Configuring SAS Workflow for Use with SAS Model Manager

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 process definitions. The SAS middle tier hosts the workflow engine and the workflow services as part of the SAS Web Infrastructure Platform. The Workflow Console for SAS Model Manager is used to manage the workflow processes that are associated with versions in a modeling project. 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:
  1. 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
  2. If you want to receive notifications for a workflow process, you can configure alert notifications using SAS Management Console. For more information, see Configuring Alert Notifications for SAS Workflow.
  3. Workflow process definitions must be created using SAS Workflow Studio. For more information about creating process definitions, see the SAS Workflow Studio: User's Guide.

Guidelines for Creating Process Definitions

When you create process definitions in SAS Workflow Studio to use with SAS Model Manager, follow these guidelines:
  • Participants, and policies must be added to the activity level. Statuses added at the activity level and the default statuses at the process definition level can be used for an activity status. Data objects can be added at the process definition level or activity level.
  • 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.
  • In order to assign additional participants to activities using the Workflow Console, the user must have or be in a group that is assigned the workflow role of business administrator. Also, in order to create new workflows and assign participants, the user must be in the Model Manager Administrator Users group or in a group that is associated with the Model Manager Administrator Users group in SAS Management Console.
    The Create a workflow instance capability must be enabled for the usage role that is associated with a user or group in order for them to be able to create workflows. By default this capability is enabled for the Model Manager: Administration Usage role that is associated with the Model Manager Administrator Users group. You can access the capability from the Capabilities tab in the Role Properties window. In the assigned capabilities tree, expand Model Manager JavaSvcs 12.1then selectWorkflow Service.
    The following SAS Model Manager groups are created at installation time:
    • Model Manager Administrator Users Group (mdlmgradminusers)
    • Model Manager Advanced Users Group (mdlmgradvusers)
    For more information, see Configuring Users, Groups, and Roles.
  • Only process definitions that are in the Workflow repository, with the mmapi tag attribute specified in the file properties, are available to SAS Model Manager in the Workflow Console.

How to Associate a Model Management Component with a Workflow Activity

With the release of SAS Model Manager 12.1 you can associate a model management component with an activity as part of creating a workflow process definition.
First you must create a workflow process definition using SAS Workflow Studio. Add the activities, statuses, and data objects that you want to include in your workflow. For more information about creating a workflow process definition, see the SAS Workflow Studio: User's Guide.
To associate a model management component with an activity, follow these steps:
  1. Start SAS Workflow Studio, and then open a workflow process definition.
  2. Expand the Activities node in the process tree.
  3. Expand an activity node, right-click the Data Objects folder, and select the New Data Object menu option.
    New Data Object
  4. Enter MM_TaskToDo for the data object label.
  5. Select Short Text from for the type of data object.
  6. Enter the model management component directory path and XML filename in the Text property. The directory path is ConfigTemplates/nodeTemplates/<XML-filename>. See List of Model Management Components to get the appropriate XML filename.
    New Data Object Populated
  7. Click OK.
  8. Repeat steps 3 through 7 for each activity that you want to associate a model management component.
List of Model Management Components
Model Management Component Name
Description
XML Filename
Add Documents
This component enables you to attach documents to the Documents folder at the project, or version level.
AddDocument.xml
Import Models
This component enables you to import models from the SAS Metadata Repository, a SAS package file (.spk), or a PMML file (.xml) into the version that is associated with the workflow.
ModelRegistration.xml
Publish Models
This component enables you to publish champion and challenger models from the model repository to the SAS Metadata Repository or to a database.
ModelPublish.xml
Set Champion and Challenger
This component enables you to set a project champion model and challenger models.
SetChampionOrChallenger.xml
View Models
This component enables you to view a list of the models. You can also view model information such as properties, model variables, score code, model files, notes, and history. By default, the Model Viewer component is available from both the Import Models and also the Set Champion and Challenger components.
GenericModelViewer.xml
View Model Performance
This component enables you to view the performance of the project champion model through a series of charts. The performance charts are generated using performance tasks in the SAS Model Manager client application.
PerformanceView.xml
View Reports
This component enables you to view reports that were created using the New Report wizard under the associated version in the SAS Model Manager client application.
ReportsView.xml
Utility
This component consists of all of the available model management components.
Utility.xml
Note: The list of the model management components that can be configured to be used with the SAS Model Manager Workflow Console can also be found at http://server-name:port/SASContentServer/repository/default/ModelManager/ConfigTemplates/nodeTemplates/

How to Associate a Milestone with a Workflow Activity

With the release of SAS Model Manager 12.1 you can specify the process type of milestone for process definition and associate a milestone ID with an activity as part of creating a workflow process definition. This enables the workflow and activities that are associated with a version to appear on the Workflow Milestones tab in the version details view, and in the Workflow Milestones Report in SAS Model Manager.
First you must create a workflow process definition using SAS Workflow Studio. Add the activities, statuses, and data objects that you want to include in your workflow. For more information about creating a workflow process definition, see the SAS Workflow Studio: User's Guide.
To specify the process type of milestone for a process definition, you must add a data object for the process type at the process definition level. To add the Process Type data object at the process definition level, follow these steps:
  1. Start SAS Workflow Studio, and then open a workflow process definition.
  2. Right-click the Data Objects folder, and select the New Data Object menu option.
    New Data Object
  3. Enter Process Type for the data object label.
  4. Select Short Text from for the type of data object.
  5. Enter Milestone in the Text property.
    New Data Object Populated
  6. Click OK.
To associate a milestone ID with an activity, follow these steps:
  1. Start SAS Workflow Studio, and then open a workflow process definition.
  2. Expand the Activities node in the process tree.
  3. Expand an activity node, right-click the Data Objects folder, and select the New Data Object menu option.
    New Data Object
  4. Enter MM_MilestoneID for the data object label.
  5. Select Short Text from for the type of data object.
  6. Enter a name for the milestone ID in the Text property. The name can be the same as the activity name.
    New Data Object Populated
  7. Click OK.
  8. Repeat steps 3 through 7 for each activity that you want to associate a milestone ID so that it appears on the Workflow Milestones report.

How to Make Process Definitions Available to SAS Model Manager

After you have created a workflow process definition in the SAS Workflow Studio, you must make the process definition available to SAS Model Manager.
To save the process definition to the Workflow repository, follow these steps:
  1. Save the process definition to your local drive.
  2. Log on to the server.
  3. Add the tag attribute of mmapi to the process definition file properties.
  4. Upload the process definition.
  5. Verify that the process definition appears in the Workflow Definitions category view of SAS Model Manager Workflow Console.
For more information, see “Deploying and Maintaining Processes” in Chapter 5 of SAS Workflow Studio: User's Guide.

Log On to the Server

With SAS Workflow Studio, you are limited to managing locally stored workflow process definitions on your system until you have logged on to the SAS Content Server. After you are connected, you can access additional process definitions that are stored in the SAS Content Server.
To log on to the server, follow these steps:
  1. From the Server menu, select Logon.
  2. 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.
  3. Enter a user ID and password, and click Log On.
  4. Click OK for success message that might appear.

Add Tag Attributes to a Process Definition

Only those process definitions in the Workflow repository that have the mmapi tag attribute specified in the file properties are available to SAS Model Manager in the Workflow Console.
To add a tag attribute to the file properties of a process definition template in SAS Workflow Studio, follow these steps:
  1. Select Filethen select Properties and click Add.
  2. Enter the tag value of mmapi.
    Note: The file properties are case sensitive. This value must be lowercase.
  3. Click OK twice.

Upload a Process Definition

To upload a process, follow these steps:
  1. From the Server menu, select the Save to Repository menu option. The Save to Workflow Repository window appears.
  2. (Optional) Enter relevant comments to associate with the process definition.
  3. Select the Activate option if you want to activate the current version in the Workflow repository.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Click OK for the success messages that might appear.

Verify That the Process Definitions Are Available in the Workflow Console

To verify that the workflow process definitions are available in the Workflow Console, follow these steps:
  1. Enter the URL http://hostname:port/SASModelManagerWorkflow in your Web browser.
  2. Enter the user ID and password for a SAS Model Manager administrator.
  3. Verify that the uploaded process definition appears in the Workflow Definitions category view.

See Also

Using Workflow Console in SAS Model Manager: User's Guide
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