Glossary

business entity

an object in your business domain. An entity has one or more terms, which are attributes of an entity. For example, the business entity could be the customer, and the associated terms could be the name, account number, account type, and so on.

business rule

a statement of business logic that specifies conditions to be evaluated and actions to be taken if those conditions are satisfied.

business rule flow package

a business rule flow that has been saved to an XML file.

business rule service

a business rule flow that has been implemented as a web service.

data object

an object that holds the business data that is required to execute workflow tasks.

decision tree

a set of rules that split data into a hierarchy of successive segments, and which can be used, for example, to determine a single result or appropriate action. The leaves represent an optimal segmentation of the branches above them according to a statistical measure.

key

See lookup key

library reference

See libref

libref

a SAS name that is associated with the location of a SAS library. For example, in the name MYLIB.MYFILE, MYLIB is the libref, and MYFILE is a file in the SAS library.

lookup key

a value that uniquely identifies a specific record and its order among other records in a database or table.

lookup table

a table that contains lookup keys and their corresponding values.

lookup value

the value that is associated with a lookup key in a lookup table.

metadata

descriptive data about data that is stored and managed in a database, in order to facilitate access to captured and archived data for further use.

policy

a workflow element that associates event-driven logic with a task or subflow. Policies are usually triggered automatically by an event such as a status change or a timer event.

publish

to register a business rule flow in a SAS metadata repository.

rule

See business rule

rule flow

a logical collection of multiple rule sets that define multiple conditions and actions. Rule flows can be tested and deployed as SAS programs and services that process input data, which contain conditions, in order to create output data, which contain actions.

rule set

a logical group of business rules.

SAS Content Server

a server that stores digital content (such as documents, reports, and images) that is created and used by SAS client applications. To interact with the server, clients use WebDAV-based protocols for access, versioning, collaboration, security, and searching.

SAS Metadata Repository

a container for metadata that is managed by the SAS Metadata Server.

SAS Metadata Server

a multi-user server that enables users to read metadata from or write metadata to one or more SAS Metadata Repositories.

swimlane

a workflow diagram element that enables you to group tasks that are assigned to the same participant.

task

a workflow element that associates executable logic with an event such as a status change or timer event.

task status

the outcome of a task in a workflow. The status of a task (for example, Started, Canceled, Approved) is typically used to trigger the next task.

term

an attribute of a business entity. Terms might or might not have a list of valid values. For example, a customer entity might have terms such as account type or age. Valid values for the account type term might include "commercial" or "personal."

vocabulary

the set of business entities that define your business domain.

workflow

a series of tasks, together with the participants and the logic that is required to execute the tasks. A workflow includes policies, status values, and data objects.

workflow definition

a workflow template that has been uploaded to the server and activated. Workflow definitions are used by the SAS Workflow Engine to create new workflow instances.

workflow instance

a workflow that is running in the SAS Workflow Engine. After a workflow template is uploaded to the server and activated, client applications can use the template to create and run a new copy of the workflow definition. Each new copy is a workflow instance.

workflow template

a model of a workflow that has been saved to an XML file.