MicroStrategy ONE

How to Deploy a Widget

You can quickly deploy a custom widget to multiple MicroStrategy products such as MicroStrategy Web, MicroStrategy Developer, MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server, and MicroStrategy Office, without having to modify code manually. This custom widget can be a widget that is downloaded from the Widget Library site, https://resource.microstrategy.com/Support, or another widget that you have created using the MicroStrategy SDK. Steps are below to deploy a widget using the Widget Deployment Page. For detailed instructions on deploying a custom widget in special circumstances, see the MicroStrategy Developer Library (MSDL).

You can access the Widget Deployment page on the left side of the MicroStrategy Web Administrator page. For complete steps to deploy a widget automatically, see Deploying a widget automatically from the Widget Deployment page in the steps below.

After you deploy a widget, you can use it in a document, deliver it using Narrowcast delivery functionality, or display it in MicroStrategy Office.

When you use the Widget Deployment page, the widget .zip file must be placed in a location that is accessible to all the products that are selected on the Widget Deployment page. If you are running MicroStrategy Web Universal in a UNIX environment and want to use the Widget Deployment page to deploy a widget to MicroStrategy Web as well as another MicroStrategy component on Microsoft Windows, see Deploying a widget with MicroStrategy Web Universal.

Deploying a widget automatically from the Widget Deployment page

You can deploy a widget automatically to MicroStrategy Web, MicroStrategy Developer, MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server, and MicroStrategy Office from the Widget Deployment page in the Web Administrator page.

The widget must be deployed to MicroStrategy Web before it is deployed to MicroStrategy Developer. It must be deployed to either MicroStrategy Web or MicroStrategy Developer before it is deployed to MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server or MicroStrategy Office. For details, see the procedure below.

Prerequisite: You must have the MicroStrategy Report Services product. Widgets can only be used in Report Services documents and dashboards.

To deploy a widget automatically from the Widget Deployment page

  1. In the Widget SWF File Folder text field, enter the path to the folder on the Web Server machine in which you downloaded the widget widgetChanges.swf file.

  2. To ensure that the widget is deployed to MicroStrategy Web before it is deployed to other products, select the MicroStrategy Web checkbox.

  3. Depending on the additional MicroStrategy products in which you want to deploy the widget, do the following:

    • To deploy the widget to MicroStrategy Developer:

      1. Select the MicroStrategy Developer checkbox.

      2. In the MicroStrategy Common Files Path text field, enter the path to widgets.xml, which is installed as a part of the MicroStrategy Developer installation. By default, this path is C:\Program Files\Common Files\MicroStrategy.

    • To deploy the widget to MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server:

      1. Select the MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server checkbox.

      2. In the Narrowcast Server Delivery Engine Path text field, enter the path to the Narrowcast Delivery Engine folder. By default, this path is C:\Program Files\MicroStrategy\Narrowcast Server\Delivery Engine.

    • To deploy the widget to MicroStrategy Office:

      This information applies to the legacy MicroStrategy Office add-in, the add‑in for Microsoft Office applications which is no longer actively developed.

      It was substituted with a new add‑in, MicroStrategy for Office, which supports Office 365 applications. The initial version does not yet have all the functionalities of the previous add‑in.

      If you are using MicroStrategy 2021 Update 2 or a later version, the legacy MicroStrategy Office add-in cannot be installed from Web.;

      For more information, see the MicroStrategy for Office page in the Readme and the MicroStrategy for Office Help.

      1. Select the MicroStrategy Office checkbox.

      2. In the MicroStrategy Web Services Deployment Path text field, enter the path to the Web Services folder. By default, this path is C:\Program Files\MicroStrategy\Web Services\swf. This Web Services folder is on the machine on which MicroStrategy Web Services is installed, not on the machine where the client for MicroStrategy Office is installed.

  4. Click Deploy Widget to begin deploying the widget. The status of the deployment is displayed.

  5. Restart the Web server and MicroStrategy Web.

Deploying a widget with MicroStrategy Web Universal

When you use the Widget Deployment page to deploy a widget to multiple MicroStrategy products running on both UNIX/Linux and Windows environments, you must provide a path to the SWF file folder that is accessible to all the products that are selected on the Widget Deployment page. This requires the use of a third-party product, such as Samba, to allow file sharing between UNIX/Linux machines and Windows machines. If you cannot install this type of third-party product, you may also choose to deploy your widget manually by copying it to the relevant product folders.

For example, to use the Widget Deployment page to deploy a widget for MicroStrategy Web Universal running on UNIX/Linux and MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server, follow the steps below:

  1. Copy the widget (for example, the Bubble Grid widget) onto the UNIX web server hosting the MicroStrategy Universal application.

  2. Share the folder C:\Program Files\MicroStrategy\Narrowcast Server\Delivery Engine, so that an authenticated Windows user can access and make changes to this folder.

  3. Install the Samba server.

  4. Configure Samba so that the C:\Program Files\MicroStrategy\Narrowcast Server\Delivery Engine folder on the Windows mapped drive is accessible as //machine-name/sharename (for example, //NarrowcastServer/DeliveryEngine).

    Make sure that the required privileges are defined so that users can access and read these files.

  5. Connect and mount the shared folder using the following command from the UNIX command line:

    • smbmount //NarrowCastServer/DeliveryEngine/home/user/mnt/DE -0 username=winuser,password=mywindowspassword
    • where //NarrowCastServer/DeliveryEngine is the name of the shared folder on the machine, /home/user/mnt/DE is the mount point, and winuser is the username.

Testing the widget in MicroStrategy products

The following procedure describes how to verify that the new widget has been added to the appropriate (or selected) MicroStrategy product.

Prerequisite: You must have document designer privileges to design a document.

To test the widget in MicroStrategy Web

  1. After deploying the widget to MicroStrategy Web, restart the Web server.

  2. Log in to MicroStrategy Web.

  3. Create a new Report Services document or edit an existing document.

  4. From the Insert menu, point to Widgets, and ensure that your downloaded widget is visible and can be selected.

  5. On the Controls toolbar, ensure that the icon for your downloaded widget is visible and can be selected.

To test the widget in MicroStrategy Developer

  1. Open MicroStrategy Developer. If MicroStrategy Developer was open when you deployed the widget, restart the application.

  2. Log in to MicroStrategy Developer.

  3. Create a new Report Services document or edit an existing document.

  4. In the Property List for Grid/Graphs, in the Widget section, ensure that your downloaded widget is visible and can be selected from the Widget drop-down list.

To test the widget in Narrowcast Server

  1. Restart MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server.

  2. In MicroStrategy Web, create a document using your new widget, and save the document.

  3. From the File menu, select Send Now. The Send Now dialog box opens.

  4. Click To. The Recipients Browser opens.

  5. Select the email address to which you want to email the document, then click the Add to selections arrow to add it to the To list.

  6. Click OK.

  7. From the Delivery Format drop-down list, select Flash.

  8. Click OK.

  9. Verify that the widget is included in the document that you e-mailed.

To test the widget in MicroStrategy Office

  1. Restart Web Services.

  2. In MicroStrategy Web, create a document using your new widget and save the document.

  3. Use MicroStrategy Office to display the document in Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. For details, see the MicroStrategy Office User Guide.

    For troubleshooting details related to displaying widgets in MicroStrategy Office, see the MicroStrategy Web User help.