Exploring the MicroStrategy Tutorial schema

MicroStrategy Architect provides an intuitive way to explore the MicroStrategy Tutorial schema. Before you begin exploring the Tutorial schema using Architect, there are a few conventions and fact information that can help you understand the overall Tutorial schema.

The following prefixes and suffixes are used to identify different types of tables.

Symbol	Indicates	Definition
LU_	a lookup table	A database table used to uniquely identify attribute elements. They typically consist of descriptions of dimensions. Lookup tables are usually joined to fact tables to group the numeric facts in the fact table by dimensional attributes in the lookup tables.
REL_	a relationship table	While lookup tables store information about one or more attributes, relationship tables store information about the relationship between two attributes. Relationship tables contain the ID columns of two or more attributes, thus defining associations between them.
_SLS	a table with sales information	A database table used to store sales data (revenue, profit, cost, and so on) at different logical levels. These tables include a combination of attribute and fact definitions. For example, the YR_CATEGORY_SLS table includes the attributes Year and Category, along with facts such as Revenue, Cost, Profit, and so on. Storing these facts in this table makes their data available at the Year and Category level.

Many tables include a combination of attributes and facts. Some of the basic facts from which metrics in the MicroStrategy Tutorial were created from are listed below.

Fact	Description
Begin on hand	The number of individual items available at the beginning of each month.
Churn	The trends and profiles of the acquired, retained, and lost customers.
Cost	The total amount charged by the supplier to the company.
Customer Id	The unique identification number allocated to the customer by the company.
Discount	A monetary reduction made from a regular price.
End on hand	The number of individual items remaining at the close of each month.
Freight	The compensation paid for the transportation of goods.
Gross Revenue	The total income received from the company's product sales before deducting the expenses.
Item inventory	The month level item inventories used for End on hand and Begin on hand type inventory calculations. This fact also supports year-to-date and month-to-date analysis.
On Order Quantity	The quantity ordered by the customer.
Profit	The excess of the selling price of goods over their cost.
Recency	The number of days elapsed since the last purchase was made by the customer.
Revenue	The total income produced by a given source accounting for all product sales deducting discounts.
Rush Charge	The amount of money charged to expedite delivery service.
Target Quantity	The target set for the product units sold.
Tenure	The duration an employee is employed by the company.
Unit Cost	The amount of money charged by the supplier to the company per individual item purchased.
Unit Price	The amount of money charged by the company to the customer per individual item sold.
Unit Profit	Unit price - Unit cost.
Units Received	The number of individual items acquired from a supplier.
Units Sold	The number of individual items bought by customers.

The steps below show you how to explore the MicroStrategy Tutorial schema using Architect.

To explore the MicroStrategy Tutorial schema using Architect

1. If you are not already using the MicroStrategy Tutorial, log in to the project source containing the MicroStrategy Tutorial and expand the MicroStrategy Tutorial project. You must log in as a user with administrative privileges.

   By default, the MicroStrategy Tutorial project is provided as part of the MicroStrategy Analytics Modules project source.

2. Right-click the MicroStrategy Tutorial project and select Architect. MicroStrategy Architect opens.
3. Select the Project Tables View. All the tables included in the MicroStrategy Tutorial project are displayed.
4. To view the physical columns for each table:
   1. From the Options menu, select Settings. The MicroStrategy Architect Settings dialog box opens.
   2. On the Display settings tab, select Display table physical view.
   3. Click OK to return to Architect.

   Tables are displayed to show the columns within each table, including the column name and data type.

5. To view the physical columns for each table, along with the MicroStrategy schema object they define:
   1. From the Options menu, select Settings. The MicroStrategy Architect Settings dialog box opens.
   2. On the Display settings tab, select Display table logical view.
   3. Click Advanced Options.
   4. Select all the check boxes for the Display table logical view option. For a description of each option, see Defining project creation and display options.
   5. Click OK.
   6. Click OK to return to Architect.

      Tables are displayed to show the schema objects and the columns used to define the schema objects.

6. To view attribute relationships in the Project Tables View, from the View menu, select Show relationships.
7. From the Properties pane, you can use the Attribute, Facts, and Tables tabs to browse the various tables and schema objects for the Tutorial project.
8. To organize tables for further insight into the Tutorial project, you can create layers. For information on creating layers using Architect, see Organizing project tables: Layers.
9. To save the layout display of the Tutorial project schema, from the File menu, select Export Image. Type a name and select an image type to save the image as, and click Save.