MicroStrategy ONE

How to Use the MSDL for Web Customization

The primary goal of this section is to provide information about how to use the Web SDK to help you accomplish your customization tasks. The most useful and commonly accessed material in the MSDL is in the following sections:

The rest of this topic presents an overview to these important sections, as well as to the remaining MSDL sections.

Upgrading MicroStrategy Web

If you are upgrading to a newer version of the SDK, you should start with this MSDL section. After you have finished reading this section, proceed to either of the following:

The upgrading section also presents a comparative customization example. It overs a typical customization scenario accomplished using MicroStrategy Web 8.x and explains its corresponding implementation in MicroStrategy Web 9.x using the Web Customization Editor.

Customizing MicroStrategy Web

To learn about performing customization in MicroStrategy Web products, this section provides core knowledge. The section is organized as follows:

Part I: Fundamentals of customization

This vital section introduces the fundamentals of customization in MicroStrategy Web products and helps you get started with the basics of all customization tasks.

  • The first four sub-sections— Navigation and Workflow; Page Content and Layout; Data Presentation, Styles and Layout Definitions; and Additional Application Settings— provide the fundamentals from a comprehensive technical perspective. Information is included about the URL API, page structure, fundamental configuration files, and more. This serves as a starting point for performing customization tasks.  

  • The remaining sections in Part I are a series of customization scenarios that represent practical customizations that are typically performed by customers and that do not require Java programming. The customization tasks include information about page structure, data presentation, and so on.

    Customization examples are grouped into the following sections:

    • Cosmetic changes
      Scenarios such as changing the page layout, modifying headers and footers, and adding a new style to a report  

    • Workflow changes
      Scenarios such as disabling the Wait page and inserting prompt answers  

    • Functionality changes
      Scenarios such as removing options on the Report Execution page and embedding a report in a page

Part II: Advanced customization topics

This section introduces customization techniques requiring Java programming and provides introductory information about the Web Objects and Web Beans APIs. These advanced customization tasks involve customizing transforms, events, and add-ons. Reference to detailed information about interfaces and methods is provided to help you understand and use the underlying APIs more effectively.  

  • The first several sections of Part II provide comprehensive technical background information and explanations. Topics such as Customizing Transforms, Customizing Events, and Customizing Add-ons introduce you to the major Web components that can house your custom code. Each of these object types is explained in depth. Customizing Authentication and Additional Application Functionality introduce you to other advanced features that require Java programming for customization.  

  • The remaining sections in Part II are a series of customization scenarios with a "How-to" approach that describes how to perform advanced customizations from a more practical perspective. The customization tasks include real-life use cases which require customization of the components discussed in the earlier sections.

References

The References section provides valuable reference content. These references are referred to throughout the MSDL. Note that these references by themselves do not tell you how to use their content to accomplish your customization. The Customizing MicroStrategy Web section in MSDL does that, calling on the content in these files for your reference. Some of the particularly useful reference content includes:

  • The invaluable API Reference, primarily for the Java developer. All interfaces, classes, and methods are indicated in Courier font throughout MSDL. You can use the MSDL's Search functionality to access details in the API Reference for any interface, class or method from any place in the MSDL.

  • The MicroStrategy Custom Tags Reference, which lists the tags that can be used to work with and render MicroStrategy Web components.

  • The Transform Parameters Reference, which describes the possible values for parameters that need to be modified within the Style Catalog configuration file to accomplish custom page and data rendering.  

  • The Troubleshooting Reference for resolving issues.

Additional references can be found here.

Additional sections

To thoroughly understand the advanced topics in this section, become familiar first with the concepts explained in the Fundamentals of customization and Advanced customization topics sections.

SDK kits and sample code are available with your SDK installation. Refer to the SDK kits and Sample code sections for an overview of the various code samples shipped with the SDK.

The Web SDK also provides custom MicroStrategy portlet samples, such as a sample iGoogle Gadget and a sample JSR 168 MicroStrategy Portlet. These samples illustrate how to reuse the MicroStrategy Web components to integrate business intelligence into your application.