Chapter 10

Using SAS® Information Map Studio

Section 10.1

Overview of the SAS Information Map Studio

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In most businesses, there are many information consumers who need reports from business data, but relatively few IT professionals available to meet their requests.

Overworked IT

A Problem

Information Consumers

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A Solution?One way to reduce this backlog is to empower the end users so that they can create more of their own reports, leaving IT to the business of managing and developing mission critical applications.

Allowing end users access to business data gives them the ability to create reports quickly and make changes as often as needed.

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Understanding the DataUnfortunately, empowering end users is not as easy as just telling them how to get to the data and turning them loose with Excel spreadsheets.

Most people outside of the IT department are not trained to understand and interpret the complex data structures that store business data.

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What Are SAS Information Maps?SAS Information Maps consist of metadata that describe a data warehouse in business terms. This provides the ability to take a ubiquitous data warehouse and surface it to business users in context to the way they work.

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What Are SAS Information Maps?Instead of seeing a multitude of tables and columns…

PRODLEVEL

PRODLEVEL: NUMERIC(3)

PRODTEXT: CHARACTER(40)

PRODUCT

PRODUCTNO: NUMERIC(8)

PRODUCTNAME: CHARACTER(18)SUPPLIERID: NUMERIC(3) (FK)PRODUCTNIV: NUMERIC(3) (FK)PRODUCTREFID: NUMERIC(8) (FK)

ORGLEVEL

ORGLEVEL: NUMERIC(3)

ORGTEXT: CHARACTER(40)

STREETCODE

STREETID: DECIMAL(15)

STREETNAME: CHARACTER(30)STREETCODE: NUMERIC(8)ZIPCODE: NUMERIC(3) (FK)

CUSTOMER

CUSTOMERNO: NUMERIC(8)

SOCIAL_SECURITYNO: CHARACTER(15)NAME: CHARACTER(30)ADDRESS: CHARACTER(30)STREETID: DECIMAL(15) (FK)STREETNO: NUMERIC(3)CUSTTYPE: NUMERIC(3) (FK)

ORDER

ORDERID: NUMERIC(8)

ACCMAN: NUMERIC(3) (FK)CUSTOMERNO: NUMERIC(8) (FK)ORDERDATE: DATEDELIVERDATE: DATE

ITEMS

ORDERID: NUMERIC(8) (FK)ITEMS: NUMERIC(3)

PRODUCTNO: NUMERIC(8) (FK)AMOUNT: NUMERIC(8)PRICE: NUMERIC(8)

ORGANIZATION

ACCMAN: NUMERIC(3)

ORGNAME: CHARACTER(40)ORGLEVEL: NUMERIC(3) (FK)ORGREFID: NUMERIC(3) (FK)

PRICELIST

PRODUCTNO: NUMERIC(8) (FK)STARTDT: DATE

ENDDATE: DATEUNITPRICE: NUMERIC(8)

CUSTTYPE

CUSTTYPE: NUMERIC(3)

CUSTTYPENAME: CHARACTER(18)CUSTGROUP: NUMERIC(3)CUSTGROUPNAME: CHARACTER(40)

SUPPLIER

SUPPLIERID: NUMERIC(3)

SUPPNAME: CHARACTER(30)SUPPADDRESS: CHARACTER(30)SUPPSTREETNO: NUMERIC(3)SUPPZIPCODE: NUMERIC(3)

MUNICIPALITY

ZIPCODE: NUMERIC(3)

MUNICIPALITY: CHARACTER(18) (FK)

COUNTY

MUNICIPALITY: CHARACTER(18)

COUNTY: CHARACTER(18)

Physical Data View

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What Are SAS Information Maps?… the user gets a list of business terms that they can select. These items are surfaced with relevant labels that are customized for the business user.

Information Map

PRODLEVEL

PRODLEVEL: NUMERIC(3)

PRODTEXT: CHARACTER(40)

PRODUCT

PRODUCTNO: NUMERIC(8)

PRODUCTNAME: CHARACTER(18)SUPPLIERID: NUMERIC(3) (FK)PRODUCTNIV: NUMERIC(3) (FK)PRODUCTREFID: NUMERIC(8) (FK)

ORGLEVEL

ORGLEVEL: NUMERIC(3)

ORGTEXT: CHARACTER(40)

STREETCODE

STREETID: DECIMAL(15)

STREETNAME: CHARACTER(30)STREETCODE: NUMERIC(8)ZIPCODE: NUMERIC(3) (FK)

CUSTOMER

CUSTOMERNO: NUMERIC(8)

SOCIAL_SECURITYNO: CHARACTER(15)NAME: CHARACTER(30)ADDRESS: CHARACTER(30)STREETID: DECIMAL(15) (FK)STREETNO: NUMERIC(3)CUSTTYPE: NUMERIC(3) (FK)

ORDER

ORDERID: NUMERIC(8)

ACCMAN: NUMERIC(3) (FK)CUSTOMERNO: NUMERIC(8) (FK)ORDERDATE: DATEDELIVERDATE: DATE

ITEMS

ORDERID: NUMERIC(8) (FK)ITEMS: NUMERIC(3)

PRODUCTNO: NUMERIC(8) (FK)AMOUNT: NUMERIC(8)PRICE: NUMERIC(8)

ORGANIZATION

ACCMAN: NUMERIC(3)

ORGNAME: CHARACTER(40)ORGLEVEL: NUMERIC(3) (FK)ORGREFID: NUMERIC(3) (FK)

PRICELIST

PRODUCTNO: NUMERIC(8) (FK)STARTDT: DATE

ENDDATE: DATEUNITPRICE: NUMERIC(8)

CUSTTYPE

CUSTTYPE: NUMERIC(3)

CUSTTYPENAME: CHARACTER(18)CUSTGROUP: NUMERIC(3)CUSTGROUPNAME: CHARACTER(40)

SUPPLIER

SUPPLIERID: NUMERIC(3)

SUPPNAME: CHARACTER(30)SUPPADDRESS: CHARACTER(30)SUPPSTREETNO: NUMERIC(3)SUPPZIPCODE: NUMERIC(3)

MUNICIPALITY

ZIPCODE: NUMERIC(3)

MUNICIPALITY: CHARACTER(18) (FK)

COUNTY

MUNICIPALITY: CHARACTER(18)

COUNTY: CHARACTER(18)

...

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What Are SAS Information Maps?An information map contains metadata about the physical tables used in the information map how the tables relate to each other how to surface data items to end users business rules.

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Who Uses Information Maps?Information maps are used by business users when they are asking questions of the data.

Because the warehouse is surfaced in terms they understand, business users can be more self-sufficient with ad hoc questions and reports.

Reporting applications such as SAS Web Report Studio, which is targeted at business users, surface information maps as data sources for queries and reports.

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SAS Information Map StudioSAS Information Map Studio provides the bridge between your data warehouse and the end user who builds reports from the data.

SAS Web Report Studio

Ad-hoc Reporting

Report Viewing

Reporting

SAS ETL StudioSAS Information

Map Studio

BusinessMetadata

Physical Data Warehouse

SAS Metadata Server

Buildswarehouse metadata

Readswarehouse metadata

BuildsInformation Maps Reads

Information Maps

Builds and reads report metadata

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SAS Information Map StudioSAS Information Map Studio is a Java application used to create, edit, and manage SAS Information Maps.

The application runs on several Windows operating systems: Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows XP.

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Where Are Information Maps Used?End users can access information maps through SAS Web Report Studio (create reports) SAS Information Delivery Portal (view only) SAS Solutions (SAS Marketing Automation) custom applications developed through

SAS AppDev Studio.

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Who Will Build Information Maps?SAS Information Map Studio is targeted at data modelers or data architects who have experience in data modeling are familiar with SQL, MDX, or both know the physical data have a strong understanding of the business domain.

Most report writers are consumers of information maps for building reports. Typically, these users do not create information maps.

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Information Maps versus Database Views

Information maps describe what can be done. Information maps hide the physical structure of the

data from the business user. Query code is generated in the background, so the business user does not need to know SQL.

Information maps are much more powerful than database views. In addition to surfacing physical database variables, they capture metadata about allowable usage and query generation rules.

continued...

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Information Maps versus Database Views Information maps support the ability to group data

items logically into folders, providing a simpler way of locating items.

Information maps contain business rules such as filters and calculated items. These rules are surfaced whenever the information map is accessed, providing consistent and accurate results.

continued...

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Information Maps versus Database Views Information maps can be extended by SAS Stored

Processes, integrating the power of SAS transformations and analytics with business reporting.

Information maps interact with the common OMR security scheme, allowing for centralized security management through SAS applications.

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Interaction with SAS Application ServersInformation maps can use different types of application servers:

SAS Metadata SAS Metadata ServerServer

Required to read and write metadata Required to read and write metadata in a SAS metadata repository.in a SAS metadata repository.

SAS Workspace SAS Workspace ServerServer

Required to execute SAS code and Required to execute SAS code and access data.access data.

SAS OLAP SAS OLAP ServerServer

Required to generate information Required to generate information maps from OLAP cubes.maps from OLAP cubes.

...

Section 10.2

Using the Information Map Studio

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SAS Information Map Studio InterfaceThe main window of SAS Information Map Studio is used to view, create, and modify information maps and contains the following elements: Menu Bar Toolbar Repository Tree Presentation Tab Properties Tab Relationships Tab.

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Menus and Tools

...

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Repository Tree

...

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PresentationTab

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PropertiesTab

...

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RelationshipsTab

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Joining TablesWhen joining tables, the default relationship is an inner join, which returns only matching rows.

Outer joins can also be used to return non-matching rows. The modifiers left, full, and right determine which table contributes the non-matching rows.

Left Full Right

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Information Map Data ItemsAn information map is made up of data items. Each data item has metadata to specify its properties, such as data item name description classification aggregation format permissions value

generation method.

...

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Information Maps – FiltersA filter is an information map item that contains criteria to enable the information map consumer to subset a result set.

Having filters stored in an information map can be useful when the filter is complex and difficult for an end user to build without advance knowledge of data values.

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Information Maps – New Data ItemsInformation map data items can refer to a physical data field or a calculation.

When you create a new data item, the underlying data sources are not changed. You are creating a field that is created dynamically every time the information map is accessed. You are not physically saving the result in the data. It is only a metadata instruction on how to build the field.

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This demonstration shows how to build an information map.

Using the SAS Information Map Studio

Register Source Tables

DefineData Libraries

CreateETL Jobs

DefineTarget Tables

CreateOLAP Cubes

View and AnalyzeData

CreateStored Processes

Create Reports

CreateInformation Maps

Use the InformationDelivery Portal

Metadata

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Create an information map named Employee Listing from the Organization_Dim table.

Exercise

Register Source Tables

DefineData Libraries

CreateETL Jobs

DefineTarget Tables

CreateOLAP Cubes

View and AnalyzeData

CreateStored Processes

Create Reports

CreateInformation Maps

Use the InformationDelivery Portal

Metadata

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Modify the Employee Listing information map by adding filters, new data items and Folders.

Exercise

Register Source Tables

DefineData Libraries

CreateETL Jobs

DefineTarget Tables

CreateOLAP Cubes

View and AnalyzeData

CreateStored Processes

Create Reports

CreateInformation Maps

Use the InformationDelivery Portal

Metadata

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Modify the Employee Listing map by joining it with the Order_Fact table.

Exercise

Register Source Tables

DefineData Libraries

CreateETL Jobs

DefineTarget Tables

CreateOLAP Cubes

View and AnalyzeData

CreateStored Processes

Create Reports

CreateInformation Maps

Use the InformationDelivery Portal

Metadata