Skip to main content

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.

     

     

    User-added image

    "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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Microstrategy Dossiers explained

Microstrategy  Dossiers With the release of MicroStrategy 10.9, we’ve taken a leap forward in our dashboarding capabilities by simplifying the user experience, adding storytelling, and collaboration.MSTR has  evolved dashboards to the point that they are more than dashboards - they are  interactive, collaborative analytic stories . Ultimately, it was time to go beyond dashboards, both in concept and in name, and so  the've  renamed VI dashboards to  ‘ dossiers ’.  Dossiers can be created by using the new Desktop product or Workstation or simply from the Web interface which replaces Visual Insights. All the existing visual Insights dashboards will be converted to Dossiers   With MicroStrategy 10.9, there was an active focus on making it easier to build dashboards for the widest audience of end users. To achieve this, some key new capabilities were added that make it easier to author, read, interact and collaborate on dashboards ...
7 comments
Read more

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:...
2 comments
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Microstrategy Document Editor Sections Important Notes:

Microstrategy Document Editor Sections Important Notes: The Layout area is in the center of the Document Editor interface and provides the framework for precisely controlling where controls (such as text fields, grid and graph reports, images, and widgets) are displayed when the document is viewed in different display modes, printed, exported, emailed, and so on. To add data to the document, drag objects from the  Dataset Objects  panel and drop them into the  Layout  area. Controls are rendered differently depending on what section they are placed in, as described below:   Page Header : The control is displayed at the top of each page in the document. By default, if a document contains multiple layouts, the same Page Header is displayed for all layouts in the document. You can change this setting so that each layout has a separate Page Header. Document Header : The control is displayed once at the beginning of the document, immediately below the Page Header sec...
Post a Comment
Read more

Microstrategy "Error type: Odbc error. Odbc operation attempted

 "Error type: Odbc error. Odbc operation attempted: SQLExecDirect. [HYT00:0: on SQLHANDLE] [MicroStrategy][ODBC Oracle Wire Protocol driver]Timeout expired" is shown when executing reports from Web When users are trying to execute some reports in MicroStrategy web in particular, they may receive the Error “SQL Generation Complete Index out of range” and “Timeout expired” error as shown below: Possible Causes: One possible cause is that the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server using a cached database connection that was already dropped by the RDBMS. To resolve this: Admin should delete the database connection caches and create a new DSNs in case they are sharing DSNs to connect to different databases. In addition, change the settings for the ‘Connection lifetime’ and the ‘Connection idle time out’.  Follow the steps below to perform the mentioned changes and verify the report after each step and some of the settings require i-server r...
4 comments
Read more

Star Schemas issue fixes in Modelling of Microstartegy

Star Schemas issue fixes in Modelling of Microstartegy Explanation This schema is characterized by one lookup table per dimension, with base tables at the lowest level. This is the fastest way to set up a data warehouse: This type of schemas is supported but has restrictions such as when adding aggregate tables: Problem Double counting. According to the diagram above, a report that contains month and the a metric SUM(SALES_AMT) will go to the aggregate table and join to the column to retrieve the description from the table. Since the column is not unique in its lookup table, the results will appear duplicated. Recommendation MicroStrategy engine is optimized to work with snowflake schemas, where each attribute level has a distinct lookup table. Star schemas are supported with restrictions, as long as fact tables are not at a higher level than the dimension tables to which they are joined. Consult the following MicroStrategy Knowledgebase document for further information....
Post a Comment
Read more

Types of prompts in Microstrategy

Types of prompts in Microstrategy The different types of prompts allow you to create a  prompt  for nearly every part of a report. Prompts can be used in many objects including reports, filters, metrics, and custom groups, but all prompts require user interaction when the report is executed. The correct prompt type to create depends on what report objects you want users to be able to base a filter on to filter data, as described in the list below. Filter definition prompts   allow users to determine how the report's data is filtered, based on one of the following objects: Attributes in a hierarchy : Users can select prompt answers from one or more attribute elements from one or more attributes. The attribute elements that they select are used to filter data displayed on the report. This prompt lets you give users the largest number of attribute elements to choose from when they answer the prompt to define their filtering criteria. For example, on a repor...
1 comment
Read more

Control the display of null and zero metric values

Show   Control the display of null and zero metric values in a grid report You can determine how to display or hide rows and columns in a grid report that consist only of null or zero metric values. You can have MicroStrategy hide the rows and columns in the following ways: Hide rows and columns that consist only of null metric values Hide rows and columns that consist only of zero metric values Hide rows and columns that consist only of null or zero metric values (default) Once you have defined how MicroStrategy hides null and zero metric values in the grid, you can quickly show or hide the grid using the Hide Nulls/Zeros option in the Data menu, as described below, or by clicking the  Hide Nulls/Zeros  icon  in the Data toolbar. To determine how null and zero metric values are displayed or hidden in a grid report Open the report in Edit mode. From the  Tools  menu, select  Report Options . The Report Options...
Post a Comment
Read more

Replace object names in bulk using MicroStrategy Repository Translation Wizard

Replace object names in bulk using MicroStrategy Repository Translation Wizard Users may need to replace  object names  in bulk.  This can be done using MicroStrategy Repository Translation Wizard in MicroStrategy Developer 9.4.x - 10.x.  Follow the steps below for an example of how to do this.  Create an empty MD shell in Microsoft Access.  Run Repository Translation Wizard from the Start Menu -> Programs -> MicroStrategy-> Object Manager In the "Metadata Repository" screen, select the "Project Source Name" and check the "Export Translations" option, as shown in the following screen shot: In the "Languages" screen, select a project, a translation reference language and a language (choose English as default), as shown in the following screen shot: In the "Select objects" screen, if one needs to select a certain type of object, check the option  Use the results of a search object .  Then, click 'New' to...
Post a Comment
Read more