MicroStrategy 9.0.2 included a new Web mode called Express to Documents. In the same release, MicroStrategy removed the antiquated View mode from Web, which was a static view of your Document. Considering the push for interactivity, this was an inevitable evolution of the product. In reality, if you don't build any interactive components, then Interactive and View mode were effectively the same thing.
So now what's the difference between Interactive and the new Express? Much in the way that Interactive was a concurrent rollout of View's replacement, Express is the future heir of MicroStrategy Web.
Express mode represents a new rewrite of the Web technology that gives us the benefit of evolving along side existing technology. While there's some significant overlap in features, Express and Interactive haven't reached complete feature parity yet. For the features they have achieved, Express mode is an incredible improvement. Most importantly, Express mode is 50%-75% faster than Interactive mode. For Documents with complicated layouts, this is a dramatic speed improvement. Layout tabs also benefit greatly by snapping back and forth nearly instantly compared to delayed page refreshes in Interactive mode.
Since it's still a work in progress, rendering can appear different in the two modes, so pick your target and stick with it by disabling the other in your Document Properties. Personally, I try to start with Express mode until I reach a feature that doesn't quite work right, then I return to Interactive mode. Each new release of MicroStrategy adds more and more support for Express mode, and hopefully in a near future release, we'll see the full transformation to the rest of the product.
by Bryan Brandow
(This article was first published on Bryan`s MicroStrategy Blog)
