Client Rendering Optimizations for Dashboard Performance Optimizations

The amount of data retrieved and objects being used in a Report Services Dashboard have a direct impact in the size of the final Dashboard. The bigger the Dashboard size the longer it will take to be prepared, be sent to the client, and render.

Client Rendering

Once the data reaches the end user's browser window the data has to be formatted according to the definition of the Dashboard as specified in the formatting set by the architect. To do so the browser will have to either build the HTML page in DHTML mode or initialize the flash container and parse the XML.

Client rendering greatly varies depending on the hardware used. More powerful machines will render dashboard faster for a list of recommended client hardware specifications please refer to the Readme File for the specific version of MicroStrategy.

Optimization Techniques common to DHTML and Flash

Client rendering time greatly relies in the amount of XML that needs to be parsed. In order to ensure that the XML generated is optimized please review the XML generation optimization techniques KB31469: Data generation for Dashboard Performance Optimizations in MicroStrategy Web 9.0.x
Pre-selecting an attribute element in a selector might improve rendering times by constraining the amount of data that will have to be rendered the first time the dashboard is initialized, as shown below.

"All" Selection Vs attribute element preselected
Having HTML container on the dashboard will also increase the client rendering time as well, since more HTML content needs to be loaded.
Having lots of text fields will also slow down the client rendering time.
Loading images that are NOT stored on Web Server machine will increase the client rendering time. It is recommanded to place the images on Web Server machine.

Optimization Techniques for DHTML

After having built a DHTML dashboard following the XML generation techniques, if the usage of a large grid cannot be avoided, disabling the automatic resize option for MicroStrategy Web may improve the rendering performance significantly.
Also it is recommended to limit the size of a grid to 500 cells to be displayed on the page in DHTML mode. A larger grid will consume significant amounts of time in rendering on the client browser. DHTML Dashboards rely heavily in the use of JavaScript to align and position elements on the screen. Having more than 500 cells in a grid could potentially have performance issues, this being subjective to client hardware.
Having incremental fetch applied to the document will improve the rendering time for DHTML mode. However, in Flash mode, all data will be displayed.

Optimization Techniques for Flash

When using nested panels in a Dashboard in flash mode, all data is loaded in the browser memory; however, only the visible panels are initialized when the user first opens the dashboard (using MicroStrategy Web 8.1.1 GA or higher). When switching to one of the other non visible panels, the panel is initialized and put into memory so consequent retrieval of that panel is immediate. When using multiple grids or graphs in a Dashboard these can be spread across multiple panels if rendering is an issue, this will speed up the process of rendering the panels as they are needed for the first time the dashboard is opened
Having widgets on dashboard is very costly at rendering time, since more information needs to be loaded.
Having layouts on the dashboard will slow down the rendering time as well, because loading multiple layouts is almost like loading multiple dashboards.

Comments

MicroStrategy URL API Parameters

MicroStrategy URL Structure The following table summarizes the root URL structure used for every request to MicroStrategy Web. Environment Main Application URL Administration URL J2EE http://webserver/MicroStrategy/servlet/mstrWeb http://webserver/MicroStrategy/servlet/mstrWebAdmin .NET http://webserver/MicroStrategy/asp/Main.aspx http://webserver/MicroStrategy/asp/Admin.aspx Every request sent to MicroStrategy Web calls a central controller. Parameters are appended to Main.aspx or mstrWeb (in a .NET and J2EE environment, respectively) to indicate to the controller how the request should be internally forwarded and handled. The following examples show a URL for accessing a MicroStrategy folder when the user does not have an existing session. The URL contains not only the parameters needed to connect to MicroStrategy Web, but also the parameters needed to log on and create a session. J2EE environment: <a href="http:...

Data Mart Reports in Microstrategy

Creating Data Mart Reports in Microstrategy When there is requirement to store all the report results to a database table you can use the interesting feature in Microstratgey called Data Mart Reports. To create a data mart table, you first create a data mart report that defines the columns of the data mart table. You then create the data mart table and populate it with data. The steps below walk you through the process of creating a data mart report and then executing the report to create a data mart table. The steps also include an example for most steps, based on Tutorial sample data in the MicroStrategy Tutorial project. Follow the simple steps below to create a datamart report: 1 In MicroStrategy Developer, create a new report or select an existing report to use as the data mart table. The report should contain the attributes...

Microstrategy Release Types Platform release Interval: Annually every twelve (12) months in December Who: Entire customer base What: Focus on production level security, stability, and performance defect fixes for all customers. Expectation: Customer has chosen platform path and wants product stability without new enhancements. Support: Three (3) years, patches for approved P1 defects, and regular hotfix cadence addresses critical defects. Feature Release Interval: Quarterly every three (3) months Who: Customers with specific feature requirements. What: New functionality developed in close collaboration with customers and customer council. Expectation: Customer has chosen feature path, will consume further feature releases. Support: Six (6) months patch support for approved P1 defects and (eighteen) 18 months troubleshooting. Customers upgrade to next feature release for roll-up f...

Microstrategy Document Autotext macros:

Autotext code/macros in Microstrategy Document/dashboard This is a list of the available auto text macros that the Report Services Document engine recognizes. The following auto text codes allow you to add document variable information to your document. These auto text codes are automatically replaced by information about the document. Auto text codes for MSTR document/dashboard: AUTOTEXT DESCRIPTION {&PAGE} Display the current page. {&NPAGES} Display the total number of pages. {&DATETIME} Display the current date and time. {&USER} Display the user name that is executing the Report Services Document. {&DOCUMENT} Display the document name. {&DOCUMENTID} Display the document ID. {&DESCRIPTION} Display the document description. {&PROJECT} Display the project name. {&EXECUTIONTIME} Dis...

Email Subscription in Microstrategy

Create Email Subscription in Microstrategy Creates an email subscription. Do not include any leading or trailing spaces in the ANSWER parameters. This causes a SQL error and prevents the command from executing. Ex: CREATE EMAILSUBSCRIPTION "New Multi Users" FOR OWNER "administrator" SCHEDULE "Books Closed" CONTACTGROUP "TEST" CONTENT "Electronics Revenue by Region" IN FOLDER "\Public Objects\REPORTS\SUBJECT Areas\Sales and Profitability Analysis" IN PROJECT "MicroStrategy Tutorial" DELIVERYFORMAT HTML EXPIRATIONDATE NEVER EXPRIED FILENAME "file_name" SUBJECT "Test REPORT" MESSAGE "Please Test"; CREATE EMAILSUBSCRIPTION [ subscription_name ] [FOR OWNER login_name ] SCHEDULE schedule_name (ADDRESS address_name | USER user_name | CONTACT contact_name [ADDRESS contact_ address_name ] | CONTACTGROUP contact_group_name ) CONTENT ( report_or_document_name IN FOLDER loc...

Internationalization Design Technics

Microstrategy Internationalization Design Technics MicroStrategy supports data internationalization through two different techniques. You can either provide translated data through the use of extra tables and columns, or you can provide separate databases to store your translated data. These techniques are described below: You can support data internationalization in your database by using separate tables and columns to store your translated data. You can use various combinations of tables and columns to support and identify the translated data in your database. To support displaying the name of each month in multiple languages, you can include the translated names in a separate column, one for each required language, within the same table. Each column can use a suffix to identify that the column contains translated data for a certain language. The same LU_MONTH_OF_YEAR table with translated data for the Spanish and German langua...

Case functions Microstrategy

Ca se functions Microstrategy Case functions return specified data in a SQL query based on the evaluation of user-defined conditions. In general, a user specifies a list of conditions and corresponding return values. Case This function evaluates multiple expressions until a condition is determined to be true, then returns a corresponding value. If all conditions are false, a default value is returned. Case can be used for categorizing data based on multiple conditions. This is a single-value function. Syntax Case ( Condition1 , ReturnValue1 , Condition2 , ReturnValue2 ,..., DefaultValue ) Example Case(([Total Revenue] < 300000), 0, ([Total Revenue] < 600000), 1, 2) sum(Case (Day@DESC in (“Sat”,”Sun”), Sales, 0) {~+} Sum(Case(Category@DESC In("Books","Electronics"),Revenue,0)){~+} CaseV (case vector) CaseV evaluates a single metric and returns different values according to the results. It can be used to perfo...

Sending an email in MSTR where the results of a report are in the email body as HTML content and a different report/document is an attachment to the same email in MicroStrategy

Is it possible to send an email using Distribution Services where the results of a report are in the email body as HTML content and a different report/document in MSTR? ANSWER: It is currently not possible to send an email using Distribution Services where the results of a report are in the email body as HTML content and a different report/document is an attachment to the same email in MicroStrategy 9.x. An enhancement request has been logged for this feature. ACTION: Contact Microstrategy Technical Support for an update on the enhancement, I have contacted but nobody knows where the request is

Configure a report for use with Bulk Export in MicroStrategy

Configure a report for use with Bulk Export in MicroStrategy The Bulk Export feature enables a large report to be saved as a delimited text file. Using this feature, it is possible to retrieve result sets from a large dataset without having to load the entire dataset into memory. PS: Once a report is setup for bulk export it cannot be used as a regular report. So if the report needs to be run as a normal report and as a bulk export report, the first step is to make a copy of the report for use with bulk export. Configure Bulk Export Bulk Export options are only available in MicroStrategy Developer. Open a 3-tier connection using MicroStrategy Developer and edit the desired report. Go to 'Data' on the top menu bar. Select 'Configure Bulk Export': Specify any additional desired configuration options. General Settings Bulk export database instance : This is the database instance to use to store the bulk export results. Temporary tables w...

Allow a Visualization to Update the Data in Another Visualization in Dossier

Allow a Visualization to Update the Data in Another Visualization After adding multiple visualizations to a dossier, you can select values in one visualization (that is, the source) to automatically update data in another visualization (that is, the target). This is done by creating a filter on a visualization that targets other visualizations. To Add a Target Visualization to Your Dossier: Open the dossier with the visualization. Click Insert Visualization . A blank visualization appears in the dossier. From the Visualizations panel, select Grid . Drag an attribute from the Datasets panel to the Rows area of the Editor panel to add attributes to the rows. Drag an attribute from the Datasets panel to the Columns area of the Editor panel to add attributes to the columns. Drag a metric from the Datasets panel to the Metrics area of the Editor panel, to add a metric to the grid. The Metric Names attribute automatically appears i...

Microstrategy Analytics

Search This Blog