MicroStrategy Web SDK - WTFs

MicroStrategy's Web SDK did something I totally didn't expect: calling WebReportInstance.getPrompts() actually runs the report if the report has no prompts. WTF??

This is a big deal if the report takes a long time to run.  I would expect a method called getPrompts to, you know, get the list of prompts.

After a few rounds with support, I got the answer:

reportSource.setExecutionFlags(EnumDSSXMLExecutionFlags.DssXmlExecutionResolve);

Note that call is on the ReportSource before getting the ReportInstance.

Same goes for Documents.

Speaking of WTF's with MicroStrategy's Web SDK - even though all subclasses of WebResultSetInstance (documents and reports) implement a getMessage() method that returns a subclass of WebMessage, the method is implemented only on the individual subclasses.

In other words, instead of this:

class WebResultSetInstance { public WebMessage getMessage() }

you get this

class WebDocumentInstance { public WebDocumentMessage getMessage() }
class WebReportInstance { public WebReportMessage getMessage() }

This is annoying, because it prevents you from doing something like this

resultSetInstance.getMessage().removeFromInbox()

interchangeably with a report or document.  You need to treat both report and document cases separately.

Written on December 15, 2013