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A derived metric is obtained directly from metrics in a dataset used by the document, by combining two or more existing metrics for the purpose. Derived metrics permit the dynamic application of calculations to a document without requiring new metric definitions.

For example, if your dataset contains the dollar sales for a particular region, and you want to view the same data in millions, you could create a derived metric with a definition of Dollar Sales/1,000,000.

A derived metric:
•    must be a compound metric. The reverse is not true—a compound metric does not have to be a derived metric.
•    must use metrics from the same dataset. If the new definition demands metric data not readily available, the information cannot be obtained dynamically, as the dataset must first be re-executed.

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Drill links are selectable connections from text fields or images in one document to other documents, HTML documents, or reports. Drill links can pass parameters to answer prompts in the target. When you click the object (text or image) associated with a drill link in the document, you can see its target.

A drill link contains the event to be triggered (such as executing a document or exporting a report) and the ID of the document, report, or HTML document to be executed. You could define a drill link on an attribute element in a document. When clicked, a report is executed using the attribute element in the prompt. Additionally, the drill link can pass information to the target to answer prompts in the target. This information can be one or both of the following:
•    Existing prompt answers from the source document
•    Selected attributes from the source document

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1.    Add the attribute to report.
2.    Right Click and select Remove from GRID.

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Prompt types
Prompts allow you as a user to fill in almost any part of the report definition, such as the filter or template, at the time of report execution. The report designer determines which parts of a report will be prompted at report execution and which will not. MicroStrategy Web supports the following prompt types:
•    Value prompt allows you to specify a value of any data type, such as text, numeric, or date.
•    Object prompt allows you to select a set of objects to be placed on the template (attribute, metric, consolidation, template, or custom group) or filter(s) to be used as the filter criteria in a report.
•    Attribute Element List prompt allows you to select a list of attribute elements to use as part of the filter criteria in a report.
•    Attribute Qualification prompt allows you to specify a number of attribute qualifications that become part of the filter criteria in a report.
•    Metric Qualification prompt allows you to specify a number of metric qualifications that become part of the filter criteria in a report.
•    Hierarchical Attribute prompt allows you to specify conditions based on attributes and attribute elements selected from at least one hierarchy (a combination of an attribute element list prompt and an attribute form qualification prompt) to become part of the filter criteria in a report.

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Report Filter
The Report Filter is one or several conditions applied at the time the SQL is generated to return data from the warehouse. The Report Filter can be edited only in Design Mode. In View Mode, the Report Filter can be displayed but not edited. Changing the Report Filter causes the report to re-execute and takes longer than changing the View Filter.

View Filter
The View Filter is one or several conditions that return a subset of the data in the original report. For example, if the original report has all stores in the Northeast region shown, you could choose to show Boston stores only by adding a condition to the View Filter. The View Filter can be viewed and edited in View mode; in Design Mode it can only be viewed.

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You have a report that is scheduled to run every day early in the morning(around 3:00 AM).This report used to kick of on time as per the schedule at 3:00 AM, run for few hours and get cached after executing.

But from last few days the report kicks of on schedule and after running for few hours the report fails to get cached even though the data returns. There is no error message whatsoever. What are some approaches to determining the cause of the problem?

Answer:
If the report returns data but only caching fails then
•    Increase the RAM usage size under Administration/Report caching options.
•    Also check whether the report caching is disabled

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What would you do to tune a Microstrategy Report which is returning millions of rows?

You can tune the report on two levels.

Database: Within the database, indexes, partitions, keys and hints can help the generated SQL query be more efficient.

Microstrategy: Look into setting up some object prompts for attributes, metrics and filters. Try using required filters so you never bring back 550 million rows.

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Create a filter based on an Attribute qualification.
Then on the “Qualify on” drop-down list instead of having “Elements” selected choose “DESC”. This change applies the filter to the DESC form of the attribute.
Fill in the filter value into the Value” box, or choosing a text based prompt if you want the user to type in the value.

You have a Sales metric and need to show the metric at different levels within the same Heirarchy.(like Group and Division level on the same report). How would you do this?

Edit the metric and at the level definition add division attribute and it will be calculated a that level.

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Use  level metrics to force the SQL generation.
•    Remove the Report Level from the metric(s)
•    Add Leveling to the metric(s) for each of the Dimensions/Attributes in the Fact Table you are trying to force in the SQL
By doing this you will only affect the report that is using the metric.  If you start altering the Logical Table Size, you will affect other reports.

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“Logical Views” allows application architects to create any desired view using MicroStrategy, without DBA involvement. Once these Logical views are created, they are available to the report designer in a way similar to any other table. This allows developers to model attributes and facts whose expressions span multiple tables.

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