KB6274: How to Automate Element Requests Using MicroStrategy Intelligence Server 9.4.1 SDK

Users may wish to build an executable to automate the process of loading the elements from the warehouse to the element cache. The situations that users may benefit from this approach are limited and users should resort to other workarounds such as changes to the data model to overcome the conditions leading to such a necessity.
The following are two behaviors of the Element Server that users may notice:

• Concurrent element requests are not queued behind the first request.
• Element caches are kept only in memory, being swapped out-of-memory according to the Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm.

Users may, therefore, prefer to increase the availability of a group of elements in the Strategy Intelligence Server's element cache and may also want to decrease the memory requirement on Strategy Intelligence Server under high concurrency and large element request scenarios.
After users create a session for the project data source in the Server SDK, the following code helps load the elements to the Strategy Intelligence Server element cache (as long as the amount of element Random Access Memory (RAM) designated for the Element cache is more than the size of the particular element cache):

Dim oAttFold As IDSSFolder 
Dim oElems As IDSSElements 
Dim oElemSrc As IDSSElementSource
Dim oSelectedAtt As IDSSAttribute 
Dim oSession As IDSSSession '

oAttFold is the folder that holds the attributes 
Set oSelectedAtt = oAttFold.Item(lstAttributes.ListIndex + 1) 

'oSession is the session object for the project source 
Set oElemsrc=oSession.ElementSource

'Load the elements 
Set oElems = oElemSrc.GetElements(oSelectedAtt, , , , , 20)

Note that the code needed to create the IDSSFolder to collect all the attributes and the code to create the IDSSSession object is omitted (please refer to Strategy SDK documentation and/or 'MiniAgent' sample code for more details).
Notice that, in the last statement in the above code, the number '20' specifies the number of the elements retrieved onto the client via incremental fetch. Here, the client is the executable which contains the above code. A few observations are in order:

• Even though the incremental fetch size is 20, the entire element list will be cached on Strategy Intelligence Server provided that the RAM limit is sufficient. The size 20 only denotes the number of elements that will be loaded into the memory space of the executable that contains the above code. If the element list is very large, the memory consumption per this executable can also be quite high.
• The incremental fetch size, 20 in this case, is a part of the key of the cache created on the Strategy Intelligence Server. If the incremental fetch size is set to 20 for the Strategy Web clients under Preferences (similar for Desktop clients), the web users will hit this cache. If it is set to a value other than 20, fresh Structured Query Language (SQL) will be issued against the warehouse to retrieve the same list of elements onto the Strategy Intelligence Server. For instance, the executable might have been coded as:
  

  
  Set oElems = oElemSrc.GetElements(oSelectedAtt)

  
   
  retrieving the entire element list both onto the Strategy Intelligence Server and the client. If the Strategy Web or Strategy Desktop clients have incremental fetch configured, then their requests will not pull from the cached element list on the Server, but will issue new SQL against the warehouse.
   
  
• If the user account that logs in/creates the session/creates the element cache on the Strategy Intelligence Server has connection mapping and/or security filters (including none) different than the client, the client request will not hit the element cache, but will issue new SQL against the warehouse.

The example provided in this document is provided “as-is” and user has read the following customization warning:
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The Strategy SDK allows you to customize several Strategy products and extend and integrate the Strategy business intelligence functionality into other applications. However, before changing the way Strategy products look or behave, it is helpful to understand how the application is built. For more information regarding the Strategy products or the process of customizing Strategy products, please refer to Strategy Developer Zone (https://developer.microstrategy.com).
To access the Strategy Developer Zone, you must have access to the Strategy Knowledge Base, you must have purchased the Strategy SDK, and you must be current on your Strategy maintenance agreement. If you are a US-based business and believe that you satisfy all three of these conditions but you do not have access to the Strategy Developer Zone, please contact Strategy Technical Support at support@microstrategy.com or at (703) 848-8700. If you are an international business, please contact Strategy Technical Support at the appropriate email address or phone number found at https://www.microstrategy.com/us/services/support/contact.
CUSTOMIZATION WARNING:
This customization is provided as a convenience to Strategy users and is only directly applicable to the version stated. While this code may apply to other releases directly, Strategy Technical Support makes no guarantees that the code provided will apply to any future or previous builds. In the event of a code change in future builds, Strategy Technical Support makes no guarantee that an updated version of this particular customization will be provided. In the event of a code change in future builds, Strategy may not be able to provide additional code on this matter even though this customization is provided at this time for this specific build. For enhancements to this customization or to incorporate similar functionality into other versions, contact your Account Executive to inquire about Strategy Consulting assistance.