Overview of project creation

The following procedure describes the main steps to create a MicroStrategy project. These steps provide you with a high-level view of the project creation process. Bear this process in mind as you proceed through the rest of this guide.

The section Project connectivity components defines some of the basic terminology used in project creation in MicroStrategy Developer. It is intended to familiarize you with some of the terms discussed in this guide.

1. Creating the metadata repository

   The metadata repository contains the objects and definitions associated with your project. It acts as the intermediary between your business data and your reporting environment. Therefore, the first step in the project creation process is to create a metadata repository. For detailed instructions, see Creating the metadata repository.

2. Connecting to the metadata repository and data source

   Once the metadata repository is created and populated with initialization data, you must establish connections to both the metadata repository and data source. For detailed instructions, see Connecting to the metadata repository and data source.

3. Creating a production project

   Having created a metadata repository and established the necessary connections between the different parts of your MicroStrategy environment, you are ready to create the basic definition of your project. For detailed instructions, see Creating a production project.

4. Creating facts and attributes

   Schema objects such as facts and attributes are the basic components of the logical structure of a project. The business data your user community wants to report on is represented by schema objects in MicroStrategy. Therefore, it is necessary to set up schema objects before reports can be created. This step is covered in Creating facts and attributes of this chapter.

   You can use Query Builder or Freeform SQL to create schema objects as you design reports. For more information for these features, see the Advanced Reporting Help.

5. Configuring additional schema-level settings

   Once you create the initial schema objects, you can configure additional schema-level settings that allow you to add complexity and depth to objects in your project and to the project as a whole. For example, you can create advanced facts and attributes to retrieve specific result sets. You can also use attributes to create time-series analysis schema objects called transformations and implement various tools to optimize and maintain your project over time. For information about:

   • Advanced fact creation, see Creating and modifying simple and advanced facts.
   • Advanced attribute creation, see Adding and modifying attributes.
   • Hierarchies and hierarchy creation, see Creating Hierarchies to Organize and Browse Attributes.
   • Transformations and transformation creation, see Creating Transformations to Define Time-Based and Other Comparisons.
   • Project optimization and maintenance, see Optimizing and Maintaining Your Project.