Dialog Controls

Text Editor

The most common example of a text editor Dialog Control is the Notes editor that is common to all SAS distributed nodes. The notes editor simply provides a text file in which the user might enter notes related to a particular node in a particular process flow diagram. This capability was extended to extension nodes in SAS Enterprise Miner 6.1. The XML Property configuration for a Property with a text editor Dialog Control is as follows:

<Property name="Code" displayName="Text Editor"
	description="Example of a text editor which enables
      you to enter and modify text in an external file."
   type="String">

   <Control>
	   <Dialog
          showValue="N"
          allowTyping="N"
          class="com.sas.analytics.eminer.visuals.
          CodeNodeScoreCodeEditor">
          <Option name="key" value="CODE"/>
      </Dialog>
   </Control>
</Property>

First, notice the class attribute of the Dialog element. You must copy that value verbatim. Second, notice the Option element. The Option element has two attributes: name and value. The name attribute has a value of "key" and the value attribute has a value of "CODE". This is simply a different syntax for declaring that this Dialog Control has a key="CODE". The explanation for why the syntax for this type of control is different from all the other controls that have a key attribute is beyond the scope of this discussion.

To register the key for this Dialog Control you use the following syntax in your server code:

%em_register(key=CODE, type=FILE, extension=sas, property=Y);

Registering the key this way informs SAS Enterprise Miner that the text that the user enters into the editor is to be stored in a file named CODE.sas. When property="Y", the contents of the editor are copied along if you use a cut-and-paste action to make a copy of the node. When property="N", the contents of the editor are not preserved if you use a cut-and-paste action to make a copy of the node. No other server code is required for this type of Dialog Control.

When the user clicks on the ellipses icon

icon next to the text editor property, the following window appears:

The user can then enter any text that they want in the editor. When the user clicks OK, the file is saved under the name CODE.sas in the extension node's directory for that particular process flow diagram. For example, if the projects directory is c:\emprojects and the project name is "extension nodes", then CODE.sas is created in c:\emprojects\extension nodes\Workspaces\EMWS\EXMPL.

Similarly, you can create a text editor Control element that saves as a .txt file instead of a .sas file. To do so, use the following XML code:

<Property name="Code" displayName="Text Editor"
	description="Example of a text editor which enables
      you to enter and modify text in an external file."
   type="String">

   <Control>
	   <Dialog
          showValue="N"
          allowTyping="N"
          class="com.sas.analytics.eminer.visuals.
          GenericCodeEditorDialog">
          <Option name="key" value="DESC"/>
          <Option name="saveextension" value="txt"/>
          <Option name="colorcode" value="N"/>
      </Dialog>
   </Control>
</Property>

Note: If you do not specify the colorcode option, then color coding is enabled by default.

To register the key for this Dialog Control you use the following syntax in your server code:

%em_register(key=DESC, type=FILE, extension=txt, property=Y);

The registration information given above still pertains to this version of the text editor Control element. However, the file is saved as CODE.txt instead of CODE.sas.

Interactions Editor

When developing statistical models, it is common to include interactions between explanatory variables in your model. For example, if you have the variables A and B, their interaction is written A*B. An interaction editor provides a way for a user to manually construct a collection of interactions that can be used by your extension node.

The XML Property configuration for a Property with an interactions editor Dialog Control is as follows:

<Property
	type="String"
	name="Interaction"
	displayName="Interactions Editor"
	description="Example of an Interaction Editor.">

	<Control>
		<Dialog
			showValue="N"
			allowTyping="N"
			class="com.sas.analytics.eminer.visuals.
			InteractionsEditorDialog" >

			<Option
				name="Key"
				value="INTERACTION"/>
			<Option
				name="MainEffect"
				value="N"/>
			<Option
				name="MaxTerms"
				value="2"/>
			<Option
				name="Open"
				value="openInteractionTable"/>
			<Option
				name="Close"
				value="closeInteractionTable"/>
			<Option
				name="IntervalVariable"
				value="N"/>
		</Dialog>
	</Control>
</Property>

The class attribute of the Dialog element uniquely distinguishes this Dialog Control from the other type of Dialog Control elements and must be copied verbatim. Each of the Option elements has two attributes: name and value. These Option elements and their attributes determine the interactions editor's capabilities.

The first Option element has a name attribute of "key" and the value attribute has a value of "INTERACTION". This is simply a different syntax for declaring that this Dialog Control has a key="INTERACTION". The explanation for why the syntax for this type of control is different from all the other controls that have a key attribute is beyond the scope of this discussion.

In the second Option element, name="MainEffect" and value="N". This indicates that the interactions editor is not to create an interaction that consists of just a main effect. That is, all interactions must include at least two terms. If value="Y", then an interaction can consist of a main effect. That is, an interaction can consist of a single term.

In the third Option element, name="MaxTerms" and value="2". This indicates that the maximum number of terms that can be included in an interaction is 2. The value attribute can have a range between 2 and 6.

The third and fourth Option elements represent an alternative syntax for the Actions elements that appeared in other Control elements. You must have at least one of these Option elements. You can write server code that is associated with the name that you provide in the value attribute of these Option elements, but it is optional. The explanation for why the syntax for this type of control is different from all the other controls that have Actions elements is beyond the scope of this discussion.

In the final Option element, name="IntervalVariable" and value="N". This indicates that interval variables should not be used to populate the list of variables from which the interactions are generated. When value="Y", interval variables can be included in the list.

The server code that is required for this Dialog Control consists of the following:

%em_register(key=INTERACTION, type=DATA);

data &em_user_interaction;
	length key 8 Term $32;
	stop;
run;

The first line of code registers the key that appears in the first Option element in the example XML above. The DATA step programming generates an empty data set that has two variables: a numeric variable named key and a string variable named Term.

Finally, before the interactions editor can be populated with variable names, there must be a data source node preceding your extension node in the process flow diagram. For example, suppose you have the following process flow diagram:

When the user clicks the ellipses icon

icon next to the interactions editor property the following window appears:

When the user constructs interactions, saves them, and clicks OK, SAS Enterprise Miner creates the Emws.Exmpl_interaction data set. For example, suppose the user had selected APRTMNT and GENDER for the first interaction, and NTITLE and TELIND for the second interaction, as depicted above. When the user clicks OK, Emws.Exmpl_interaction appears as follows:

The data set ultimately has a hierarchical structure. The value for Key begins at zero for the first interaction and then increments by one for each additional interaction that is generated by the user.