Retaining Object IDs From Copied Objects

BY BRYAN JUNE 6, 2011

The most obvious reason to maintain multiple environments (Development,

Test, Production) is so that you can make changes to objects while
building/modifying without impacting Production. Once the changes are
complete/tested, they can be migrated with MicroStrategy Object Manager
into the target project. In order for this theme to work, MicroStrategy relies on
the Object IDs to be synced for objects between projects. So what do you do if
you just want to test something out or try something crazy? You could always
try it in Dev, and if it doesnt work, migrate it backwards from Test/Prod back to
Dev to undo your changes. Today, Ill show a different trick where you can
work on copies of objects, but still retain their original GUIDs without the extra
risk.
The trick is something non-intuitive, but is obvious when you think about how
Web works. What you can do is make a copy of any object, which will now
create a new Object ID. You can make your changes and test them out, and if
you want to keep them, but retain the original Object ID, instead of reapplying
the changes you can simple Save As on your new object and overwrite the
original. Your changes are all applied, but the original Object ID is retained.
When you think about the workflow when saving Reports in Web, it always
does a Save As, as you get the confirmation that youll be overwriting the
Report.
This trick can be useful in a few scenarios, specifically if you wanted to test
some new changes or perhaps have a less experienced developer work on a
copy of a complex/sensitive report without risk of messing it up. You could
also take a Report that a user has modified in their My Reports and apply it to
the Shared Reports version.
The importance of retaining the Object ID is so that Object Manager can still
function for migrations between projects. Additionally, any existing

subscriptions are tied to the Object IDs, as well as any dependents that use
the object youre copy/replacing.
Ive tested this primarily with Reports/Documents, but it also works with all
other types of objects with the exception of Prompts.

1. Hey Bryan, this is a trick we keep using while development all the time.
But it does not work on prompts. MicroStrategy does not let you save as a
prompt.. The editor does not have any option of doing that..
I guess it does make sense to not allow save as, because different prompt types
are used in different places, and if one would, if available, try to do a save as an
object prompt on an element prompt, things would be messed up!
Reply

2.

Bryan
June 9, 2011 at 4:20 pm

Thanks for the tip! Youre right, it looks like the Prompt interface is slightly
different and doesnt let you save an existing object over an older one. However,
you can create a new prompt and the first time you save it, the trick does still
work, though thats definitely less useful.
Reply

3.

Rohit
June 9, 2011 at 4:40 pm

Yes, you can create a new prompt and achieve the same.
It wont let you change the prompt type altogether though.. I guess it wont let you
save an Element prompt on top of an object prompt.. (Besides I know thats kind
of foolish!)
Reply

4.

swi3zy
July 25, 2011 at 8:37 pm

Thanks Bryan! A usefull tip, as always

Reply

5.

Eddy
November 21, 2011 at 3:39 pm

Bryan,
I applied prompt on my report and when i run the report and checked its SQL its
not making any join with Currency Code. but when i use filter instead of prompt
its works fine. Whats the problem behind it why prompt is not making join with
Currency Code.
Reply

6.

Prince Manvar
December 25, 2012 at 2:33 pm

Hi Bryan,
Nice trick
Thanks,
Prince
Reply

7.

Daniel Carbone
May 20, 2013 at 9:00 pm

Hi Bryan/all,
Does this trick work for a logical table?
Thanks,
Dan
Reply

Bryan

May 20, 2013 at 9:57 pm

Doesnt look like it since a LT doesnt have a Save As option. If youre

trying to use this as a trick to point a LT to a different physical table, then I
think you can do that in Architect.
Reply

8.

Komal Chheda

November 12, 2013 at 5:52 pm

Is there any way we can extract all the object properties such as version id,
object ID, name, column, table name into excel sheet
Reply