Limit the Number of XML Cells

When large report result sets are generated into XML, they can require a significant amount of Intelligence Server memory. MicroStrategy Web handles this by implementing the incremental fetch feature (see Limit the Information Displayed at One Time). You can also govern the result set's size by setting the Maximum number of XML cells at the Intelligence Server level. This determines the maximum number of cells that can be returned from Intelligence Server to the Web server at a time. For this limit, the number of cells is the number of rows multiplied by the number of metric columns. Attribute cells are not considered.

For example, if the XML limit is set at 10,000 and a report has 100,000 metric cells, the report is split into 10 pages. The user clicks the page number to view the corresponding page.

Additionally, when users export large reports from MicroStrategy Web as formatted data, the XML is generated in batches. This XML limit determines how large the batches are. Depending on this XML limit, Intelligence Server behaves differently:

• If the limit is smaller, it takes a longer time to generate the XML because it is generated in small batches, which use less memory and system resources.
• If the limit is larger, it takes a shorter time to generate the XML because it is generated in fewer, but larger, batches, which use more memory and system resources.

To set the XML limit, in the Intelligence Server Configuration Editor, select the Governing Rules: Default: File Generation category, then specify the Maximum number of XML cells. You must restart Intelligence Server for the new limit to take effect.