In every MicroStrategy project, there is a default system hierarchy that is built automatically based on the information we set into the Parent
/Children
tabs of the Attribute Editor. The default system hierarchy cannot be modified and contains all the attributes in a project.
The hierarchies can be used to drill down and up in reports, for example, from Year
to Month
to Date
; or from Product Category
to Product
.
In order to present the attributes in clear and understandable groups to the users, additionally, we can create other hierarchies that we will later use in reports and in dynamic selectors; think of it as a different way to show dimensions to the end user.
We are creating the most common hierarchy, the time:
Time
and click on Save.We will see that the hierarchy is useful when we create reports and want to give the user the possibility to aggregate or filter by year, by month, or by date without previously knowing which attribute they are going to use.
Entry points are the objects from which the navigation begins inside a hierarchy. You have seen, when browsing the Time hierarchy that only the Year attribute appears at first. To set the Month attribute as another entry point, do this:
It may seem useless now, but please wait until Chapter 5, Data Display and Manipulation – Reports.
Sometimes—while the project is in progress—we need to provide a quick and easy documentation about the dimensions. I found that doing a print screen of the Hierarchy Editor is very useful and gives a clear idea of how the users can move inside the data.
Create the Products
hierarchy with the following attributes: Product Category
, Product Subcategory
, and Product
.
Create the Geography
hierarchy with the following attributes: Country
, StateProvince
, City
, and Customer
.
Set Country
and City
as entry points.