aware and display the correct figures.



The SQL for this report looks like the following:

select a12.[REGION_ID] AS REGION_ID,sum(a11.[TOT_DOLLAR_SALES]) AS WJXBFS1

from [CITY_CTR_SLS] a11, [LU_CALL_CTR] a12where a11.[CALL_CTR_ID] = a12.[CALL_CTR_ID] and a11.[CALL_CTR_ID] in (5, 11, 12)group by a12.[REGION_ID]

All SQL examples in this lesson use Microsoft Access 2007 SQL syntax.Filtering Set to Absolute

Using the same business scenario, if you select Absolute filtering, the Regional Revenue level metric calculates only for those regions that have at least one call center present within the report filter. Unlike Standard filtering, the Regional Revenue is the total of all call centers within that region, not just the call centers included in the report filter. Grouping continues to occur at the target attribute level of Region since the grouping option is set to Standard. The following image shows the report with values for level metric with Absolute filtering:

Regional RevenueFiltering Set to Absolute



The Regional Revenue level metric gets resolved in multiple passes of SQL. The report filter is present in the WHERE clause of the first SQL pass. The MicroStrategy Engine brings back only the target attribute elements (Region) where the report filter elements (Call Center) exist within the target attribute (Region). The SQL for this metric looks like the following:

insert into ZZTSX01009ESQ001 select distinct s21.[REGION_ID] AS REGION_IDfrom [LU_CALL_CTR] s21where s21.[CALL_CTR_ID] in (5, 11, 12)

insert into ZZTSX01009EMD002 select a12.[REGION_ID] AS REGION_ID,sum(a11.[TOT_DOLLAR_SALES]) AS WJXBFS1

from [CITY_CTR_SLS] a11, [LU_CALL_CTR] a12, [ZZTSX01009ESQ001] pa13

where a11.[CALL_CTR_ID] = a12.[CALL_CTR_ID] and a12.[REGION_ID] = pa13.[REGION_ID]

group by a12.[REGION_ID]

Filtering Set to Ignore

When you select Ignore filtering, the report filter elements that are directly related to the target attribute are not included in the WHERE clause of the SQL pass that calculates the metric.



Using the same business scenario, since the call centers are directly related to the target attribute of Region, the entire report filter is ignored. However, if the report filter contained other attribute elements, like years, those conditions would not be ignored because they are not directly related to the target attribute of Region. The following image shows the report with values for level metric with Ignore filtering:

Regional RevenueFiltering Set to Ignore

The SQL for this metric looks like the following:


from [CITY_CTR_SLS] a11,[LU_CALL_CTR] a12where a11.[CALL_CTR_ID] = a12.[CALL_CTR_ID]group by a12.[REGION_ID]



Grouping Set to None

Business Scenario

You now want to perform an analysis that is similar to the previous example but with a slightly different perspective. For example, you may want to analyze the following questions:

How did the revenue for each of the three call centers (Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.) compare to the revenue of the entire company?

How did the revenue of each of the three call centers compare to the total of only the three call centers?

The answers to these questions give you an insight into how the new advertising campaign is being received in the targeted areas of your region. They also give you a broader perspective on its effects on the company.

Filtering Set to Standard

With grouping set to None, the metric does not group by the target attribute or any child attribute directly related to the target attribute specified within the level metric. Therefore, in this particular example, there is no GROUP BY clause in the SQL pass that calculates the metric. With filtering set to Standard, the report filter elements are included in the WHERE clause.

The None grouping option applies only to the target attribute specified in the level metric or attributes that are related as children of the target. If the following report also contained the Year attribute, the report SQL would still include a GROUP BY clause. The GROUP BY clause would contain Year since the Year attribute is not directly related to the metric target of Region. The GROUP BY clause would not contain Call Center or Region since Call Center is a child of Region and Region is the target of the metric.



Using the same business scenario, this metric calculates the total revenue for all call centers present in the report filter. The following image shows the report with values for level metric with Standard filtering:

Regional RevenueFiltering Set to Standard


select sum(a11.[TOT_DOLLAR_SALES]) AS WJXBFS1from [CITY_CTR_SLS] a11where a11.[CALL_CTR_ID] in (5, 11, 12)

Filtering Set to Absolute

With Grouping set to None, the metric does not group by anything directly related to the target attribute specified for the level metric. Since the only attributes on the report are related to the target, there is no GROUP BY clause in the SQL pass that calculates the metric. When filtering is set to Absolute, the level metric is resolved in multiple passes of SQL. The report filter is present in the WHERE clause of the first SQL pass.



Using the same business scenario, this report lists only the regions that have call centers present in the report filter. The Regional Revenue metric calculation takes into account only these listed regions, but it includes the total for all call centers in these regions, not just the call centers specified in the report filter. The following image shows the report with values for level metric with Absolute filtering:

Regional RevenueFiltering Set to Absolute


insert into ZZTSX0100CKSQ001 select distinct s21.[REGION_ID] AS REGION_IDfrom [LU_CALL_CTR] s21where s21.[CALL_CTR_ID] in (5, 11, 12)

insert into ZZTSX0100CKMD002 select sum(a11.[TOT_DOLLAR_SALES]) AS WJXBFS1from [CITY_CTR_SLS] a11, [LU_CALL_CTR] a12, [ZZTSX0100CKSQ001] pa13

where a11.[CALL_CTR_ID] = a12.[CALL_CTR_ID] and a12.[REGION_ID] = pa13.[REGION_ID]



Filtering Set to Ignore

With filtering set to Ignore, all the report filtering criteria directly related to the target attribute are ignored, and the MicroStrategy Engine automatically removes the related report filtering criteria from the WHERE clause of the SQL pass that calculates the metric. With grouping set to None, the level metric also does not display any grouping on the report since the only attributes on the report are directly related to the target of Region.

Using the same business scenario, the Regional Revenue metric calculates the total company revenue for all call centers in all regions, not just the three call centers that are included in the report filter. The following image shows the report with values for level metric with Ignore filtering:

Regional RevenueFiltering Set to Ignore


select sum(a11.[TOT_DOLLAR_SALES]) AS WJXBFS1from [YR_CATEGORY_SLS] a11

Filtering Set to None

You typically use the None filtering option in combination with the None grouping option. The None filtering option enables you to specify the fact table that you want the MicroStrategy Engine to use to calculate a metric. You add as many target attributes as necessary to the metric to force it to calculate against a specific fact table. Any target attribute set to the None filtering option borrows its filtering criteria from the other target attributes specified in the dimensionality of the metric, enabling you to choose the fact table without altering the original intent of the report.



For example, using the same business scenario, if you want the MicroStrategy Engine to use the ITEM_EMP_SLS fact table instead of the CITY_CTR_SLS fact table (an aggregate fact table) to calculate the metric, you include the Item attribute as a target of the level metric. Since the Item attribute is found in the ITEM_EMP_SLS table and not the CITY_CTR_SLS table, including Item as a target forces the MicroStrategy Engine to use the ITEM_EMP_SLS fact table. If data is stored differently in the ITEM_EMP_SLS table, results could be different. The following image shows the report with values for level metric with None filtering:

Regional RevenueFiltering Set to None

The SQL statements for these metrics look like the following:

Regional Revenue (Target=Region, Filtering=Standard, Grouping=Standard)


from [CITY_CTR_SLS] a11,[LU_CALL_CTR] a12where a11.[CALL_CTR_ID] = a12.[CALL_CTR_ID]and a11.[CALL_CTR_ID] in (5, 11, 12)group by a12.[REGION_ID]

Regional Revenue (Target1=Region, Filtering=Standard, Grouping=Standard, Target2=Item, Filtering=None, Grouping=None)


from [ITEM_EMP_SLS] a11, [LU_EMPLOYEE] a12, [LU_CALL_CTR] a13

where a11.[EMP_ID] = a12.[EMP_ID] and



a12.[CALL_CTR_ID] = a13.[CALL_CTR_ID]and a12.[CALL_CTR_ID] in (5, 11, 12)

group by a13.[REGION_ID]

Defining Level Metrics

Creating a level metric is similar to creating a simple metric. You must use a Metric Editor to create it. Once you define a simple metric formula, you have to enter a level definition for your metric.

To create a level metric:

1 In the Metric Editor, in the Definition pane, define a simple metric.

2 In the upper pane, select Level (Dimensionality).

In general, you should retain the Report Level target, so the metric calculates at the report level for any attributes on the template that are not related to your other target attributes.

3 In the Object Browser, drag the desired target attributes to the Level (Dimensionality) pane.

4 In the Level (Dimensionality) pane, in the Filtering and Grouping drop-down lists for each target attribute, select the appropriate filtering and grouping settings.

5 Click Save and Close.



Removing the Report Level Target

Business Scenario

You want to compare the revenue performance of certain targeted areas to the revenue of the entire company for all time.

Solution

Earlier in this lesson, you learned how to use Ignore filtering and None grouping to create an All Revenue" level metric. If you have multiple hierarchies represented on the report template, this method requires you to include multiple attribute targets in your level metric. However, another option is to remove the default Report Level target and add any attribute as the target with its grouping set to None.

The presence of the default Report Level target on a metric tells the MicroStrategy Engine to group by all the attribute IDs found on the template. By removing the Report Level target from the metric and selecting None for the grouping of any other available target attribute, the MicroStrategy Engine understands that there should not be a GROUP BY clause in the SQL pass that calculates the metric. You can use any attribute for this purpose. You do not need to add more than one attribute unless specific filtering behavior is required for the metric.

If specific filtering behavior is required, you need to add other target attributes, but you should always select None grouping.



Removing the Report Level target is a quick and easy way to do something that would otherwise involve multiple steps. It is helpful if you have many hierarchies represented on the report template that need to be included in the metric calculation to obtain the desired outcome. The following image shows the report with values for a metric with removed Report Level:

All RevenueRemove Report Level

In this report, the All Revenue level metric has the following dimensionality:

All RevenueWithout Report Level



The Report Level target is noticeably absent in the Level (Dimensionality) pane. The metric returns all revenue from the data warehouse because it is not grouping by any attribute on the template (and because there is no criteria specified in the report filter). For this example, the Year attribute is the target, but any attribute would produce the same results. You could even choose an unrelated attribute like Subcategory and the result set would be the same for the All Revenue level metric.

If you want to achieve the same result set by defining your level metric with the Report Level target still present, you need to define the level metric as follows:

Level MetricOne Attribute from All Dimensions

When you keep the Report Level target, you also need to include every attribute that is on the template as a target 0f the level metric. You select None grouping for each of these attributes. This level metric produces the same result (a value of $35,023,708) as the previous example, but its definition has more components due to the multiple target attributes.


2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. Review: Level Metrics 57

Review: Level Metrics

Identify the target, filtering, and grouping for the level metrics in the following reports.

1

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________


58 Review: Level Metrics 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.

2

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

3

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________



The following report displays nearly every type of level metric you learned about in this lesson. If you assume that the target is Region, can you determine the filtering and grouping for each level metric?

4

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________



The following report shows the filtering and grouping settings for each level metric in the previous report. For display purposes, the names of the metrics are abbreviated as follows:

ABSAbsolute filtering

IGNIgnore filtering

NONENone grouping

STDStandard filtering or standard grouping

Read the following level metric description and identify the target, filtering, and grouping for the metric.

1 You would like to create a metric to calculate the sum of sales for the entire region, while including only the call centers that are in the report filter. The template contains the Region and Call Center attributes and the metric.

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

2 You would like to create a metric to calculate the sum of units sold for each region in Q4 2009, considering only the call centers that are included in the report filter. The template contains the Region and Call Center attributes and the metric.

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________



3 You would like to create a metric to calculate the sum of profit for 2008 across all customer states regardless of the customer cities that are included in the report filter. The template contains the Customer State and Customer City attributes and the metric.

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

_______________________________________



Review Solutions:

1 Target: RegionFiltering: StandardGrouping: Standard

2 Target: RegionFiltering: Absolute or IgnoreGrouping: Standard

3 Target: RegionFiltering: StandardGrouping: None

4

Solutions for IMage with Various Level Metrics

Metric Filtering Grouping

A Absolute None

B Absolute or Ignore Standard

C Ignore None

D Absolute or Ignore Standard

E Standard None

F Standard Standard


2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. Non-aggregatable Metrics 63

Non-aggregatable Metrics

After completing this topic, you will be able to:Describe and create non-aggregatable metrics.

What Is a Non-aggregatable Metric?

A non-aggregatable metric is a metric that should not be summed across a particular attribute or hierarchy. Inventory is an example of a non-aggregatable metric. The data warehouse may keep inventory records for every quarter. However, you do not sum these inventory records to calculate yearly inventory figures. It makes more sense to obtain the end-on-hand or beginning-on-hand inventory numbers for each year to analyze how inventory changed over the course of the year.

Correct Vs. Incorrect Non-Aggregatable Metrics

In this example, the End on Hand metric is defined as non-aggregatable, while the End on Hand (Incorrect) metric is not. Notice the difference in the values that they produce for each year. The End on Hand metric does not sum inventory over time. Rather, it returns the inventory values for the last month in each year. In this case, it lists the values for the last month because inventory is recorded every month. However, the End on Hand (Incorrect) metric sums inventory values over time, which returns invalid figures. Inventory levels were never that high at any point during the year.

In this example, the End on Hand inventory metric is defined as non-aggregatable for the Month attribute, which tells the MicroStrategy Engine not to sum the metric values at the Month level or any attribute level higher than Month.


64 Non-aggregatable Metrics 2011 MicroStrategy, Inc.

You can specify a metric as non-aggregatable for an entire hierarchy rather than a specific attribute. For example, using the Time hierarchy indicates that a metric should be non-aggregatable across all attributes in that hierarchy.

Defining Non-aggregatable Metrics

You define a metric as non-aggregatable in the Level (Dimensionality) pane in the Metric Editor. The following non-aggregatable options are listed under the grouping options for a metric.

The options are as follows:

Beginning (fact)Uses the first available value in the fact table

Ending (fact)Uses the last available value in the fact table

Beginning (lookup)Uses the first available value in the lookup table

Ending (lookup)Uses the last available value in the lookup table

The following image shows metric defined as non-aggregatable in the level (Dimensionality) pane in the Metric Editor:

Metric EditorGrouping Set to Ending (Fact)


2011 MicroStrategy, Inc. Non-aggregatable Metrics 65

The following image shows the lookup table and the fact table that can be used when specifying a metric:

Beginning (Lookup) Versus Beginning (Fact)

For example, in the illustration above, the, the fact table does not store the stock amount for the first week of th

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