KB35521: How to add a new delimiter for Plain Text exports using MicroStrategy Web SDK

For Plain Text exports, the following are available out of the box delimiters in Strategy 9.3.0: Comma, Tab, Semicolon, Space, and Tilde.  With the following customization, new delimiters can be added to the list and users will be able to select them at the time they export their reports.  In this example, a pipe '|' character is added.
 
Before Customization:
 

 
After Customization:
 

 
 
Using the Web Customization Editor to create a plug-in
 
Strategy SDK provides a Web Customization Editor that can be used to create a customization plug-in. The following steps show how to create the plug-in and deploy.

1. Launch the Web Customization Editor.
2. Create a new plug-in and give it a meaningful name. For example: AddingNewPlaintextExportDelimiter. (For step by step instructions on creating a new plug-in, please navigate to Home > Web SDK > Customizing Strategy Web > Web Customization Editor > Features and Customizable Settings > Creating a New Plug-in in the MSDZ).
3. Enable the Property Files settings from the Show Advanced Options in Strategy Preferences.
4. Click on Strategy Web Configuration inside the Application Settings view to expand the hierarchical tree. The expanded list comprises the different settings that can be modified to perform customizations.
5. Navigate to Property Files -> WEB-INF -> classes -> resources and double-click MessagesBundle_en_US.properties to launch the Web Properties Editor.
6. Enter a new property-value pair in the text field at the bottom confirming to the syntax nameOfProperty=value. For example: delimiter.1=Pipe.
7. Click Add.
8. Save the file.
9. Exit the Web Customization Editor.
10. Navigate to the customization plug-in folder inside the plugins folder of the Strategy Web installation. 
11. Create a config folder structure in \WEB-INF\xml inside the plug-in. For example: plugins\AddingNewPlaintextExportDelimiter\WEB-INF\xml\config.
12. Copy the out of the box exportPlaintextDelimiters.xml into it.  This file is found in Strategy\WEB-INF\xml\config.
13. Copy one of the entries, and adjust it to have the chosen delimiter and custom message bundle entry for the description.  For example:
     
     
    

    
    <export-plaintext-delimiter desc="Pipe" desc-id="delimiter.1" key="6">|</export-plaintext-delimiter>

    
     
     
    
14. Save the changes.
15. Restart the Web Server.
16. Launch Strategy Web to view the customization.

Note: If Internationalization is used, the following extra steps need to be taken:

1. In the plugins\AddingNewPlaintextExportDelimiter\WEB-INF\xml folder, create a new file named pageConfig.xml.  The contents should look like this:
    
    
   

   
   <framework>
      <export-plaintext-delimiters config-src="@AddingNewPlaintextExportDelimiter:/WEB-INF/xml/config/exportPlaintextDelimiters.xml"/> 
   </framework>

   
   
2. Restart your web server.
   

 
Note: If No Delimiter (blank delimiter) is needed, the following would be used for step 13:
 

<export-plaintext-delimiters version="1.0">
    <export-plaintext-delimiter desc="NoDelimiter" desc-id=delimiter.1 key="6"> </export-plaintext-delimiter>

</export-plaintext-delimiters>