Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy Cookbook

Book description

MicroStrategy products allow you to take control of your business intelligence, and this book gives you the know-how to undertake successful data analysis. With over 90 practical recipes, it’s a fully comprehensive cookbook.

  • Learn about every step of the BI project, starting from the installation of a sample database
  • Design web reports and documents
  • Configure, develop, and use the Mobile Dashboard
  • Master data discovery with Visual Insight and MicroStrategy Cloud Express
  • Learn with the help of practical, real-life examples and screencasts for every exercise

In Detail

Business intelligence is becoming more important by the day, with cloud offerings and mobile devices gaining wider acceptance and achieving better market penetration. MicroStrategy Reporting Suite is a complete business intelligence platform that covers all the data analysis needs of an enterprise. Scorecards, dashboards, and reports can be explored and delivered on desktop, the Web, mobile devices, and the Cloud. With the latest Visual Insight tool, MicroStrategy brings the power of BI to the business users, allowing them to discover information without the help of IT personnel.

Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy Cookbook covers the full cycle of a BI project with the MicroStrategy platform, from setting up the software to using dashboards in the cloud and on mobile devices. This book uses step-by-step instructions to teach you everything from the very basics to the more advanced topics. We will start by downloading and installing the software and a well-known sample SQL Server database. Then, one brick at a time, we will construct a fully-featured BI solution with a web interface, mobile reporting, and agile analytics.

The chapters are ordered by increasing difficulty, and each one builds on top of the preceding chapter so that the learning process is progressive. The examples given in this book are practical, and you will be able to see the immediate result of your efforts. We will first cover setting up the platform, including the creation of the metadata and the different objects that are part of a BI project: tables, attributes, and metrics. Then, we take a look at how to create and analyze reports, charts, documents, and dashboards, as well as how to manipulate data with the desktop application, the web Interface, and an iPad device.

The last part of the book is dedicated to advanced topics like the new agile analytics technology from MicroStrategy, where we cover both Visual Insight and MicroStrategy Cloud Express. Whether you are a database developer, data analyst, or a business user, Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy Cookbook will get you up to speed with one of the most powerful BI platforms on the market with the smallest possible investment of time and money.

Table of contents

  1. Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy Cookbook
    1. Table of Contents
    2. Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy Cookbook
    3. Credits
    4. Foreword
    5. About the Author
    6. About the Reviewers
    7. www.PacktPub.com
      1. Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more
        1. Why Subscribe?
        2. Free Access for Packt account holders
        3. Instant Updates on New Packt Books
    8. Preface
      1. What this book covers
      2. What you need for this book
      3. Who this book is for
      4. Conventions
      5. Reader feedback
      6. Customer support
        1. Downloading the example code
        2. Errata
        3. Piracy
        4. Questions
    9. 1. Getting Started with MicroStrategy
      1. Introduction
      2. Installing SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Installing SQL Server Native Client 11.0
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Installing SQL Server 2012 Command Line Utilities
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. There's more...
      5. Setting up the AdventureWorks DW sample database
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 1
      6. Installing the .NET Framework 4.0 and the 4.0.2 update
        1. How to do it...
        2. How it works...
      7. Checking whether IIS is enabled and working
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      8. Installing MicroStrategy Suite
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. There's more...
      9. Registering the MicroStrategy License
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. There's more....
      10. Metadata and data warehouse
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      11. Creating ODBC DSN for metadata and data warehouse
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      12. Modifying the logon account for the Intelligence Server
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      13. Creating the metadata and configuring the Intelligence Server
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      14. Opening the MicroStrategy Desktop application
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
    10. 2. The First Steps in a MicroStrategy Project
      1. Introduction
      2. Creating an empty project
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Setting up a data warehouse connection and selecting tables
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 2
          2. Exercise 3
      4. Modifying a table structure
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
      5. Using logical tables to create custom views
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 4
      6. Generating constants with SELECT statements
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
    11. 3. Schema Objects – Attributes
      1. Introduction
      2. Attribute forms – ID and DESC
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Using functions in an attribute form
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Parent-child relationship I
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 5
      5. Parent-child relationship II
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 6
      6. Other attribute forms
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 7
      7. Selecting which forms are displayed
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      8. Building Data Explorer Hierarchies
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 8
          2. Exercise 9
          3. Exercise 10
      9. Creating an attribute-only report
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      10. Parent-child relationship in a report
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      11. Filters on attributes
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 11
        5. See also
    12. 4. Objects – Facts and Metrics
      1. Introduction
      2. Creating a simple counter fact and metric
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 12
          2. Exercise 13
      3. Using SQL View to inspect SELECT statements
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 14
      4. Understanding the GROUP BY clause
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 15
      5. Adding more facts
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 16
          2. Exercise 17
          3. Exercise 18
      6. Filters on metrics
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      7. Creating ranking metrics
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 19
      8. Grouping at a different level (level metrics)
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 20
      9. Embedding filters inside metrics
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 21
      10. Using Metric Join Type in reports
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
      11. Creating a previous month metric (transformation)
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 22
        5. See also
    13. 5. Data Display and Manipulation – Reports
      1. Introduction
      2. Going deeper into data with drill down
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
      3. Manipulating grids – Pivot and page-by
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Dynamically adding and removing objects in reports
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
      5. The bottom line – customizing subtotals
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
      6. Avoiding missteps – NULL values in facts
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      7. How to sort data in grids
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Sorting NULLs
      8. Emphasizing numbers with conditional formatting
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      9. Printing and exporting reports
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      10. Restricting results with view filters
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 23
        5. See also
    14. 6. Data Analysis and Visualization – Graphs
      1. Introduction
      2. Displaying both grid and graph in the same view
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
      3. Drag-and-drop objects using drop zones
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Beautify your chart
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      5. Display multiple metrics with dual axis charts
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      6. Conditional formatting with thresholds
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 24
        5. See also
    15. 7. Analysis on the Web – Documents and Dashboards
      1. Introduction
      2. Setting up MicroStrategy Web
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
      3. Creating your first "Hello World" document
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Adding data to a document – the dataset
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      5. Modifying the grouping in a document
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 25
      6. Stepping up to dashboards
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      7. Using the editable mode to fine-tune the design
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      8. Adding interactivity with panels and selectors
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      9. Embedding images, HTML, and links
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      10. Switching to Adobe Flash mode
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
    16. 8. Dynamic Selection with Filters and Prompts
      1. Introduction
      2. Restricting rows – compare an attribute to another attribute
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 26
      3. Restricting rows – evaluate on moving dates
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
          2. Exercise 27
      4. Changing the level of a metric filter
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      5. Adding interactivity to filters using prompts
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
      6. Using prompts as object selectors
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
    17. 9. Mobile BI for Developers
      1. Introduction
      2. Setting up the Mobile Server
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Setting up a mobile connection
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Installing and configuring the mobile client
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
      5. Adapting content to the iPad screen
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 28
      6. Using mobile views in documents
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 29
      7. Adding panels to mobile documents
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      8. Creating panel selectors
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      9. Adding details with pop-up windows
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      10. Linking from one document to another
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
    18. 10. Mobile BI for Users
      1. Introduction
      2. Answering prompts in reports or documents
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Sorting, drilling, and paging
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Adding notes and sharing
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      5. When things go wrong
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
    19. 11. Consolidations, Custom Groups, and Transformations
      1. Introduction
      2. Creating virtual attributes with consolidations
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
          2. Exercise 30
      3. Aggregating results with custom groups
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. More Info
          2. Exercise 31
      4. Creating bands on metrics (custom groups banding)
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 32
      5. Month-to-date and year-to-date transformations
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 32
        5. See also
    20. 12. In-Memory Cubes and Visual Insight
      1. Introduction
      2. Creating a cube from an existing report
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      3. Building a new cube
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      4. Scheduling data refresh
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      5. Creating reports and documents based on a cube
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      6. Exploring data with Visual Insight
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
      7. Using the network visualization
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
          1. Exercise 34
        5. See also
    21. 13. MicroStrategy Express
      1. Introduction
      2. Creating an Express account
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it…
        3. How it works…
        4. There's more…
      3. Importing Excel data
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it…
        3. How it works…
        4. There's more…
      4. Using filters
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it…
        3. How it works…
        4. There's more…
      5. Importing cross-tabbed data
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it…
        3. How it works…
        4. There's more…
      6. Connecting to a RDBMS
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it…
        3. How it works…
        4. There's more…
          1. Exercise 35
      7. Refreshing dashboard data
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it…
        3. How it works…
        4. There's more…
      8. Sharing a dashboard by e-mail
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it…
        3. How it works…
        4. There's more…
          1. Sharing from the free account
        5. See also
    22. A. Solution to Exercises
      1. Exercise 1
      2. Exercise 2
      3. Exercise 3
      4. Exercise 4
      5. Exercise 5
      6. Exercise 6
      7. Exercise 7
      8. Exercise 8
      9. Exercise 9
      10. Exercise 10
      11. Exercise 11
      12. Exercise 12
      13. Exercise 13
      14. Exercise 14
      15. Exercise 15
      16. Exercise 16
      17. Exercise 17
      18. Exercise 18
      19. Exercise 19
      20. Exercise 20
      21. Exercise 21
      22. Exercise 22
      23. Exercise 23
      24. Exercise 24
      25. Exercise 25
      26. Exercise 26
      27. Exercise 27
      28. Exercise 28
      29. Exercise 29
      30. Exercise 30
      31. Exercise 31
      32. Exercise 32
      33. Exercise 33
      34. Exercise 34
      35. Exercise 35
    23. B. Where to Look for Information
      1. Online resources
      2. Blogs
      3. Books
    24. C. Cloudera Hadoop
      1. Introduction
      2. Connecting to a Hadoop database
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
    25. D. HP Vertica
      1. Introduction
      2. Connecting to a Vertica database
        1. Getting ready
        2. How to do it...
        3. How it works...
        4. There's more...
        5. See also
    26. Index

Product information

  • Title: Business Intelligence with MicroStrategy Cookbook
  • Author(s): Davide Moraschi
  • Release date: October 2013
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781782179757