In this step, mobile developers need to know the requirements. Who are the users? What kind of visualizations are needed? Are there any specific functionality requirements? How many apps need to be created? In addition, you will also need to know:

For example, we need to create an app that will help an organization analyze sales performance, and to help buyers with visits:

The second step is storyboarding and planning. The storyboard is to visualize the whole workflow based on the requirements, by providing the screens and the organization of the screens using paper, or software like Visio; storyboarding helps keep the conversation going between IT and business users.

Planning is to decide detailed objects requirements, and how to navigate in the app:

For example, after discussing the storyboard with business users, we decide to build two separate apps for different users. For executives and managers, we build Sales Performance App; for buyers, we build Buyer Visit App. Details are shown in the following image:

First, we need a suitable document template. There are two ways to do this. MicroStrategy has many prebuild templates, including the iPad Landscape template. They are hidden, but you can unhide them and start using them. Alternatively, you can create the template yourself. Let us see how to unhide templates, and how to create new templates.

Creating templates

Before you start, you certainly need to log in to a project, and make sure you select to display Pixels instead of Inches. To do this, click User Preference on the top-right of the web interface, click Preferences | General, under Language, click Advanced Options, and choose Pixels for Measurement Units:

Templates are nothing more than regular documents. When you put a document into the template folder, it serves as a template. Follow these steps to create an iPad Landscape Template:

1. Click Create Document.
2. Click Tools | Document Properties.
3. Under Layout Properties | Sections, uncheck all except Detailed Header.
4. Under Page, input 2048 for Width, 1536 for Height, and Landscape for Orientation. Click OK:
   

Adjust the view to make your canvas look correct:

1. Click Tools | Manage views.
2. Set Resolution to 2048 X 1536 , and Orientation to Landscape Only.
3. Drag the right-hand side and bottom edges of the canvas to the proper place.
4. Under Document Home, choose Fit Page. Save the document:
   

Dataset creation is no different than generating ordinary reports; however, because of the limitations in processing power, network bandwidth, and in memory for mobile devices, it is a good idea to keep the datasets small.

In this chapter, we import and use the following datasets:

In this section, we create the skeleton for the Sales Performance App, which is made up of the main panel stack, and panels:

The result is a blank panel stack containing five panels and a panel selector.

We want to create a home page, a dashboard showing the sales overviews and KPIs:

It has four parts: a profits pie chart, a time series graph of revenue, KPIs, and a bar chart for top 5 sales. We will show how to create these parts.

Creating a profit pie chart for Home

The result we want to achieve is as follows:

Here are the steps to create it:

1. Click INSERT, click Grid, and draw the grid on the canvas.
2. Drag Year, Category, and Profit into the grid.
3. Right-click on Year and click Create Selector Control.
4. Right-click on the selector control, set the Properties | Layout | Selector | DHTML Style to Button Bar, and adjust it to the proper width and height.
5. Right-click on the grid, click View Mode | Graph View, click on Graph, and change to Pie chart:
   

Creating a revenue time series graph for Home

The following is the result we want:

Here are the steps to create it:

1. Click INSERT, click Grid, and draw the grid on the canvas.
2. Drag Year, Category, and Revenue into the grid.
3. Right-click on Category and click Create Selector Control.
4. Right-click on the selector control, set the Properties | Layout | Selector | DHTML Style to Button Bar, and adjust it to the proper width and height.
5. Right-click on the grid, click View Mode | Graph View, click Graph, and change to Pie chart.
6. Take manual control of Property and Formatting | Properties | Selector | Targets:
   

Creating KPI for Home

The following is the result we want:

The steps to create it are as follows:

1. Drag metrics Profits, Units Sold, and Revenue on to the canvas.
2. Double-click the textbox and input necessary text.
3. Right-click on the textbox, click Properties and Formatting, and change text sizes.

Creating a top 5 units sold bar chart for Home

The result we want is as follows:

Here are the steps to create it:

1. Click INSERT, click Grid, and draw the grid on the canvas.
2. Drag Year, Subcategory, and Units Sold into the grid.
3. Change into interactive edit mode and sort by Units Sold.
4. Change into edit mode, right-click on Subcategory, and click Edit View Filter.
5. Click Add New Condition, Units Sold, Highest, and input 5 for the value.
6. Right-click on the grid, choose View Mode | Graph View, click Graph, and choose Horizontal Bar:
   

The result we want to achieve is as follows:

Here are the steps to create it:

The result we want to achieve is as follows:

Here are the steps to create it:

The result we want is as follows:

Here are the steps to create it:

The result we want is as follows:

Here are the steps to create it:

Prompts in mobiles work basically the same as those in Web. Numeric value prompts display in different ways depending on the data involved, for example, date and time picker, Boolean switch, and numeric stepper. There are two prompts native to mobile:

Prompts can help filter out unwanted records, to target only the information of interest.

Multiple versions of an app can be created with multiple layouts of views. A layout can have multiple views. Multiple views are useful for different screen sizes and orientation. Views do not share objects with other layouts. Views reduce design time and maintenance. Multiple views do not have to show the same data, that is, if you rotate the screen, you want to see some new content.

To add views, click Tools | Document Properties | Advanced | Layout Properties | Mobile | Support orientations: Portrait and Landscape.

To manage views, right-click on the object and click Manage views. You can create one view for portrait only, and create a second view for landscape only, by using Views Editor:

Links enable navigation to reports and documents. There are three ways to provide linking: Links Editor, Document Links, and URL API.

One thing to note is that intra-document links only work for mobiles; testing should be done on the device. External apps can be opened: mail, text messaging, phone, and so on.

Using Buyer Visit App as an example, on the home page, we have a Location button, which is linked to a Buyer App - Location document. Here is how to create it: