Microstrategy Blog

In the first episode of this series I showed you how to connect to a MicroStrategy project using VB6. Time has come to look at three ways that can be employed to find an object.

Two of these methods (objSearch.Execute and ObjectSource.FindObject) are actually covered by Tech Notes on the Knowledge Base. Nevertheless, I thought to embed them in easy to use Functions.

The third method is the famous Search by ID, as I think is time for me to disclose its secrets… To be honest I never thought I would, but hey, it’s my 3 years within MicroStrategy community anniversary, so this one is on me

You can download the VB6 files here:
SDK Kit part 2.zip

I happen to know a guy or two whose curiosity for Intelligence Server SDK increased alarmingly in the last couple of months.  I dedicate this article to them, and anybody who would like to get their hands dirty with some cool stuff.

But first of all, what is IS SDK? Most of the SDK guys are familiar with the Web SDK, the one which allows endless customizing to the web interface of MicroStrategy, amongst other things. Intelligence Server SDK, on the other hand, deals with reading, creating, modifying and executing objects from your Metadata. One can easily consider it to be Command Manager’s big brother who went to College. Unlike Command Manager, IS SDK is anything but user friendly. But man, it packs a serious punch if you learn how to handle it! The documentation and Tech Notes do provide all the necessary information to do just about anything, but actual examples are scarce.

IS SDK can be used via Visual Basic or C++. Since I’m by no means a pure breed programmer, I work with VBA, which is more or less like speaking English to the computer.

Enough introductions already. If you want to unleash its power, the first thing you must do is connect to a project. This apparently simple task poses enough challenges to deter many an enthusiastic programmer from going any further.  I find this counterproductive and quite discomforting.

This is why I assembled a startup kit customized for VB6, which offers the code and explanations on how to connect to a project. Actually, it is the exact form that I used for Metadata Browser.

Download here:
Connection1.zip

Updates and new tips may come in the future, depending on your feedback.

February 10, 2010: Please find the latest version here: MBsetupV2.0.exe

July 25, 2009: Thanks to your feedback, version 1.1 is already available here.

For the last months I’ve been working on a new program which would act as a platform for many kinds of new functionalities. This program is called “Metadata Browser” and you can already download the Beta version here (newer version available here).

So far, Metadata Browser enables any user to navigate through a project, retrieve and export components, dependents and recurring dependents, and search by ID.

Please bear in mind that I’m learning SDK and VBA as I go, so don’t be too harsh if you find a bug. Instead, please write me at the email address displayed in the “About” window and give me an opportunity to improve this software. I would also be very happy to receive ideas on new features that you may wish to see in Metadata Browser.

If you reach that moment where you want to uninstall Metadata Browser, please be aware that on x64 operating systems the uninstall feature doesn’t work. Since the registries are not affected by this program, it’s enough to manually remove the files and shortcuts.

This is a read only application. Using it won’t cause any change to your Metadata.