A report is a MicroStrategy object that represents a request for a specific set of formatted data from your data source. A document contains objects representing data coming from one or more reports, as well as positioning and formatting information. In MicroStrategy Web, you can design reports and documents for use on an iPhone®, iPad®, or Android® device, when the device has MicroStrategy Mobile downloaded onto it.
To create a report that accurately answers a specific business query, be sure you understand the fundamental MicroStrategy objects that make up a report. These are described with examples in the Building Query Objects and Queries, for Designers chapter of the MicroStrategy Basic Reporting Guide.
For a complete introduction to documents, with images, examples, and tutorials, see the MicroStrategy Report Services Document Creation Guide. For suggestions to design and create reports and documents for mobile devices, see Best practices: Designing reports and documents for mobile devices.
An analysis is a customized, interactive display that you can use to explore your business data. You can sort and rearrange data in an interactive grid, perform manipulations on the data to display only the information you are interested in, and display visual representations of the data to the analysis to make the data easier to interpret. Analyses can be viewed in the Analysis Editor, Flash Mode, or Express Mode in Web, or on an iPad with MicroStrategy Mobile. For steps to create an analysis, see Creating an analysis.
You can create and add a prompt to a report to present a question to the user when the report is executed on a mobile device. How the user answers the question determines what data is displayed on the report when it is returned from your data source. For general information about prompts, see About prompts. For information about prompts that are specifically designed to be displayed on mobile devices, see About prompts for mobile devices.
You can create an alert-based subscription for the iPhone or iPad, to allow you or other users to automatically receive notifications on a mobile device with MicroStrategy Mobile when a metric on a report meets specific alert conditions. For more information and steps to create an alert-based subscription, see the Mobile Design and Administration Guide.
Documents can contain widgets, a type of Report Services control that presents data in a visual and interactive way. Users can view widgets on a mobile device as interactive graphs that dynamically update when the user selects a new set of data to view. In MicroStrategy Web, you can also enable a report to display as a widget when viewed on a mobile device. For general information about widgets, see Providing Flash-based analysis and interactivity: Widgets. For more information and a list of widgets that can display on mobile devices, see About widgets for mobile devices.
The following graph styles are supported on reports and documents designed to be viewed on the iPad:
Bubble
Gauge
You can add a link to a text field or image in a document to let users perform common tasks when the link is selected on a mobile device. This includes:
Links that interact with applications installed with a mobile device, such as email or text messaging. For example, a document can send addresses to Google Maps for directions, or call a phone number. For more information, see Opening mobile device applications in documents.
Links to reports and other documents. A link lets the user execute a document or report (the target) from another document (the source), and to pass parameters to answer any prompts that are in the target. Hyperlinks also allow iPhone users to change the grouping and layout in a document, change the page-by in a report, and access items in the Reports screen. For more information, see Linking to reports and documents from a document displayed on a mobile device.
For additional information, such as suggestions to design and run effective reports and documents on a mobile device, and steps to install and configure MicroStrategy Mobile, see the MicroStrategy Mobile Design and Administration Guide.
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