Designing a report

A report is a collection of formatted objects (such as attributes and metrics) specified in the layout of a MicroStrategy report template. The objects on the report determine the calculated values that are displayed when the report is executed. Those values reflect the data in your data warehouse that have satisfied the filtering conditions applied to the report.

A report consists of a template plus any desired filtering conditions. A template specifies which information is to be retrieved and how the results are displayed. A filter specifies the conditions that the data must meet in order to be included in the report results.

When a report is run, you obtain a formatted collection of all of the items (such as attributes and metrics) specified in the template layout that have satisfied the filtering conditions. 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 general presentation formats and specific formatting details to suit your requirements and preferences.

Reports are the focus of decision support investigations. They allow users to gather business insight through data analysis. The results from any MicroStrategy report can be a valid starting point for further business investigations.

The report design process begins by answering the following basic questions:

What data is needed on the report?
How will this data be formatted on the report?
How is the appropriate data selected from your data warehouse?

The first two questions are answered by a report's template. The third question is answered by the report's filter.

For an example of a report, see About reports. For more background information about reports, such as report components and types, see the Basic Reporting Help.

Prerequisite

The procedure that follows is based on the assumption that the objects the report is to use are already available from the Object Browser.

To design a report

From the File menu, point to New, and then select Report to open the Report Editor.
If the Object Browser is not already displayed, select Object Browser from the View menu.
Search the Object Browser for an object to use in the report (you can, for example, search the Attributes folder for the project to which the report is to belong, and select an appropriate attribute). Once you find such an object, do one of the following:
- Drag the object and drop it in the shaded area at the top of the template
- Double-click the object
  
  When you drag an object into the drop area of the template, a bright line is displayed, to let you know how to position it: a horizontal line indicates that if you drop the object at that point, it becomes a column header; a vertical line indicates a row-header position.
Continue searching, selecting, and placing in the template objects to be used as report components, until you have selected all the objects necessary for the report.
From the Data menu, click Run Report to execute the report. You can also click the Run Report icon on the toolbar.

By default, the report displays as a grid. You can change the display to a graph, if desired, by selecting Graph View from the View menu. For more information on the viewing modes, see Running and viewing a report.
Save the report. (How?)

You can also create, edit, or delete multiple reports at the same time by using a Command Manager script. Command Manager is a MicroStrategy tool designed to automate certain tasks and processes. For example, you can create multiple empty reports that use the same template. For more information about Command Manager, including instructions, see the Command Manager chapter of the System Administration Help.