Client-Specific Job Processing

This section explains the job processing steps that certain client applications perform as they deliver user requests to Intelligence Server. It also covers how those clients receive results, and how the results are displayed them to the user.

For information about the processing steps performed by Intelligence Server for all jobs, see Intelligence Server Job Processing (Common to All Jobs).

Processing Jobs from MicroStrategy Web Products

This section provides a high-level overview of processing flow for requests originating in MicroStrategy Web or Web Universal. It also includes the job process for exporting reports in various formats.

Job Requests from MicroStrategy Web Products

1. The user makes a request from a web browser. The request is sent to the web server via HTTP or HTTPS.
2. An ASP.NET page or a servlet receives the request and calls the MicroStrategy Web API.
3. The MicroStrategy Web API sends the request to Intelligence Server, which processes the job as usual (see Processing Report Execution).
4. Intelligence Server sends the results back to the MicroStrategy Web API via XML.
5. MicroStrategy Web converts the XML to HTML within the application code:
   • In MicroStrategy Web, the conversion is primarily performed in ASP code.
   • In some customizations, the conversion may occur within custom XSL classes. By default, the product does not use XSL for rendering output, except in document objects.
6. MicroStrategy Web sends the HTML to the client's browser, which displays the results.

What Happens When I Export a Report from MicroStrategy Web?

Exporting a report from MicroStrategy Web products lets users save the report in another format that may provide additional capabilities for sharing, printing, or further manipulation. This section explains the additional processing the system must do when exporting a report in one of several formats. This may help you to understand when certain parts of the MicroStrategy platform are stressed when exporting.

Exporting a report from MicroStrategy Web products causes Intelligence Server to retrieve the entire result set (no incremental fetch) into memory and send it to MicroStrategy Web. This increases the memory use on the Intelligence Server machine and it increases network traffic.

For information about governing report size limits for exporting, see Limit the Information Displayed at One Time and the following sections.

Export to Comma Separated File (CSV) or Excel with Plain Text

Export to Comma Separated File (CSV) and Export to Excel with Plain Text is done completely on Intelligence Server. These formats contain only report data and no formatting information. The only difference between these two formats is the internal "container" that is used.

The MicroStrategy system performs these steps when exporting to CSV or to Excel with plain text:

1. MicroStrategy Web product receives the request for the export and passes the request to Intelligence Server. Intelligence Server takes the XML containing the report data and parses it for separators, headers and metric values.
2. Intelligence Server then outputs the titles of the units in the Row axis. All these units end up in the same row of the result text.
3. Intelligence Server then outputs the title and header of one unit in the Column axis.
4. Repeat step 3 until all units in the Column axis are completed.
5. Intelligence Server outputs all the headers of the Row axis and all metric values one row at a time.
6. The finished result is then passed to be output as a CSV or an Excel file, which is then passed to the client browser.

Export to Excel with Formatting

Exporting to Excel with formatting allows for reports to be exported to an Excel file and contain the same formatting as shown in the browser window. The report retains all cell coloring, font sizes, styles, and other formatting aspects.

The MicroStrategy system performs these steps when exporting to Excel with formatting:

1. MicroStrategy Web product receives the request for the export to Excel and passes the request to Intelligence Server. Intelligence Server produces a report by combining the XML containing the report data with the XSL containing formatting information.
2. Intelligence Server passes the report to MicroStrategy Web, which creates an Excel file and sends it to the browser.
3. Users can then choose to view the Excel file or save it depending on the client machine operating system's setting for viewing Excel files.

Export to PDF

Exporting to PDF uses Intelligence Server's export engine to create a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. PDF files are viewed with Adobe's Acrobat reader and provide greater printing functionality than simply printing the report from the browser.

Processing Jobs from Narrowcast Server

MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server performs the following steps to deliver reports to users.

For detailed information about Narrowcast Server, see the Narrowcast Server Getting Started Guide.

Job Requests from MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server

1. A Narrowcast service execution is triggered by a schedule or external API call.
2. Narrowcast Server determines the service recipients and allocates work to Execution Engine (EE) machines.
3. EE machines determine personalized reports to be created for each recipient by using recipient preferences.
4. Narrowcast Server submits one report per user or one multipage report for multiple users, depending on service definition.
5. Intelligence Server processes the report job request as usual. (See Processing Report Execution.) It then sends the result back to Narrowcast Server.
6. Narrowcast Server creates formatted documents using the personalized report data.
7. Narrowcast Server packages documents as appropriate for the service's delivery method, such as e-mail, wireless, and so on.
8. Narrowcast Server delivers the information to recipients by the chosen delivery method.