Administering SAS BI Dashboard

Making Stored Processes Available to SAS BI Dashboard Users

Stored Processes in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3

A SAS Stored Process is a specialized SAS program that is stored in a central location, and which can be executed from the SAS BI Dashboard at your request. Stored processes give dashboard users the ability to run SAS reports dynamically in order to obtain the most current available data. The benefits of stored processes include centralized code management, increased security, and ad hoc reporting capabilities. For details about creating stored processes, see the SAS 9.2 Stored Processes: Developer's Guide.

Beginning with SAS Dashboard 4.3, the stp.dsx is installed on the SAS Content Server in the SAS Folders/System/Applications/BI Dashboard/BI Dashboard 4.3/DataSourceDefinitions directory. The stp.dsx enables users to create indicator data from the output of stored processes. The stored process must produce a result package as its output, and not a stream.

SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 enables you to make stored processes available to be executed from the dashboard without the need for additional programming. You can use SAS BI Dashboard to execute stored processes and to include stored processes or stored process results in a dashboard. When a dashboard has an indicator that was configured with stored process indicator data, users can see output from that stored process if it belongs to the displayed dashboard. Users might first have to search for a stored process before they can run it.

The developer who creates a stored process designates the server on which the stored process runs, registers the stored process in metadata, and assigns access permissions for the stored process. Check with the developer to obtain information about the stored process. For example, if you plan to share the stored process with dashboard users, you need to know which group to share it with. You might also want to know the purpose of the stored process and what type of output it produces. If the stored process publishes a package to the WebDAV repository in the SAS Content Server, users and groups should be provided with access to the package.

SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 consumes two types of stored process output:

data in the form of a data set contained in a package
visualizations in the form of images in common image formats (.png, jpg, gif)

Enable the Availability of Stored Processes for Dashboard Users

To make a stored process available to users, follow these steps:

In SAS Management Console, navigate to the stored process under SAS Folders.
On the Authorization tab for the stored process properties, verify that your SAS BI Dashboard users have ReadMetadata access to the stored process.

For more information about stored processes, see "SAS Stored Processes" in the SAS 9.2 Stored Processes: Developer's Guide.

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