Creating Dynamic HTML pages with PC SAS

1
Creating Dynamic HTML pages with PC SAS

• as a prelude to SAS IntrNet or Integration
  Technologies

Qiang Hou Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Wellesley
MA qiang_hou_at_hphc.org
2
Introduction

• This presentation will
• Introduce a simple technique to create dynamic
  SAS-based web applications, employing PC SAS
  and open-source software, as an alternative to
  the SAS IntrNet and Integration Technologies
• Use a Hello world-like example to demonstrate
  the technique, with complete sample code

Note In the following slides SAS,
SAS/IntrNet, SAS/IT, SAS/BI are registered
trademarks of SAS Institute Inc.
3
Steps

• Why web report
• Why dynamic web report
• What can/cannot be achieved using PC SAS for web
  reporting
• A hello world example
• Toolkit set up
• Sample code

4
1. Why web reports?

• Compared to a traditional paper report, a web
  report is
• more environmentally friendly
• easier to update, even without reader awareness
• easier to deliver
• easier to automate
• quick for cross references and drill-down

5
1. Why web report? continued

• A screen-shot of a real web report with 5000
  pages and mouse hover-over, drill-down
  capability. It was created by PC SAS.

6
2. Why dynamic web report?

• Static web report
• Advantages
• Displays quickly
• Report creator has chance to proofread every
  page
• Limits
• The possible user selections have to be finite
• The underlying data has to be relatively stable

• Dynamic web report
• Advantages
• Allows continuous parameters in user requests
• Report based on real-time data
• Limits
• Longer waiting time for user to see the report if
  huge amounts of data or super complex analysis is
  involved
• Some software and development overhead

7
3. What PC SAS can/cannot do for web report

• PC SAS is strong enough to build static web
  applications
• Handy to build reports in multiple formats
  html, pdf, rtf, etc
• Minimum requirement on programming skills
• Rich of features
• Hover-over mouse tip text
• Clickable graph area (drill-down)
• 3-D graphs with Java and ActiveX
• Build-in functions for frame and content page
  creating.
• CCS style sheet support
• More

• PC SAS is not designed to serve remote requests
• SASs solutions to make the html report dynamic
• SAS/IntrNet ()
• SAS/IT ()
• SAS/BI (?)

If you dont have these products but still
want to make your web report real-time dynamic or
do a prototype stage design, the technique we are
introducing may help.
8
4. A hello world example
We use a simple concrete example to illustrate
the technique
1. A remote or local user launches a web browser
and inputs two parameters --- a stock ticker and
a date
2. The stocks daily closing price history is
displayed

9
5. Toolkit set up

• The toolkit contains three components
• PC SAS
• Apache (open source web server, 0)
• PhP (a messenger between PC SAS and Web server,
  0)

Apache
User request
SAS
PhP
Generated report

• User submits input
• PhP receives the request and then
• processes the input and generates a SAS calling
  program
• lunches SAS with the calling program
• 3. SAS calling program calls stored macro
  functions to produce report
• 4. PhP displays the report back to users
  browser

10
5. Toolkit set up continued

• Install Apache and PhP
• Prepare three folders
• C\WebApps\Svr (for Apache/PhP installation tree)
  
• C\WebApps\SasPrg (for stored SAS programs and
  data)
• C\WebApps\Temp (for temporary SAS programs and
  output)
• Download and install the IndigoAMPP package from
  http//www.indigostar.com/indigoampp.html
• Note IndigoAMPP is a distribution of Apache,
  MySQL, PHP and Perl for Windows.  IndigoAMPP is
  easy to install and to use - just download, and
  run the installer.  Apache will be configured to
  work with MySQL, Perl and PHP. IndigoAMPP is free
• Reboot and start Apache from Start-gtPrograms-gtIndi
  goAMPP

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6. Sample code
Apache
Index.html
PhP
PhP
plotStock.sas
User request
stock_test.php
SAS
Generated report

• 6.A Stored SAS program (C\WebApps\SasPrg\plotStoc
  k.sas )
• 6.B PhP script (C\WebApps\Svr \stock_test.php)
• 6.C User input form (C\WebApps\Svr\index.html)

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6.A Prepare SAS program plotStock.sas

• Prepare stored SAS program
• Write main SAS programs in macro functions. These
  macro functions will be called with simple input
  arguments to generate expected html pages
• In our example the file plotStock.sas contains a
  function plotStock(). It can be called by a
  simple calling program
• include "C\webApps\SasPrg\plotStock.sas"
• plotStock(stockYHOO, start01/12/08 )
• Test the stored SAS program locally
• Save above two lines in getstock.sas and it from
  command-line
• C\Program Files\SAS\SAS 9.1\sas.exe
  -log saslog.txt -print sasout.txt
• -sysin C\WebApps\Temp\getstock.sas

13
6.B Create PhP script interfacing Apache, SAS and
web browser

• PhP script stock_test.php will
• Accept the user request, and create a short SAS
  calling program getstock.sas that ends with a
  call to a SAS macro, with parameter values based
  on the users inputs
• Launch SAS in batch mode from command-line to run
  the stub program and create html pages
• Return the result (URL) to user
• The sample code (25 short lines) appears as the
  second page in the appendix

14
6.C Create user input form (index.html)

• A simple HTML form
• With user input/selection fields
• Specifies the PhP script being used to process
  the user request
• A submit button
• The sample code (15 short lines) appears as the
  first page in the appendix

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6.D Watch it in action

• Launch browser from http//svrHostname/index.html
• Input a stock ticker and a start date
• Wait to see the plotted daily closing price

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Notes

• To simplify the demonstration we have skipped
• Concurrent user session management
• Disk space cleanup
• Security issue handling
• Although we have tested the setup and program
  code presented here, this technique is new and is
  not present in SAS publications. Therefore, you
  should proceed with caution. The author is not
  responsible for any damage that may result from
  using the technique presented here
• Once the dynamic web application has been
  designed, tested, and approved, SAS IntrNet and
  Integration Technologies can then be evaluated
  for development of a production application

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Acknowledgement

• I would like to acknowledge my colleagues and
  BASUG community for their supports, especially
  thank Bob Virgile for his suggestions and
  comments.
• SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product
  or service names are registered trademarks or
  trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and
  other countries.

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Appendix Index.html

• lthtmlgtltbodygt
• lth4gtType in a stock symbol and start date lt/h4gt
• lthrgt
• ltform action"Stock_test.php" method"post"gt
• lttablegt
• lttrgt
• lttdgtStock symbol lt/tdgt
• lttdgtltinput name"Symbol" type"text" /gt lt/tdgt
• lt/trgt
• lttrgt lttdgtStart date (mm/dd/yy)lt/tdgt
• lttdgtltinput name"Start" type"text" /gt lt/tdgt
• lt/trgt
• lttrgt lttdgt lt/tdgt
• lttdgt ltinput type"submit" /gt lt/tdgt
• lt/trgt
• lt/tablegt
• lt/formgt
• lt/bodygtlt/htmlgt

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Appendix stock_test.php

• lt?php
• stock _POST'Symbol'
• start _POST'Start'
• call "". "price(stock " . stock . ",
  start " . start . " )\n"
• f fopen("C/WebApps/Temp/getstock.sas", "w")
  
• setParas""."include \"C\\WebApps\\SasPrg\\pl
  otStock.sas"\n"
• fwrite(f, setParas)
• fwrite(f, call)
• fclose(f)
• cmd "\"C\\Program Files\\SAS\\SAS
  9.1\\sas.exe\" -log saslog.txt -print sasout.txt
  sysin C\\WebApps\\Temp\\getstock.sas"
• handle popen(cmd, "r")
• ret ""
• do
• data fread(handle, 8192)
• if(strlen(data) 0) break
• ret data
• while(true)
• pclose(handle)
• header("Locationhttp//SrvHostName/Temp/test.ht
  ml")

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Appendix plotStock.sas

• /
  
• Draw stock daily closing price
• /
  
• MACRO drawDailyPrice(inDS, htmlDir, fn,
  stock)
• goptions resetglobal noborder
  gsfmodereplace devicegif transparency
• display ftitle"arial" ftext"arial"
  htitle5pct htext3pct
• ods html path"htmlDir" gpath"htmlDir/gif"
  (url"gif/")
• body"fn..html" styleminimal
• symbol1 interpoljoin valuedot height0.4 cred
  line1 w1.5
• axis1 label(h1.5 "Date") Colorgray WIDTH1
• axis2 Colorgray label(a90 "Closing price")
  minornone width1
• proc gplot data inDS
• plot closedate/ Vaxisaxis2 haxisaxis1
  nolegend noframe
• title h1.8 jr "stock historical closing
  price"
• title2 h1 jr "created on sysdate at
  systime"
• run
• quit
• ods show

• /
  
• Query stock closing price from Yahoo web site
  and plot it
• /
  
• MACRO plotStock(stockYHOO, start, end)
• LET smSYSEVALF(qscan(start, 1, '/')-1)
• LET sdqscan(start, 2, '/')
• LET syqscan(start, 3, '/')
• let and str()
• let url http//ichart.finance.yahoo.com/tab
  le.csv?sstock
• let url url.and.asm.and.bsd.and.c
  sy
• let url url.and.gdand.ignore.csv
• filename yahoo URL "url"
• data t
• infile yahoo dlm','
• retain symbol "stock"
• if _N_ 1 then input
• input date yymmdd10. open high low close
  volume adjClose
• format date mmddyy8. close dollar.
• run