KB31101: How to profile dashboards in Flash Execution Mode in MicroStrategy Web 9.x

Understanding the Flow of Flash Document Execution:
 
Flash document execution is more complex than the executing document in DHTML mode. The entire execution flow is illustrated in the image below:
 

 
Gathering Data -- Flash Execution Mode:
 
Data gathering in flash execution mode is similar to DHTML, with the exception that there is one more step in the profiling –the flash client execution. To profile flash documents:

1. Executing the document in Flash mode instead of DHTML mode and gather the data according to Technote: KB31100
2. Additionally, for each run, gather the flash rendering data using the flash debugger (click on the dashboard, and press the key combination CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + D). In the Error tab, gather the following data (for times, it is the calculation of the difference between the times indicated in the image below):
   
1. Size of Definition XML 
2. Size of Document Data 
3. Time of Intelligence Server + Network + Parsing of Definition XML of document
4. Time of Intelligence Server + Network + Parsing of Data of document
5. Time of document instance creation
6. Time of pure rendering of document
7. Time of total flash execution

 
 
Important notes about the Flash Debugger profiling values:

• Precision in the flash debugger is seconds, therefore, values can vary as below after calculating the time spent in each step:
  
• If value is 0 (no change from step one step to another), real value could be in interval (0, 1).
•  If value n is > 0, real value could be in interval (n-1, n+1).
• Load Definition XML time = XML Generation time (of the Intelligence Server) + Network + load time.
• Load Data XML time = Flex Data Export time (of the Intelligence Server) + Network + load time.