Managing the Workflow Process :: SAS(R) Model Manager 12.1: Tutorials

Overview

SAS Model Manager Workflow Console can be used to manage workflow processes. A SAS Model Manager administrator can create new workflows, view workflow process definitions, and interact with activities that are associated with a workflow. 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 a workflow, work with participants, customize category views, and terminate workflow processes.

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.

Manage Workflows

To manage workflows, 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 Workflow Definitions category view.
Select a workflow definition (for example, MM Workflow Example 2) and click . The New Workflow window appears.

Note: The workflow process definitions that have been provided for the tutorials already have participants assigned.
Enter a name for the workflow (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 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 workflow (for example, Workflow for tutorial 10).
Click OK. A message appears, indicating that the workflow has been successfully created.

Note: If you left the UUID field blank, you receive a warning message. Click Yes, to continue.

New Workflow – No UUID Specified

New Workflow Success message
Click Close. The new workflow is now available in the Workflows category view.
Repeat steps 3 through 8 to create additional workflows and then continue to the next step.
To view the new workflows, click . The Workflows category view appears. Select the workflow to view information that is associated with the new workflow.

Modify a Workflow

About Modifying Workflows

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

Modify Workflow Properties

To modify the properties that are associated with a workflow, follow these steps:

From the Workflows category view, select a workflow that you created in the previous exercise.
In the Properties pane, click in the cell for a property and specify or modify a value.

Here is an example:
Click to save the properties.

Note: You can click to discard the changes and revert back to the previous value.

Add Comments

To add comments to the selected workflow, 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 a workflow to view the Workflow details view, which contains a list of activities that are associated with the workflow.
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 verified against the SAS identity participant list when you click OK.

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 sasdemo was assigned the workflow role of potential owner.
Click Close. Here is an example of the properties and participants that are associated with the Retrain Models activity.

Terminate a Workflow Process

When you terminate a workflow process, 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, it cannot be restarted.

To terminate a workflow process, follow these steps:

From the Workflows category view, select one of the workflows that you created in the exercise Manage Workflows, and click .

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

Search List Content

You can search the list in a category view to display only particular workflow definitions, workflows, or activities. For example, suppose you want to see only workflows in the Workflows category view that contain the text Demo.

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

On the search bar, specify the search criteria of Demo in the Search box. Here is an example of the list with the search criteria applied.
To save the search, click Save Search. The Save Search window appears.
In the Save Search window, specify a name for the search and an optional description. Click OK.

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