MicroStrategy ONE

Linking to a web page from a document

You can link a text field or an image in a document to a web page. When the document is viewed in MicroStrategy Web, a user can click the link to navigate to the link's target web page, which opens in a new window. If you prefer, you can define the link so that the target opens in the same window as the document, effectively replacing it. Links are functional in the following modes in MicroStrategy Web:

  • Editable

  • Flash

  • Interactive

Links are not functional in MicroStrategy Developer. Use a hyperlink instead, which is similar to a link except that it functions in PDF View in MicroStrategy Developer, as well as in all non-Flash modes in MicroStrategy Web. For instructions and examples, see Defining hyperlinks in documents.

For example, you can define a link on a logo in the Document Header. When a user clicks the logo, your home page is displayed. You can also link a text field, such as region, to a web page. In the document, the various regions are underlined, indicating that a link exists. When a user hovers the cursor over a region in MicroStrategy Web, the pointer changes to a hand, also indicating a link. When a user clicks a region, the website is displayed.

You can add pop-up text to display information about the link. In the above examples, the pop-up text can display the URL or a description of the website. For instructions, see Creating pop-up tooltips in controls.

Naming links

When you create a link, you can name it. By default, the first link is named Link1, the second Link2, and so on, but you can change the names. Since the name appears in the link, it should be descriptive and informative to help users identify the target of the link.

Multiple links on the same object

You can create multiple links on the same object. That is, the same object can be linked to different web pages, or even to reports and documents. (For more information on linking to reports and documents, see Linking documents to other documents and to reports (drilling).) One of the links is designated as the default; when a user clicks the linked object, the default link is used. To access other links, the user can right-click the linked object to choose from a list of links. The list of links is available in Interactive Mode and Editable Mode, but not in Flash Mode. The default link works in all of these modes.

When an object is linked, it is underlined to indicate that a link exists. If you do not want the links to be underlined, clear the default link. The links will still work, but are not underlined when viewed in MicroStrategy Web.

For more information about default links, including instructions on setting and clearing the default link, see Specifying the default link when multiple links are available.

Dynamic text in links

The target URL can include dynamic text, which changes the URL depending on the data in the document. For example, your company has a website with pages for each region. The link can access the specific page for each region. To do this, include the Region attribute in the URL, as in http://www.example.com/{Region}.htm. Recall that dynamic text must be typed within braces (that is, { }).

Dynamic text can be either:

  • A data field (a metric, attribute, and so on) providing data from the dataset

  • An auto text code providing information on a property of the document or dataset, such as the document name or a prompt answer

For more information on the syntax of dynamic data fields, see Adding data fields to documents. For more information on the syntax of auto text codes, see Displaying document and dataset report information: Auto text codes.

For document samples, see the Linking from Documents chapter of the Document Creation Help.

To create a link to a web page

  1. Open the document in the Document Editor. How?

  2. If the text field or image that you want to link from has not been added to the document, add it. For instructions, see Adding text and data to documents or Adding images to documents.

  3. Right-click the text or image, and select Edit Links. The Link Editor opens.

  4. By default, the Navigate to this URL option is already selected.

  5. Type the target URL in the box below the Navigate to this URL option. Notice that http:// is automatically filled in for you.

  6. By default, in MicroStrategy Web, the target opens in the same window as the source. To have the target open in a new window, which allows both the source and the target to be visible simultaneously, select the Open in a new window check box.

    This setting applies to all links defined for the selected object.

  7. Click OK to return to the Document Editor.

  8. Save the document.

To use the link, open the document in MicroStrategy Web, in any mode except Design Mode or Express Mode.