MicroStrategy ONE

Customizing Transforms

One of the most common requirements of a customized application is the ability to present data in with a look and feel appropriate for your organization. Additionally, it is not uncommon to want to harness MicroStrategy Intelligence Server's strength in bringing back data, while only being interested in presenting a subset of that data. In the past, XML transformation was the only method available to you in manipulating this data.

Using the MicroStrategy Web SDK, you can build new or customize existing transform objects. Transforms are re-usable components that cause the data stored in a given Web Bean to be presented according to the rules defined in the transform's definition. In this section, you are introduced to the following topics to enable you to write your own transforms for custom data presentation:

  • Infrastructure Package— A description of the interfaces, properties, and methods that all transform classes inherit and utilize. Includes class diagrams and code samples of how to build a transform on this infrastructure.  

  • Implementation Package— This package consists of dozens of transforms that ship with and are used in MicroStrategy Web products, by default. This section builds on the information learned in the Infrastructure Package section by describing how specific transforms are designed to be used on different types of Web Beans, enabling you the option of building a custom transform that inherits an existing transform's rules except where overridden by your custom class. This section includes more class diagrams and explanation, as well as in-depth descriptions for two of the more common areas where transform customization is done.  

  • Transform Reference Guides—A look at the transforms responsible for rendering the report grid and prompts.

Many customizations can be accomplished by simply modifying the parameters for existing transforms. Before you decide to write a custom transform, you should review the information contained in the Transform Parameters Reference to see if your customization for a particular type of Web Bean can be accomplished more easily, through existing transforms.

The information in these topics is intended to teach you how to create a custom transform for use by beans in the Web Universal application.