Stand-alone Prompt vs. Prompt as Part of Report or Filter

This chapter primarily describes how to create stand-alone prompts. A stand-alone prompt is a prompt that is created as an independent MicroStrategy object. A stand-alone prompt can then be used on many different reports, as well as on filters, metrics, and other objects, and can be used by other report designers. A stand-alone prompt gives report designers flexibility.

However, in MicroStrategy, prompts can also be created as an intrinsic part of a given report, at the same time the report itself is being created. Prompts created as part of a report are saved with the report’s definition. Therefore, a prompt created as part of a report cannot be used on any other report.

Prompts can also be created as an intrinsic part of a filter, at the same time the filter itself is being created. Prompts created as part of a filter are saved with the filter’s definition. Therefore, a prompt created as part of a filter cannot be used on any other filter.

No matter how a prompt is created, whether stand-alone or as part of another object, each approach allows you to create most prompt types described in this chapter. Both stand-alone prompts and prompts created as part of another object accomplish the same results: the user is presented with one or more questions to answer, and the answers determine the data used when calculating the results displayed on a report.