MicroStrategy ONE
Portable documents: Reusing documents across projects
A portable document contains all the design of the document without the data, allowing you to copy documents between projects, even when the projects do not have the same metadata. When you import the document into the replacement project, you map the document to the new project (referred to as reconciling the document).
A Report Services (RS) dashboard can also be made portable; for simplicity, the term document is used throughout this section to refer to documents and RS dashboards.
Portable documents separate document definition from the dataset reports that provide the data, allowing:
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Documents to be reused across projects, creating a library of reusable documents.
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The document designer and the data architect to work simultaneously, rather than sequentially. That is, the document designer can work on polishing the design of a document (the layouts, panel stacks, and other non-data objects) at the same time that the data architect is preparing the data (the metrics, reports, and other MicroStrategy objects) that will populate the document. When both are finished, the document is reconciled with the dataset reports.
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Out-of-the-box documents can be deployed to your project by reconciling the documents' content to your own project objects. For example, you can use a document from the MicroStrategy Tutorial project or any of the Analytical Modules in your own project.
Use the Document Editor to create the document to be reused across projects. For instructions to create a document, see Creating documents. After you create and save the document, follow the steps in Copying documents between projects.
How the document reconciliation process works
Document reconciliation occurs when you import a portable document into your project. Portable documents contain all the design of a document without the data, allowing you to copy documents between projects, even when the projects do not have the same metadata. When you import the document into the replacement project, you map the document to the new project (referred to as reconciling the document).
All the parts of a document whose definition explicitly references a dataset report need reconciliation. These include the dataset reports and the dataset objects on those reports. Dataset objects include metrics, attributes, consolidations, and custom groups.
The original project is the project that you export the document from; the replacement project is the project that you import the document into.
Document reconciliation has the following stages:
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Stage 1 reconciliation: dataset reports
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You map each original dataset report to a replacement dataset report. A dataset is a MicroStrategy report that is used on a document and all of the report's elements–attributes, custom groups, consolidations, and metrics.
If the same dataset object is included in multiple original dataset reports, the selected replacement dataset reports must contain a corresponding common dataset object. For example, if Original Dataset 1 and Original Dataset 2 both contain Original Attribute 1, then Replacement Dataset 1 and Replacement Dataset 2 must both contain Replacement Attribute 1.
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Stage 2 reconciliation: dataset objects
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For each dataset report, you map each dataset object on the original report to a replacement dataset object on the replacement dataset report. An original dataset object that exists in the replacement report is automatically mapped, but you can select another replacement object. Objects are matched by GUID, then by name. (Dataset objects are the objects on the dataset –attributes, custom groups, consolidations, and metrics.)
The selected replacement dataset object must contain at least the same number of attribute forms as the original dataset object.
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Stage 3 reconciliation: attribute forms
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For each attribute, you map each attribute form (such as Region Name and Region ID for the Region attribute) from the original dataset report to the attribute form on the replacement dataset report. An ID or DESC attribute form in the original is automatically mapped to an ID or DESC form in the replacement, but you can select another replacement attribute form, as long as it is an ID or DESC form. A custom attribute form in the original can be mapped to any custom attribute form in the replacement.
Attribute form reconciliation occurs only in certain cases, depending on the document's design.
Reviewing after reconciliation
After reconciliation, you should review the resulting document to ensure that it works as you expect it to. Potential additional work that you may need to perform includes:
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For Interactive Grid widgets and Time Series widgets for iPhone, properties that refer to dataset objects in the underlying Grid/Graphs are not updated. An example is the interval properties of the Time Series widget.
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Images are not included in the portable document. You must copy any image files to the following folders:
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Intelligence Server
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Web ASPx\asp
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Desktop
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The original attribute in attribute element qualifications in thresholds and view filters is replaced by the replacement attribute, but attribute elements are not updated. After reconciliation, edit the threshold or view filter to ensure that the correct attribute form is used.