Filling the Gap: Extending
the SAS BI Server with
Custom Tasks
Chris Hemedinger, SAS Institute
Alex Dmitrienko, Ph.D. , Eli Lilly and Company
Copyright © 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.
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Agenda
 Custom tasks defined
 Case Study Example: Custom Tasks at Eli Lilly
 How to create an Add-In Task
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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
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Enterprise Guide
(or SAS Add-in for Microsoft Office)
Built-in tasks
(supplied by SAS)
Custom tasks
(supplied by you)
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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
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Summary of patient demographics
Variable
Variable
name
Age
(years)
Gender
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Statistic/
Value
Dose (mg/day)
Comparison
Placebo
N=63
50 mg/day
N=62
P-value
60
60
.168
Mean
55.1
57.8
SD
11.1
10.2
n
F
45 (71.4%) 47 (75.8%)
M
18 (28.6%) 15 (24.2%)
.686
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Multiple-column tabular summary
 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
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Multiple-column tabular summary
 Demonstration
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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
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Custom tasks: Summary
 Custom tasks can greatly increase the
productivity of SAS users
• Custom tasks can accelerate the design and analysis of
pharmaceutical studies
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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SAS Products example: the SAS program
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SAS Products example: the UI
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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
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Supporting Information
 Samples and supporting documentation can be
found at:
• http://support.sas.com/eguide
 BI SAS User’s Group
• http://www.bisug.org
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