Managing the Workflow Process :: SAS(R) Model Manager 3.1: Tutorials

Overview

SAS Model Manager Workflow Console can be used to manage instances of workflow process definitions. A SAS Model Manager administrator can create new workflow instances, view workflow process definitions, and interact with activities that are associated with a workflow instance. If the SAS Model Manager administrator is assigned to the workflow role of business administrator, the administrator can influence the progress of an activity by actions such as assigning an activity, or releasing the activity that is claimed by another user.

In this exercise, you create workflow instances, work with participants, customize category views and terminate workflow instances.

Prerequisites

The exercises in this tutorial require that you have made the workflow process definitions available to SAS Model Manager. For more information, see Prepare for Using SAS Workflow.

Create Workflow Instances

To create a new workflow instance, follow these steps:

Log on to SAS Model Manager as a member of the Model Manager Administrator Users group.
Select ToolsManage Workflow. Workflow Console is launched in a Web browser and displays the Process Definitions category view.
Select a process definition (for example, MM Workflow Example 2) and click . The New Workflow Instance window appears.

Note: The workflow process definitions that have been provided for the tutorials already have participants assigned.
Enter a name for the instance (for example, MM Tutorial 10 Demo 1).
For this tutorial, leave the UUID field blank. You can also copy the UUID system property value for a project or version from the Properties view in the SAS Model Manager main window.

Note: The field label and other characters that precede the UUID value must be removed.
Enter a description for the instance (for example, Instance for tutorial 10).
Click OK. A message appears, indicating that the instance has been successfully created.
Click Close. The new workflow instance is now available in the Instances category view.
Repeat steps 2 through 7 to create at least one additional instance and then continue to the next step.
To view the new instances, click . The Instances category view appears. Select the instance to view information that is associated with the new instance.

Modify a Workflow Instance

About Modifying Workflow Instances

In this exercise, you modify the properties associated with an instance, add comments to an instance and assign participants to activities.

Modify Instance Properties

To modify the properties associated with an instance, follow these steps:

From the Instances category view, select an instance that you created in the previous exercise.
In the Properties pane, click in the cell for each user-defined property and specify a value.

Here is an example:
Click to save the properties.

Add Comments

To add comments to the selected instance, follow these steps:

In the Comments pane, click New Topic. The New Topic window appears.
Enter a title and comment for the new topic.

Note: For information about adding attachments, see Working with Comments in SAS Model Manager: User's Guide.
Click Save. The new topic appears in the comments pane.

Assign Participants

To assign an additional participant to an activity, follow these steps:

Double-click an instance to view the Instance details view, which contains a list of activities that are associated with the workflow instance.
Select the Retrain Models activity and click in the Participants pane. The Assign a Participant window appears.
Select one of the identity types: user, group, or role. The SAS Model Manager user groups that were created by default during installation and configuration, were assigned to each activity when the sample workflow process definition was created.
Enter part of the user, group, or role name. For example, you can enter the user name sasdemo or part of a user name that exists on the SAS Metadata Server. Then click .

Note: If you do not enter part of the name, all of the names for the selected identity type are displayed. In addition, if you manually enter a name value and do not click the search button, the name is not verified against the SAS identity participant list.

Select a name and click OK.
Select a workflow role for the participant.
Here are the workflow roles that you can assign to participants for a workflow activity:
- Business administrator: a participant who can influence the progress of an activity by actions such as adding comments, assigning an activity, or releasing the activity claimed by another user.
- Potential owner: a participant who can claim an activity in a workflow process and who becomes the actual owner of an activity.
Click OK. A message appears, indicating whether the participant was successfully assigned to the activity. For example, the user mmanalyst was assigned the workflow role of potential owner.
Click Close. Here is an example of the properties and participants associated with the Retrain Models activity.

Terminate Workflow Instances

When you terminate a workflow instance, all activities that have not yet been completed in the workflow process are changed to a state of Terminated. After you terminate a workflow process for an instance, the process cannot be restarted.

To terminate a workflow process, follow these steps:

From the Instances category view, select one of the additional instances that you created in the exercise Create Workflow Instances, and click .

Note: In order to continue with this tutorial, you need to keep at least one workflow instance active.
Click Yes to terminate the workflow process for the selected instance.
Click Close to return to the Instances category view.

Filter List Content

You can filter the list in a category view to display only particular process definitions, instances, or activities. For example, suppose you want to see only instances in the Instances category view that are in the state of Started.

To filter the content that appears in the list, follow these steps:

On the filter bar, specify the filter criteria of Started in the Enter filter text area. Here is an example of the list with the filter applied.
To save the filter, click . The Save Filter window appears.
In the Save Filter window, specify a name for the filter and an optional description. Click OK.

Note: The filter name can be modified in the Manage Filters window. The rule and description cannot be modified for an existing filter. If you want to change the rule or description, you must create a filter that has the same name to replace the existing filter. For more information, see Filtering List Content in SAS Model Manager: User's Guide.