Methods for Setting Up the MDDB Report Viewer

Overview of Methods for Setting Up the MDDB Report Viewer

The MDDB Report Viewer consists of three HTML pages in which users can enter information to generate reports and graphs from an MDDB. Some features of the MDDB Report Viewer pages might appear slightly different on different Web browsers. If you use more than one Web browser to access the MDDB Report Viewer, consider these differences when you set up and customize the tool.

You can use SAS/EIS software access control features with the MDDB Report Viewer. See Support for Access Control Features to learn more about using access control.

Note: To run this release of the MDDB Report Viewer, your system administrator must have previously set up a Repository Manager for accessing metadata. For more information about this setup procedure, see Working with Repositories. You can also refer to the online SAS Help and Documentation for Base SAS software and SAS/EIS software for details about setting up a repository.

You can use any of three methods to set up the MDDB Report Viewer.

Method 1

Copy the sample webeis.html page for the MDDB Report Viewer. The sample webeis.html page is included in the SAS/IntrNet CGI Tools for the Web server installation package and can be found in the sasweb/IntrNet9/MRV directory under your Web server root document directory. Modify the webeis.html file to specify your site's repositories, services, background colors, and so on. You can specify a subclass of the WEBEIS class to customize viewer behavior. See Method 3, Step 2 for a description of the CLASS parameter.

Method 2

Use the dynamic entry into the application by entering a URL that is similar to the following in your Web browser:

http://web-server-name/broker-URI?_program=sashelp.webeis.rptseld.scl
&_service=myservice&metabase=sashelp.mbeis&bgtype=color&bg=red
&class=sashelp.override.myweb.class

Here, broker-URI, BGTYPE, BG, and CLASS are as described in Method 3, Step 2. With this method, no HTML pages are created or stored.

Method 3

Run the SAS AF command to create HTML pages for your repositories and to set up the MDDB Report Viewer at your site. Follow these steps:

Start a SAS session.
To create the MDDB Report Viewer HTML file, enter the following command in the Program Editor window and submit the command to SAS for processing:
```
dm "af c=sashelp.webeis.rptsel.scl metabase=my-metabase
pathname='HTML-file' <CGI='broker-URI'>
<title='1996 Sales Report'> <bgtype='color'> <bg=blue>
<class='sashelp.override.myweb.class'>";
```
Here
METABASE

is the name of the SAS/EIS repository in which the MDDB has been registered. A METABASE value is required. The name can contain up to 60 characters and blank spaces. If you use blank spaces or special characters in the name, you must delimit the name with single quotation marks ('). SAS recommends that you use the same or similar filenames for the METABASE and PATHNAME options so that you can easily determine the metabase with which a particular instance of the MDDB Report Viewer is associated.

Note: The term metabase is retained for backward compatibility.

PATHNAME

is the path and filename of the MDDB Report Viewer HTML file that is created by the AF command. The directory is typically located under the Web server document root or in another directory served by the Web server. A PATHNAME value is required. SAS recommends that you use the same or similar filenames for the METABASE and PATHNAME options so that you can easily determine the metabase with which a particular instance of the MDDB Report Viewer is associated.

CGI

is the optional URI for the Application Broker component of Application Dispatcher (for example, /cgi-bin/broker or scripts/broker.exe). If you do not specify a value for this option, you must supply a value in the HTML file after it is created.

TITLE

is the title that appears at the top of the report. A TITLE value is optional. If you do not specify a title, the title "Multidimensional Reports" is used.

Note: Avoid using a percent sign (%) in the title because this symbol might be misinterpreted.

BGTYPE

is the type of background that appears in the application reports. Specify bgtype='color' to control the color of the background or bgtype='image' to control the background pattern displayed in the application reports. Use this option with the BG option, described below. A BGTYPE value is optional. If you specify bgtype='color', the BG option expects one of the named colors or a hexadecimal value for one of the colors that is supported by your Web browser. If you specify bgtype='image', the BG option expects the URL of a background image file. You can specify only GIF and JPG image files for the background. If you specify BGTYPE and omit BG, or if you do not use either option, the background is the default color, silver.

Note: When you control the background color of the MDDB Report Viewer HTML pages, you might also want to control the background color of graphs that are displayed on the HTML pages. To do this, you can use a transparent GIF image, which is an image with a transparent background in which the HTML background color is visible. In effect, you create a graph in a clear frame so that the background color of the HTML page displays through the frame. A device driver to create the transparent GIF is not supplied with SAS/GRAPH software. However, you can use the TRANSPARENCY option of the SAS/GRAPH GOPTIONS statement to create a graph with a transparent background. For more information about the TRANSPARENCY option, see the documentation for the GOPTIONS statement in the SAS/GRAPH Help and Documentation.

BG

specifies the color or image to display in the background. A BG value is optional. If you specify bgtype='color', then specify a color value for BG. If you specify bgtype='image', then specify an image value for BG. You can specify a color name or a hexadecimal value for the color value. You can specify a URL for the image file value. See the documentation for your Web browser for valid color values. If you specify BG and omit BGTYPE, or if you do not use either option, the background is the default color, silver.

Note: If you specify an invalid color value, your Web browser maps the specification to a valid value.
CLASS

is the name of a subclass of the WEBEIS class. A CLASS value is optional. Add this parameter if the user has overridden any WEBEIS methods to change the viewer behavior. You can specify either a three- or four-level name. For example, the following are both valid:
sashelp.override.myweb sashelp.override.myweb.class
In a text editor, open the HTML file that you created, and supply your own values in the HTML code that is preceded by a comment. These values include the following:
broker-URI

In the tag <FORM ACTION="broker-URI">, you must supply a value if you did not specify the CGI= option in the AF command that creates the HTML pages.
service-name, service-label

In the HTML lines
<BR>Select service: <SELECT NAME="_service"> <OPTION VALUE="service-name" SELECTED>service-label
specify the list of services that are available at your site. Provide an <OPTION> tag for each of your services. For more information about services, see _SERVICE.
debug selection list

You can modify the list of debug options for your site in the following HTML line:
Debugging level: <SELECT NAME="_debug">
Start the Application Server and point your Web browser to the HTML file that is generated in Method 3, Step 2.

You can specify the METABASE, PATHNAME, CGI, TITLE, BGTYPE, BG, and CLASS options in any order. Run the Application Server for each repository that contains MDDBs that users access when they run their reports.