Creating a stand-alone template

A template defines the layout of general categories of information in a report. In a template, you specify the information that you want to retrieve from your data source, and the way that you want the data to be displayed in Grid view. A report template does not include filter information. For examples, see About report templates.

A stand-alone template is a template created as an independent MicroStrategy object, using the Template Editor. The stand-alone template can then be used on many different reports. When you add a template to a report, you can choose to create a shortcut to the stand-alone template or to embed the template in the report. The differences are described below:

• When you create a shortcut to a stand-alone template, changes that you make to the template are propagated to this report and to all other reports that use the template as a shortcut. Changes that you make to this template within this report are propagated to the template, and to all other reports that use the template as a shortcut. Use this option to share report caches. This is sometimes referred to as a linked template.

• When you embed a copy of the template in the report, changes that you make to the stand-alone template are not propagated to this report. Changes that you make to the embedded template within this report are not propagated to the template. This is sometimes referred to as a local or report-specific template.

Prerequisites

You must have Developer  privileges to access a MicroStrategy editor.

To create a template

1. Log in to MicroStrategy Developer, expand the project source, and open the project.

2. On the File menu, point to New, then choose Template. The Template Editor opens.

   If you are using Object Templates, the system prompts you to select an object template before the editor opens.

3. From the Object Browser, navigate to the object to place on the template.

4. Drag-and-drop or double-click the desired objects to move them onto the template:

   • To create a cross-tab template, drag and drop the objects onto the template as both row and column headers.

   • To create a tabular template, double-click an object. It is automatically placed in the template in a tabular format. To drag and drop objects, place them in the column header position of the template.

5. When you are finished, save the template.