Let's build using our ad hoc model. MicroStrategy Desktop provides us with an intuitive GUI where we can simply drag and drop attributes and metrics. In addition, we can create new derived attributes and metrics. We can start by adding text elements on top of the dashboard by clicking on Insert and choosing the Text element:
We could type any name; in our example, it is Management Dashboard Last 60 days. Moreover, every element on canvas such as text or a visualization has lots of settings. For text we could increase the size of the text and make it bold.
Our canvas is still empty. In order to start to building a chart we can drag and drop objects in rows, columns, or metrics or we can choose the type of chart and then drag objects.
Let's start with a simple line chart in order to build Sales Amount by Country.
- Drag and drop SalesAmount to Vertical, Orderdate to Horizontal, and Country Name to Color By.
- Right-click on Orderdate and choose Number Format in order to change the date format to yyyy-mm-dd:
- Click on the small icon of a funnel in order to add a date filter. We want to restrict dates in order to have only a 60-day time frame. Drag and drop Orderdate:
As a result, this filter will be applied to all visualizations on this sheet.
- Click on the small arrow on top and choose Rename in order to rename the visualization:
Let's add an area chart in order to see how countries perform:
- Choose Area Chart Visualization.
- Drag and drop Orderquantity to Vertical, Orderdate to Horizontal, and CountyName to Color By.
- Right-click on Orderdate and choose Number Format in order to change the date format to yyyy-mm-dd.
- Check that Break By is Staked, otherwise it will be difficult to read the chart.
- Click on the small arrow on top and choose Rename in order to rename the visualization.
Let's assume that it is very important to understand which color is the most popular for the product. For this purpose, we will build order quantity by color:
Tip
It shows one or more sets of data by comparing them with each other. There are two options in the case of multiple display sets, either in the form of several columns standing nearby, or in the form of divided portions in accordance with the values. For example, the annual profit of the three companies in the past 5 years, or their market share during the same period.
- Choose Bar Chart.
- Drag and drop Orderquantity to Vertical, Country Region Code to Horizontal, and Color to Color By.
- Choose Break By Percent.
- Rename the visualization.
We can analyze products in different dimensions. For example, we can see a correlation between the Sales Amount and Customer Quantity:
- Choose Bubble Chart.
- Drag and drop Salesamount to Vertical, Orderquantity to Horizontal, and Englishproductname to Color By.
- Rename the visualization.
Moreover, we can use this chart as a filter for all other visualizations by clicking on the small arrow in the top-left corner and choosing Use as a Filter:
