Copyright © 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. Filling the Gap: Extending the SAS BI Server with Custom Tasks Chris Hemedinger, SAS Institute.

Copyright © 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Filling the Gap: Extending

the SAS BI Server with Custom Tasks Chris Hemedinger, SAS InstituteAlex Dmitrienko, Ph.D. , Eli Lilly and Company

Copyright © 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. 2


Agenda

Custom tasks defined

Case Study Example: Custom Tasks at Eli Lilly

How to create an Add-In Task


What is a Custom Task?

A user-friendly interface for your existing SAS processes

A connection between SAS and non-SAS resources

An extension to provide access to a SAS feature not shipped with Enterprise Guide


Enterprise Guide(or SAS Add-in for Microsoft Office)

Built-in tasks (supplied by SAS)

Custom tasks (supplied by you)


User-written custom task

Multiple-column tabular summary

Summary of clinical trial data• Common to summarize patient demographic data

Small clinical trial• Two doses of an experimental drug versus placebo

• Create a tabular summary of selected demographic variables in a dose group versus placebo

• Carry out standard statistical tests to compare the variables between the treatment groups


Summary of patient demographicsVariable Dose (mg/day) Comparison

Variable name

Statistic/ Value

Placebo N=63

50 mg/day N=62 P-value

Age (years)

n 60 60 .168

Mean 55.1 57.8

SD 11.1 10.2

Gender F 45 (71.4%) 47 (75.8%) .686

M 18 (28.6%) 15 (24.2%)



A wizard-type custom task that goes through a series of screens• Define row variables (age, gender)

• Define column variable (treatment group)

• Select descriptive statistics for numeric variables (counts and percentages are automatically computed for character variables)

• Specify statistical tests for comparing the variables across the treatment groups



Demonstration


Custom tasks: Summary

User-written custom tasks are a lot more “intelligent” and user-friendly than user-written SAS macros • the more complex the macro the longer it takes for the

user to understand all of its options

Custom tasks can virtually eliminate the learning curve• walk the user through the process of performing a

complex analysis or setting up a complex report


Custom tasks: Summary

Custom tasks can greatly increase the productivity of SAS users • Custom tasks can accelerate the design and analysis of

pharmaceutical studies


Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX)

Sponsored by Business Intelligence SAS Users Group (BISUG)

Searchable web-based library of Enterprise Guide and Add-in for Microsoft Office custom tasks• Custom tasks specific to various industries (financial,

insurance, pharmaceutical)

• Submitted by SAS Enterprise Guide and Add-in for Microsoft Office developers and users

www.bisug.org/bix


What do I need to create a custom task?

A vision

Microsoft .NET Framework SDK (or Visual Studio .NET)

SAS.EG.Addins interfaces and documentation


Components of a Custom Task

Must implement 3 interfaces from our API• VS.NET 2003 will automatically generate these for you

• Add-in templates available from http://support.sas.com/eguide

Design a UI

Add any necessary business logic


Example: SAS Products Checker

Problem: Enterprise Guide allows you to connect to multiple SAS servers, which might have different product configurations

Solution: A simple add-in that reports on the installed and licensed products for a given server.


SAS Products example: the SAS program


SAS Products example: the UI


Demo: Creating a Custom Task

Create a new “add-in” project in Visual Studio .NET

Create user interface for your task

Inject logic to create SAS code based on selected options

Add logic to save/restore task state

Build/Deploy/Test/Debug


Supporting Information

Samples and supporting documentation can be found at:• http://support.sas.com/eguide

BI SAS User’s Group• http://www.bisug.org

Copyright © 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. 20Copyright © 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. 20

Copyright © 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. Filling the Gap: Extending the SAS BI Server with Custom Tasks Chris Hemedinger, SAS Institute.

Documents

sas custom tasks

existing sas

sas feature

summary custom tasks

sas enterprise guide

agenda custom tasks

options custom tasks

sas institute alex dmitrienko