Understanding and working with widgets

A widget is a Flash-based display of the results of dataset reports, allowing users to visualize data in different ways than traditional reports displayed as Grid/Graphs do.

Types of widgets

You can use the following types of widgets in a document:

Bubble Grid: Bubbles of different colors and sizes representing the values of two metrics. It can help identify important trends or anomalies in data, relative to the total contribution of accompanying data.
Cylinder: A simple status indicator that displays a vertical cylinder with fluid in it. The level of the fluid within the cylinder is a visual representation of a single metric value.
Data Cloud: A list of attribute elements displayed in various sizes to depict the differences in metric values between the elements. The varying sizes allow a user to quickly identify the most significant, positive, or negative contributions.
Date Selection: A calendar selector that allows you to select which dates you want to see data about in a document or Report Services (RS) dashboard. You are able to see all of the dates of each month in the widget, which allows you to be able to select dates more easily.
Fish Eye Selector: An interactive selector that magnifies an item when you hover the cursor over it. It allows a user to choose from a list of attribute elements, metrics, or images without having to see all of the elements, metrics, or images. Any item that a user hovers over or selects remains magnified, while the remaining items are minimized and hidden from view. This can be especially helpful when the user has to browse through a lengthy list.
Funnel: A variation of a stacked bar chart that displays data that adds up to 100%. It allows a user to visualize the percent contribution of a metric to the whole.
Gauge: A simple status indicator that displays a needle that moves within a range of numbers displayed on its outside edges. An example of a gauge is a car's speedometer.
Graph Matrix: A group of area graphs that display actual values and line graphs that display forecasted values. It allows a user to quickly analyze various trends across several metric dimensions.
Heat Map: A combination of colored rectangles, each representing an attribute element, that allow you to quickly grasp the state and impact of a large number of variables at the same time.
Interactive Bubble Graph: A conventional bubble plot that allows you to visualize the trends of three different metrics for a set of attribute elements.
Interactive Stacked Graph: A combination of a check box list and area graph. The graph allows a user to see the contribution of various metric series to the change in value of a larger set of data.
Media: Video, audio, images, or website content. One of the primary purposes of the Media widget is to present supplemental information about the data on an RS dashboard. It can also be used for instructional content or HTML content from a website.
Microcharts: One or more compact representations of data that allow analysts to quickly visualize trends. Use a Microcharts widget to quickly visualize the trend of a metric at a glance without having to know many additional details. The bar, sparkline, and bullet microcharts used in the Microcharts widget convey information that an analyst can understand just by looking at the graph once.
RSS Reader: RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a data format used to display updated Web content when you click a URL. An RSS document is called a feed, and it contains either a summary of the content from an associated website or the full text. The RSS Reader widget can help provide context to your business data. Use RSS Reader widgets on an RS dashboard to view and update RSS feeds as a user analyzes grids, graphs, and other objects in the same RS dashboard.
Thermometer: A simple status indicator that displays a thermometer set to a certain temperature level. The temperature level within the thermometer is a visual representation of a single metric value.
Time Series Slider: An area graph that allows a document analyst to choose which section of the graph to view at a time.
Waterfall: A group of clustered bars displayed from left to right. It highlights the increments and decrements of the values of metrics over time. The widget can help identify what is contributing to fluctuations in the metric values and can be used for "what-if" analyses.
Weighted List Viewer: A combination of the data visualization techniques of thresholds and graphical weighting in a single visualization. This enables the analyst to assess the performance of a group of items.

Widgets for mobile devices

For examples of widgets that display on mobile devices that have MicroStrategy Mobile installed, see Widgets for mobile devices.

SDK widgets

In addition, the following widgets are available. See the MicroStrategy Developer Library (MSDL), part of the MicroStrategy SDK product, for information to customize and use these widgets. With the MicroStrategy SDK, you can access additional MicroStrategy widgets, add third-party widgets, and create and use custom widgets.

Google Graph Visualization: A simple chart of data. The widget is created using the Google API.
Simple Grid: A simple tabular layout.
Store Layout: A layout image of a retail store. Different departments in the store are displayed in different colors, depending on the conditions defined. For example, departments whose profit is less than 75% of their profit goal are displayed in red.
Timeline: A timeline that displays a series of events. The timeline can be examined at the yearly, monthly, and weekly level as a series of bands. This lets users quickly spot trends, such as the times when call congestion is most likely to affect a call center.
USA Map: A map of the United States, which acts as a selector to determine the data displayed in another control. For example, a user can click a region in the United States, such as Central, to display revenue data for the Central region in a target Grid/Graph.

You can also download widgets from the MicroStrategy Widget download site at https://microstrategy.com/Support.
If you are incorporating a custom widget into your MicroStrategy Web application and want to make multiple data providers available for the widget, see the MicroStrategy Developer Library (MSDL) for information to expose the Secondary Data Provider area in the Widget tab of the Properties dialog box. This allows users to select more than one data provider for the widget.
If you are designing a document using a custom widget and you see the Secondary Data Provider area in the Widget tab of the Properties dialog box, contact your customization specialist for information on how to use their custom implementation.

Google Map custom widget and Google Map visualization

A Google Map custom widget is a map that displays locations as map markers, with the relationships between those locations shown as lines between the map markers. When a user clicks a map marker, an Information Window with additional information about the location is displayed. You can add a Google Map custom widget to a document or use it to display a report in MicroStrategy Web. For background information and steps to enable the Google Map widget to display in MicroStrategy Web, see the GIS Integration Help. For instructions to add the Google Map custom widget to a document or report, see the MicroStrategy Web Help.

The Google Map custom widget is similar to the Google Map visualization, which is displayed in a Visual Insight (VI) dashboard. You create the customized, interactive VI dashboard in MicroStrategy Web, and use it to explore your business data. For an overview of VI dashboards, including how you can interact with them, see About Visual Insight dashboards; for information on creating and working with VI dashboards in MicroStrategy Web, including instructions and examples, see the MicroStrategy Web Help.

Creating widgets

To successfully create a useful widget that can be used to analyze data, you must first correctly define the Grid/Graph. To do this, you must place report objects such as attributes and metrics on the Grid/Graph. The report objects and their placement on the Grid/Graph determine whether the widget can be successfully generated and display data in MicroStrategy Web. For example, a Grid/Graph that you want to display as a Gauge widget must have one attribute on the rows and one metric on the columns. These data requirements are detailed in each specific widget topic. Next, you specify a widget type, such as Time Series Slider or Bubble Grid, for the Grid/Graph. For detailed steps to add a widget to a document, see Creating widgets.

You can use MicroStrategy Web to create a Grid/Graph that contains objects from multiple dataset reports, and you can then use that Grid/Graph to create a widget. For steps, see the Document Creation Help.