MicroStrategy v10.0 New Feature - Derived Attributes

Hi All,

Today we are going to discuss one new feature from MicroStrategy v10.0 onwards called “DERIVED ATTRIBUTES”.

This is one functionality which I have been wanting to have desperately having worked with customers who always has requirements to Create an attribute / a conditional attributes which evaluates conditionsbetween two different tables.

Prior to v10.0 this was never possible until we have a Logical View or a Database view merging two tables in to a single one!

But now from v10.0 onwards there comes the most powerful but simple functionality called “DERIVED ATTRIBUTES”. We will see about this functionality in detail today.

First let’s see a basic scenario where we can employ this Derived Attributes. Say we have a report with the following objects.

Attributes

Year

Benefit Type

Metrics

Employee cost

Say we have a requirement like to concat the values of Year and Benefit which are totally of different attribute hierarchy and we want it to be shown as an attribute. Prior to v9.4.1 it was not possible to achieve this functionality without a logical table or in the report level with the help of a derived metric.

However this can now be achieved through the help of DERIVED ATTRIBUTE from v10.

Steps to create a Derived Attribute.

Step 1: Create a dataset with the necessary objects

Step 2: Add the dataset in the reporting services document and create a derived attribute.

Step 3: Add the derived attribute to the grid in the document and run it.That’s it!

 

Pros:

• Now you can create an attribute from two different tables without having to create a logical table or a database view which is very simple and minimizes the schema design complexity.

Cons:

• Must use a document in the web to create a derived attribute and not supported in a Grid.
• Documents with Derived attribute cannot be edited in the developer

Bottomline: This is one feature we wanted real bad and happy to see that its possible now in MicroStrategy atleast in the document. However there are few limitations now with Derived Attributes.

• Must use a document in Web to create Derived Attribute.
• Cannot edit a document in MicroStrategy developer when derived attribute is used.
• Cannot create a derived attribute in a normal grid report.

Workaround for editing documents with Derived Attributes.

However we found one easy workaround to edit documents with Derived Attributes in the MicroStrategy Developer. Here is how you can do it...

Create a new Document

Then select File --> Open and then select the document with derived Attributes.

So with this you can easily make changes and edit the documents with Derived Attributes from Developer. Cool isnt it thanks to one of my peer developer Raja for finding this one out!