Replacing Objects in Bulk Using "Find and Replace" Feature in MicroStrategy 9.x
Introduction
Replacing an attribute or a metric in a report using 8.x and older versions of MicroStrategy can take many hours depending on the number of objects being modified. Each report must be opened, the object replaced and the report saved. The process is tedious and error-prone.
MicroStrategy 9.x has simplified object replacement and allows automatic and fast replacement of all occurrences of an object such as an attribute or a metric from all dependent objects such as reports. This tool allows common tasks such as replacement of attributes and metrics from report objects to be done in bulk, resulting in improved productivity.
Lancet tested this feature in a prototype environment and replaced 'Item' attribute with 'Item Plus' attribute from about 136 objects. What could have easily taken several hours if we had performed this task manually, took us less than one minute.
This object replacement mechanism is available through the "Find and Replace" feature. The following object types can be replaced using this feature:
- Attributes
- Metrics
- Grids
- Filters
- Templates
- Custom Groups
The "Find and Replace Object Dependencies" feature is disabled by default. To enable it, go to "Project Configuration" and then under the Project Definition/Advanced menu click on the checkbox as shown in the screenshots below:
"Find and Replace" tool can be found in the "Tools" menu of MicroStrategy Desktop.
Follow the steps below to replace an object:
Step 1
Select "Object Dependencies" option from properties category drop down menu and select the object to be replaced (dependee).
Step 2
Select the object/objects to be modified (i.e. report or template objects which contains the object (attribute or metric etc) that has to be replaced).
There are three ways to select objects to be modified:
- Choose a set of objects to be modified: Here you Individually select objects by browsing, this is suitable when the no of objects to modified are fewer and you are know where are all the dependent objects are saved.
- Use the results of a search: Results of a saved search object can be selected or a new search can be used to select objects to be modified.
- Apply to all dependent objects: This option will display all the dependent objects.
After selecting the search object click "Update Summary" button to display the results from the selection.
In the example below the "Revenue" metric will be replaced in the reports selected from the search (Results of search for dependents of Revenue metric).
In the summary section you can further select or deselect the objects you want to replace (uncheck the boxes to deselect).
Step 3
Select the object that will replace the dependee object and click on "Replace" button to replace the objects.
A warning popup window "Object dependency replacement can result in unusable objects" will be displayed after clicking on replace (Note: Microstrategy highly recommends backing up the metadata before executing this action as Object dependency replacement can sometimes result in unusable objects).
Click "Yes" to complete replacement for the objects selected in the summary section.
