SAS Web Report Studio Folders

Overview of SAS Web Report Studio Folders

Proper storage of reports and report-related objects is important because storage of reports (and some report-related objects) must always be synchronized between your metadata repository and your external content server. In addition, if you organize storage of reports appropriately for your environment, then controlling access to reports is easier.

You have the flexibility to choose the location of the SAS Web Report Studio user folders anywhere within the SAS Folders directory on the Folders tab of SAS Management Console. For example, you can create a folder called Shared and ensure that users' documents such as reports, information maps, and stored processes are stored in this folder. Another option is to create separate folders for reports, information maps, and other items.

For each folder that you create within the SAS Folders directory, a corresponding directory is also automatically created in the SAS Content Server. In this way, SAS Management Console preserves the necessary synchronization between the folders in the metadata repository and the content server.

For information and guidelines about how to set up your SAS folders, see the SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide.

To manage the availability of images, templates, and items for report distribution to users, SAS Web Report Studio administrators have access to the certain folders in the SAS Content Server and within SAS Management Console. These folders, which can be accessed by the SAS administrator, are as follows:

SAS Folders/System/Applications/SAS Web Report
                              Studio/Common/BannerImages

the folder where SAS Web Report Studio looks for banner images when building a report. Banner images are available for users to insert into headers and footers in their documents. You use SAS Management Console to manage the contents of the BannerImages folder.

In SAS Web Report Studio 4.31, the folder path is

SAS Folders/System/Applications/SAS
                                 Web Report Studio/Web Report Studio 4.3/BannerImages

. When you upgrade to SAS Web Report Studio 4.31, existing images remain in the old folder (so that referencing reports continue to work) and are also copied to the new folder.

SAS Folders/System/Applications/SAS Web Report
                              Studio/Common/ConditionalHighlightingImages

the top-level folder for conditional-highlighting images that can be included in reports.

In SAS Web Report Studio 4.31, the folder path is

SAS Folders/System/Applications/SAS
                                 Web Report Studio/Web Report Studio 4.3/ConditionalHighlightingImages

. When you upgrade to SAS Web Report Studio 4.31, existing images remain in the old folder (so that referencing reports continue to work) and are also copied to the new folder.

SAS Folders/System/Applications/SAS Web Report
                              Studio/Common/ReportTemplates

the folder for the templates that are used when you create reports with custom layouts in SAS Web Report Studio.

In SAS Web Report Studio 4.31, the folder path is

SAS Folders/System/Applications/SAS
                                 Web Report Studio/Web Report Studio 4.3/ReportTemplates

. When you upgrade to SAS Web Report Studio 4.31, this folder and its contents are moved to the new location.

SAS Folders/System/Applications/SAS Web Report
                              Studio/Common/DistributionDefs

the folder for items that handle report scheduling and distribution.

In SAS Web Report Studio 4.31, the folder path is

SAS Folders/System/Applications/SAS
                                 Web Report Studio/Web Report Studio 4.3/DistributionDefs

. When you upgrade to SAS Web Report Studio 4.31, this folder and its contents are moved to the new location.

Storage Folders for SAS Web Report Studio Content

Storage folders for SAS Web Report Studio must exist in both the foundation SAS Metadata Repository and the SAS Content Server or the file system. The

SAS
                     Folders/System/Applications/SAS Web Report Studio/Common

folder in the metadata repository corresponds to the

sasfolders/System/Applications/SAS
                     Web Report Studio/Common

directory in the SAS Content Server. These top-level folders are created during installation, configuration, and deployment.

The parallel storage structures are necessary because reports and some report-related objects (such as images) have both a metadata component and a content component. For example, for each report that is saved in SAS Web Report Studio, two objects are stored:

A metadata object that describes the report is stored in your metadata repository. The report metadata object contains information such as time stamps, authorship, access controls that provide security for the report, and other report-specific and application-specific properties.
A report definition file is stored in your content server. The report definition file is an XML file that contains information about how the report is presented and what data is included in the report. The report definition is constructed according to the SAS Report Model, which is an XML specification for business reports. Reports that comply with the SAS Report Model can be created, viewed, and modified by a variety of SAS applications.

In order to display a report, SAS Web Report Studio must retrieve both of these components. The parallel storage structures in the metadata repository and the content server facilitate this two-part retrieval.

CAUTION:

You must keep the report content files synchronized with their corresponding metadata objects.

For details about how to keep report content files synchronized with their corresponding metadata objects, see Best Practices for Managing SAS Folders in SAS Intelligence Platform: System Administration Guide.

Display Users' Legacy Path Folders after Migration to SAS Web Report Studio 4.31

If your site has migrated from SAS Web Report Studio 3.1 to SAS Web Report Studio 4.31, previous users of SAS Web Report Studio can navigate to their folders, which are located within the SAS Folders directory.

The following display shows the Web Report Studio 4.3 dialog box where the Show Legacy Paths field is set to Yes by default after migration from SAS Web Report Studio 3.1 to SAS Web Report Studio 4.31. If there was no migration, this field is set to No by default.

Show Legacy Paths for SAS Web Report Studio

The legacy path folders are displayed in the drop-down Location menu in SAS Web Report Studio. The following table shows the legacy folder paths and types of files that are typically displayed when the drop-down menu is chosen under Location.

Legacy Folder Paths in SAS Web Report Studio 4.31

Function in SAS Web Report Studio 4.31	Legacy Folder Paths
Open Report	/BIP Tree/ReportStudio/Shared/Reports
Open Info Map	/BIP Tree/ReportStudio/Maps
Locate Image to Include	/BIP Tree/ReportStudio/Shared/Images

In the following display, the user has chosen to open a report and is able to view the legacy folder path for /BIP Tree/ReportStudio/Shared/Reports.

Reports in the Legacy Folder Path

Create a Company Preferred Folder for Reports

Reports created by SAS Web Report Studio users are saved in folders that are located within the SAS Folders directory. By default, reports are saved in the users’ personal preferred folder. Beginning with the second maintenance release of SAS Web Report Studio 4.31, you can create a company preferred folder that serves as a default folder for saving users’ reports. To enable the company preferred folder, configure the wrs.siteWideDefaultSaveDirUrl property and specify the folder path for the company preferred folder.

The creation of a company preferred folder provides the following benefits:

In your environment, you might have a user who does not have the WriteMetadata permission for a report or the WriteMemberMetadata permission for the folder where the report is located. When that user attempts to saves changes that were made to that report, the report is saved in the company preferred folder. A message is displayed by SAS Web Report Studio to indicate that the report is being saved in a different location.
The company preferred folder is the default folder for reports saved by all users. However, users are not required to use the company preferred folder. They can select their personal preferred folder, and save their reports in that folder.

When you create a company preferred folder, SAS Web Report Studio users that have the required metadata permissions to folders and reports are presented with the following options below Save on the General tab in the Preferences dialog box:

Last folder used
Company preferred folder
Your preferred folder

The folders where users can save SAS Web Report Studio reports depends on which type of configuration you perform. The following table provides a summary of configuration options and the folder choices that are enabled under Save on the General tab on the Preferences dialog box.

Folder Selections Available on the General Tab

User has Metadata Permissions to Folders and Reports	The `wrs.siteWideDefaultSaveDirUrl` Property is Configured	Folder Selections Available on the General tab on the Preferences Dialog Box
No	No	None
Yes	No	Last folder used Your preferred folder
No	Yes If the value for this property specifies the repository folder path for the company preferred folder, the user’s report is saved in the company preferred folder. Here is an example of the value: `SBIP://METASERVER/WRS Shared/Reports`	Company preferred folder
Yes	Yes If the value for this property specifies the repository folder path for the company preferred folder, the user’s report is saved in the company preferred folder. Here is an example of the value: `SBIP://METASERVER/WRS Shared/Reports`	Last folder used Company preferred folder Your preferred folder
Yes	Yes If the value for this property is specified as `%MY_FOLDER%`, the user’s report is saved in the user’s personal folder.	Last folder used Company preferred folder Your preferred folder

To create a company preferred folder, follow these steps:

In SAS Management Console on the Plug-ins tab, navigate to Application ManagementConfiguration ManagerWeb Report Studio 4.3 and right-click to display the Web Report Studio 4.3 Properties dialog box.
Click the Advanced Tab.
Click Add to display the Define New Property dialog box.
Enter the property name and the desired property value, and click OK in the Define New Property dialog box:

Property Name: wrs.siteWideDefaultSaveDirUrl

Property Value: Repository_Folder_Path

or

Property Value: %MY_FOLDER%

Here is an example of a URL for a company preferred folder:

SBIP://METASERVER/WRS Shared/Reports
Click Add in the Web Report Studio 4.3 Properties dialog box.
Click OK to exit the Define New Property dialog box and the Web Report Studio 4.3 Properties dialog box.
To enable this property to take effect, restart your Web application server.