Configuring SAS Workflow for Use with SAS Model Manager :: SAS(R) Model Manager 13.1: Administrator's Guide

Overview

SAS Workflow provides services that work together to model, automate, integrate, and streamline business processes. It provides a platform for more efficient and productive business solutions.

SAS Workflow is used by SAS solutions that benefit from business process management. SAS Workflow Studio is a desktop client application that is used to design and deploy workflow definitions. The SAS middle tier hosts the workflow engine and the workflow services as part of the SAS Web Infrastructure Platform. SAS Model Manager is used to manage the workflows that are associated with versions. For more information about SAS Workflow, see SAS Workflow in SAS Intelligence Platform: Middle-Tier Administration Guide.

To use SAS Workflow with SAS Model Manager, be sure the following prerequisites are met:

SAS Workflow Engine, SAS Workflow Services, and SAS Workflow Studio must be installed and configured. For more information, see SAS Intelligence Platform: Installation and Configuration Guide
If you want to receive notifications for a workflow, you must configure alert notifications using SAS Management Console. For more information, see Configuring Alert Notifications for SAS Workflow.
Users must be a member of the Decision Manager Common Administrators Group or another user group that is associated with the Decision Manager Common: Administration role.
Workflow definitions must be created using SAS Workflow Studio. For more information about creating workflow definitions, see the SAS Workflow Studio: User's Guide.

Guidelines for Creating Workflow Definitions

When you create workflow definitions in SAS Workflow Studio to use with SAS Model Manager, follow these guidelines:

Participants, and policies must be added to the task level. Statuses added at the task level and the default statuses at the workflow definition level can be used for a task status. Data objects can be added at the workflow definition level or task level. Users can see only the data objects defined at the task level from the Workflows category in SAS Model Manager.
Only the Potential Owner and Business Administrator workflow roles are used by SAS Model Manager and they can be used in either a participant or swimlane definition. The Actual Owner workflow role should not be used as part of a workflow definition.
In order to assign additional participants to tasks in SAS Model Manager, the user must have or be in a group that is assigned the workflow role of Business Administrator. Also, in order to manage workflows and assign participants, the user must be in the Decision Manager Common Administrators group, or in a group that is a member of the Decision Manager Common Administrators group or that is associated with the Decision Manager Common: Administration role in SAS Management Console.

The following groups are created at installation time:
- Decision Manager Common Administrators Group
- Decision Manager Users Group
- Model Manager Administrator Users Group (mdlmgradminusers)
- Model Manager Advanced Users Group (mdlmgradvusers)
- Model Manager Users Group (mdlmgrusers)
For more information, see Configuring Users, Groups, and Roles.
Only workflow definitions that are activated in the Workflow repository, that are associated with the mmapi tag attribute in the file properties, are available toSAS Model Manager.

How to Associate a Milestone with a Workflow Task

You can associate a milestone ID with a task as part of creating a workflow definition. This enables the name of the milestone ID to be displayed in the Milestone column in SAS Model Manager. This column appears in the Workflows category view , the workflow details view, and in the workflow task drop-down menu that can be accessed from the project toolbar menu.

First you must create a workflow definition using SAS Workflow Studio. Add the tasks, statuses, and data objects that you want to include in your workflow. For more information about creating a workflow definition, see the SAS Workflow Studio: User's Guide.

To associate a milestone ID with a task:

Start SAS Workflow Studio, and then open a workflow definition.
Expand the Tasks node in the workflow tree.
Expand a task node, right-click the Data Objects folder, and select the New Data Object menu option.
Enter MilestoneID for the data object label.

Note: In previous versions of SAS Model Manager the data object label of MM_MilestoneID was used and still works.
Select Short Text from for the type of data object.
Enter a name for the milestone ID in the Text property. The name can be the same as the task name.
Click OK.
Repeat steps 3 through 7 for each task that you want to associate a milestone ID so that it appears on the Workflow Milestones report.

How to Add the Approval Attribute to a Status

The Approval attribute allows a workflow designer to signify that a specific task approves the associated version for a model project. This attribute then notifies the users of the version that a project is approved.

To add the Approval attribute to a status:

Expand the Statuses folder in the Workflow Tree.
Right-click a status and select Edit.
Click Attributes.
Click Add and enter the following values for the new attribute.

Key

Approval

Note: This key is case-sensitive.

Value

true
Click OK twice to save.

How to Make Workflow Definitions Available to SAS Model Manager

After you have created a workflow definition in the SAS Workflow Studio, you must make the workflow definition available to SAS Model Manager.

To save the workflow definition to the Workflow repository:

Save the workflow definition to your local drive.
Log on to the server.
Add the tag attribute of mmapi to the workflow definition file properties.
Upload the workflow definition.
Verify that the workflow definition is available in the Workflows category.

For more information, see Deploying and Maintaining Workflows in SAS Workflow Studio: User's Guide.

Log On to the Server

With SAS Workflow Studio, you are limited to managing locally stored workflow definitions on your system until you have logged on to the SAS Content Server. After you are connected, you can access additional workflow definitions that are stored in the SAS Content Server.

To log on to the server:

Select ServerLog On.
In the Log On window, select the host-name from the SAS environment drop-down list.

Note: For more information, see Configuring the SAS Environment File in SAS Intelligence Platform: Middle-Tier Administration Guide.
Enter a user ID and password, and click Log On.
Click OK if a confirmation message appears.

Add Tag Attributes to a Workflow Definition

Only those workflow definitions in the Workflow repository that contain the mmapi tag attribute in the file properties are available to SAS Model Manager.

To add a tag attribute to the file properties of a workflow template in SAS Workflow Studio:

Select File Properties and click Add.
Enter the tag value of mmapi.

Note: The file properties are case sensitive. This value must be lowercase.
Click OK twice.

Upload a Workflow Definition

To upload a workflow:

From the Server menu, select the Save to Repository menu option. The Save to Workflow Repository window appears.
(Optional) Enter relevant comments to associate with the workflow definition.
Select the Activate option if you want to activate the current version in the Workflow repository.
Click OK.
Click OK if confirmation messages appear.

Verify That the Workflow Definitions Are Available In SAS Model Manager

To verify that the workflow definitions are available in the Workflows category view of SAS Model Manager:

Enter the URL http://hostname:port/SASDecisionManager in your web browser.
Enter the user ID and password for a user that is in the Decision Manager Common Administrators Group or a user group that is associated with the Decision Manager Common: Administration role.
Verify that the uploaded workflow definition is available in the Workflows category view. From the Workflows category view, select ActionsSet Mappings. The Set Mappings window appears with a list of the available workflow definitions.

For more information, see Set Mappings in SAS Model Manager: User's Guide.