Example

The example in this appendix uses ODS and the TABULATE procedure to display shoe sales data for a selected region. Here's the SAS code:

%global regionname;
      
ods listing close;
ods html body=_webout;

proc tabulate data = sashelp.shoes format = dollar14.;
title "Shoe Sales for &regionname";
   where (product =: 'Men' or product =: 'Women') & region="&regionname";
   table Subsidiary all, 
        (Product='Total Product Sales' all)*Sales=' '*Sum=' ';
   class Subsidiary Product;  
   var Sales;
   keylabel All='Grand Total' 
            Sum=' ';
run;

ods html close;

For the sake of illustration, assume that this SAS code is stored in the location C:\MySASFiles\intrnet\webtab1.sas.

The following HTML is the body for the input component, which is the physical HTML file. For the sake of illustration, assume that this HTML is stored in a file named webtab1.html.

<H1>Regional Shoe Sales</H1>
<p>Select a region in order to display shoe sales data for that 
region by subsidiary and style.  This sample program uses ODS and 
the TABULATE procedure.</p>

<HR>

<FORM ACTION="/sasweb/cgi-bin/broker.exe">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="_SERVICE" VALUE="default">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="_PROGRAM" VALUE="intrnet.webtab1.sas">

<b>Select a region:</b>  <SELECT NAME="regionname">
<OPTION VALUE="Africa">Africa
<OPTION VALUE="Asia">Asia
<OPTION VALUE="Central America/Caribbean">Central America/Caribbean
<OPTION VALUE="Eastern Europe">Eastern Europe
<OPTION VALUE="Middle East">Middle East
<OPTION VALUE="Pacific">Pacific
<OPTION VALUE="South America">South America
<OPTION VALUE="United States">United States
<OPTION VALUE="Western Europe">Western Europe
</SELECT>

<HR>
<INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Execute">
<INPUT TYPE="CHECKBOX" NAME="_DEBUG" VALUE="131">Show SAS Log

</FORM>

The input component looks like the one shown in the following display.

You can select a region from the list and click Execute to display a table of sales data for that region. When you click Execute, Application Dispatcher executes the program and sends the results back to the Web browser. The results look like the program output shown in the following display.

The HTML form created the following URL for the results page, based on the default selections in the input form:

http://myserver/sasweb/cgi-bin/broker.exe?
_SERVICE=default&_PROGRAM=intrnet.webtab1.sas&regionname=Africa

The URL is typically built for you by the Web browser which uses fields in an HTML form. The HTML page uses the following FORM tag to submit the program to the Application Broker:

<FORM ACTION="/sasweb/cgi-bin/broker.exe">

The following hidden fields are used to create name/value pairs to complete the required syntax:

<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="_SERVICE" VALUE="default">
<INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="_PROGRAM" VALUE="intrnet.webtab1.sas">

Notice that the value for _PROGRAM is set to intrnet.webtab1.sas. This first level indicates that the program is stored in a directory identified by the intrnet fileref. The next two levels (webtab1.sas) provide the name of the program that is executed.

To preserve the functionality of the original SAS/IntrNet example, copy the SAS program to a new location before modifying it. Copy the webtab1.sas program from C:\MySASFiles\intrnet to a location on the stored process server, such as C:\MySASFiles\storedprocesses.

To register a new stored process, complete the following steps:

To preserve the functionality of the original SAS/IntrNet example, copy the HTML file to a new location before modifying it.

You should also convert any HTML pages that link to your stored process to use the SASStoredProcess URL syntax. For example, you might use the following URL to link to the Hello World sample program using the Application Broker:

http://myserver/cgi-bin/broker?
_service=default&_program=sample.webhello.sas

The URL specifies your Application Server, an absolute path to the Application Broker, and the query string (followed by the question mark character). The query string contains the name/value pair data that is input to the application. Each name is separated from the following value by an equal sign (=). Multiple name/value pairs are separated by an ampersand (&). The Web page that executes an Application Dispatcher program must pass the _SERVICE and _PROGRAM variables. In this example, the _SERVICE=DEFAULT pair specifies the service that handles this request, and the _PROGRAM=SAMPLE.WEBHELLO.SAS pair specifies the library, name, and type of request program to be executed.

For the SAS Stored Process Web Application, the URL in the preceding example would need to be changed. You might use the following URL if you want to run the program from the SAS Stored Process Web Application:

http://myserver:8080/SASStoredProcess/do?
_program=/Samples/Stored+Processes/Sample:+Hello+World

The URL specifies your stored process server, an absolute path to the SAS Stored Process Web Application (instead of the Application Broker), and the query string. Notice that /cgi-bin/broker? has been replaced with the stored process Web application equivalent: /SASStoredProcess/do?. The _SERVICE name/value pair is not used with stored processes, and _PROGRAM is the reserved input parameter that specifies the metadata location and the name of the stored process to be executed.

There are special rules for the formatting of name/value pairs in a URL. Special characters (most punctuation characters, including spaces) in a value must be URL-encoded. Spaces can be encoded as a plus sign (+) or %20. Other characters are encoded using the %nn convention, wherenn is the hexadecimal representation of the character in the ASCII character set. In the previous example, the value /Samples/Stored+Processes/Sample:+Hello+World actually identifies the stored process named Sample: Hello World. The space in the name is encoded as a plus sign (+). If your parameter values contain special characters, then they should be URL-encoded.

Parameter definitions are not required if you are converting a SAS/IntrNet program to a stored process. If macro variables in the program are used to substitute parameter values in the program, you can define the macro variables as parameters to the stored process. If you define the value as a parameter, it means that other clients can use the metadata to create a dialog box that prompts for the parameter, or you can use the dynamic prompt page that is built by the SAS Stored Process Web application. If you do not define the parameter, it means that the program must use defaults in the code if you want to execute the stored process in other clients. If you intend to use the stored process in other clients, then you should define parameters in the metadata.

In webtab1.html and webtab1.sas, the REGIONNAME macro variable is substituted into the PROC TABULATE code. Because the HTML form uses a drop-down list, you can count on a valid value always being passed to the program from that Web page. If you want to make sure this stored process runs correctly in other clients (or if you want to use the dynamic prompt page that was built by the SAS Stored Process Web Application), then you need to define a parameter that returns a macro variable named REGIONNAME with a valid list of regions.

To add the REGIONNAME parameter, complete the following steps:

To view the parameter that you added to the stored process metadata definition, execute the stored process using the SAS Stored Process Web Application dialog box instead of the custom input form. The dialog box uses the parameter that you defined in the New Stored Process wizard when you registered the stored process metadata. To access the dialog box for this stored process, type the following URL in a Web browser:

http://myserver:8080/SASStoredProcess/do?
_PROGRAM=/Converted Samples/Regional Shoe Sales&_action=properties

Select the default region (Africa) and click Execute. You see the same results (the table of shoe sales for Africa that was shown in Step 5: Execute the Stored Process Using the New JSP Page) displayed in a separate Web browser window.