There are only and only three types of object in MicroStrategy. they are same follows:
Note: Public objects is just a folder in metadata which “mainly” holds application objects, it is not a type of objects. Security Filter is a configuration object even though it is created the way application objects are created.
Table keys are the lowest level attributes in their respective hierarchies that are present in the logical table.
Fact entry levels are the lowest attribute levels at which a fact exists. The fact entry levels correspond to the lowest-level table key attributes for all the tables that define the fact.
A fact is only extended if a join does not exist between a fact table and the attribute to which the fact will extend to, i.e. the fact does not exist at the level of that attribute.
MicroStrategy SQL Generation Engine is sensitive to differences between its internal state and the states of metadata objects, there is a risk of SQL generation failures if schema modifications take place during normal user activity. In general, it is not recommended to perform schema updates during periods of normal or high usage. Schema changes should normally be reserved for periods of little to no user activity.
Single Metadata – Object definition is stored in a database (called metadata), How easy is changes to be integrated made from one interface to another.
64 Bit support – 32 bit system can’t address more than 4 GB of system space. All non-Windows OS are available in 64 bit for ages. Windows also got it in June 2005, but BI vendor should be able to support 64 bit OS.Scalability – Any calculation performed in database is the best and fast and let very small load on the BI architecture. But not all BI vendors let it happen.
Reusable Objects – Make once use zillion times.Objects Version Control – Ability to have different version of same (schema) objects.
WYSIWYG – Look and feel of what you created and finally how it looks.Security – Object, User security.
Personalization – Single report but show different output to different users.
Manual fine-tuning SQL – Easily making changes to generated SQL.Ease of SQL Generation – Make Schema object and system and forget about the right SQL generation.
MS Office integration – Run report directly from Word, Excel or Powerpoint.
(There is some bug with HTML parser on Blogger.com. Please scroll down for the comparison table. Do write into your comments. I’d update/add more information accordingly)
| MicroStrategy | Business Objects | Cognos | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single Metadata | Yes | No | No |
| 64 Bit support | Very Good | Good | Good |
| Scalability | Excellent | Good | Very Good |
| Reusable bjects | Excellent | Good | Good |
| Objects Version Control | Very Bad | Excellent | Very Good |
| WYSIWYG | Very Good | Very Good | Very Good |
| Security | Very Good | Good | Very Good |
| Personalization | Very Good | Good | Bad |
| Manual fine-tuning SQL | Good | Excellent | Excellent |
| Ease of SQL generation | Excellent | Very Good | Very Good |
| MS Office integration | Very Good | Bad | Good |
| Learning Curve | Bad | Very Good | Very Good |
| Number of Clients | 10000 | 42000 | 23000 |
| Number of Employees | 2000 | NA | 3500 |
| Cost of License | $$$$$ | $$ | $$$ |
| Support Cost | $$$$$ | $$$ | $$$ |
| Average Pay (USD)## | 83000 | 78000 | 79000 |
| Job Security | Good | Excellent | Very Good |
| Cost of License | $$$$$ | $$ | $$$ |
| Support Cost | $$$$$ | $$$ | $$$ |
## – indeed.com
I have heard people saying web is three tier connection in several interview and desktop (with I-server) is a two tier connection. Such answers about tiers really gives me tears. [:)]. You are hear reading this page just mean that you are too lazy to read the MicroStrategy PDFs. Anyways here is the information about various tiers.
Anything that doesn’t requires I-server is 2 tier. One can have two tier connection not only with Access but also SQL Server, Oracle, Netizza, Teradata, etc, In fact with any damn database. In such case, Desktop and Metadata/Database are two tires. DSN is important in this case. In fact that become heart in 2 tier. You never need to use Configuration Manager in case of a 2 tier connection.
Any time you use configuration manager to connect I-Server to Metadata (obviously with DSN) is a three tier. In this case the tiers are, Desktop – I-Server – Metadata/Database.
Any time you use Web is a 4 tier architecture. And tiers are as follows.
Web Browser – Web Server – I-Server – Metadata/Database.
A 5 tier architecture is also possible. There are various vendors who sell installable reporting tool based on MicroStrategy architecture. In this case the 5th tier sits between Web Browser and Server.
MicroStrategy doesn’t support Versioning. BTW, There are two types of versioning in MicroStrategy. Source control (what I’m taking about over here) and Slowly changing dimension (SCD). Lots of clients have put requests to MicroStrategy to have this feature of version control for schema object or at least attributes. In short the answer for this question is NO and I would never want MicroStrategy to have this features. Such a feature request is only idea that can come from bad MicroStrategy practice. Why in this world, do you want to have two definition. If a change in attribute breaks a report or sql goes haywire, one should rather fix this (that why it is job of MicroStrategy Architect). Such a feature would lead to lots of useless trial-n-error stuff in MicroStrategy. If you know any company who is behind this feature request, please post the name over here.
FYI, as per document ID (TN4100-800-0349), A current enhancement request exists for this functionality. Contact MicroStrategy Technical Support for the latest update of this request.
This would be a good feature for nuts in MicroStrategy and will give sane people hard time.
Update 13 Feb 2009
Cognos supports this feature. But one can’t use different object(s) from different set of version. 