ThinProway A Java client to a SAS application. A successful story. Exactly what you need?

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1 ThinProway A Java client to a SAS application. A successful story. Exactly what you need? Author: Riccardo Proni TXT Ingegneria Informatica Abstract ThinProway is a software solution dedicated to the manufacturing industry. The engineer needs a simple and single console to access and analyze process and quality data, hiding as much as possible all not interesting details like the data format and location. The application environment includes many huge and heterogeneous data sources (GBdbases; 100-GB file repositories). TXT Ingegneria Informatica has a long and deep experience in the field: we have developed a SAS application (FMOS Proway) composed of a powerful data warehouseoriented kernel with a single and efficient user interface. A continuous successful story since 1992 in one of the main microelectronics companies. ThinProway is a thin-client evolution based on Java and SAS/IntrNet. It takes advantage of the web technology benefits like: run the same application from many platforms through a standard browser; easy, friendly and well-known remote access; information is shared as default ; the maintenance activity is mainly dedicated to a small number of centralized servers. The Paper covers the related technical and business issues. A good opportunity to share a successful experience of web-enabling an existing and complex system based on SAS. The existing application: FMOS Proway General Overview FMOS Proway is a system dedicated to the analysis of data collected in complex production process. It s currently used by one of the main microelectronics company. The related production process is characterized by a huge number of phases including some functional and quality test steps. A large amount of data is collected having the following peculiarity: history data: to track all production phases in terms of dates and, equipment and some parameter values like temperature, resistance, test data: are collected at different test phases with a different cardinality: related to the single chip or to a whole lot;

2 data are stored in different formats: database with different data structure on different DBMS systems or files in binary or text format; data are stored in different plants spread all around the world. The data analysis activity is very important because it s the only way to verify and grant a given quality level on the final product. FMOS Proway is a company wide engineering data analysis system, where company wide is intended both in geographical and technological meaning: the system can access all company technical data, no matter where and how they are collected and stored. On the top of this flat platform standard or customer specific data analysis procedures run accessing the data sources in a totally transparent way. The whole system is build around a set of TXT Ingegneria Informatica proprietary modules (the Kernel) completely developed using the SAS Institute software, and a series of services provided by the company on the basis of its specific know-how. The main advantages of this approach are: single base platform to access and analyze the whole production process; it s a way to improve the production process quality towards zero defect through a better and complete knowledge of it; data analysis and report sharing between different work groups, functions and departments; system open toward customer needs and existing data systems; the Intranet is inside the system hidden to the final user as much as possible. How it works The general data analysis process is sketched in Figure 1. It is composed of the following three main steps. Data Selection: the user have first to select the data he wants to analyze. This step is done creating a selection criterion composed of many logical conditions connected by an AND operator. There are many type of conditions supported from the simplest one (a database field equals a given value) to more complex on many fields connected by different type of logical operators on many databases. The criterion composition activity is performed using a easy to use interactive tool that is able to propose to the user at each step the list of values that satisfy the conditions already specified. The values displayed are directly retrieved from the databases dynamically creating and executing SQL queries. This approach has many advantages like: a unique and clear access to all data; the data selection window is a real data navigation tool that is by it-self a data analysis feature, the user can use any available information to select data. Data Extraction: the system extracts the data needed by the required analysis and on the basis of the current selection criterion. Data are extracted from databases or files and stored into SAS datasets. This step is automatically performed by the system in a totally transparent way. As a consequence the user does not need to know any detail about the analyzed data like where and how they are stored.

3 Application: the user can select and execute on of the available data analysis function. A single function can produce an output starting from the data extracted by the previous step. Each application has many execution options that affect how the data are grouped and displayed. There are currently more than 100 applications supported. All applications are executed from the same window and can run in one of the following mode: interactive, batch, at time and periodically (weekly, monthly, ). This approach has several advantages: once the user learn to use the application manager window he can run any type of application on all data types, applications are not dedicated to specific data (like critical parameter) but they can be used on different data on the basis of the data selection performed. The ThinProway project The web technology has a natural and very useful application in a so complex and distributed environment. The possibility to access the existing system via a standard Internet Browser has many advantages like: availability on all platform that supports a standard browser; easy, friendly and well-known user interface; information and data analysis results will be shared as default ; built-in remote access capability; no need to install and support dedicated software on the clients (except the browser) like SAS Institute software, loading procedures, ; the maintenance activity is mainly dedicated to a small number of centralized servers. All this factor have started the ThinProway project. The basic idea is to create a simple and easy to use interface to the existing system available through the web in order to gain all described advantages. It was decided to start with a first version that implements a subset of the functions supported by the full-sas version and to include the remaining functions in following releases. This approach has many advantages like: gain know-how on the new technology and test it with a not too complex application; give to the users something to test as soon as possible; collect user feed-back in a short time; On the other and it was quite simple to identify a meaningful subset of functions because there it was already emerged the need of a light version of the existing software to be used by occasional user or to perform some simple standardized analysis. Project Definition The following project requirements have been defined: the client application must be directly available through a standard web browser an should implement a meaningful subset of the function supported by the current system; all data analysis results must be directly published and shared on the web;

4 the client will be dedicated to INTRAnet use; as a consequence there is no need of advanced security procedures; the existing code must be re-used as much as possible; only the SAS modules already needed by the current application plus at least SAS/Intrnet TM (for cost reduction) must be used; create an application easy to maintain and to evolve. Basic Architecture The solution identified to satisfy all these requirements is displayed in Figure 2. There are 4 main entity: the client running in a web browser, a web server, a FMOS Proway / SAS server, many database servers. The client running in the Internet Browser is a Java applet (a Java program) that access a FMOS Proway server. The Java applet is downloaded from a web server that act as a gateway between the Java Client and the FMOS Proway server. The client is a real thin-client (from this the name ThinProway ) because it implements only the user interface; all computing and data extraction activities will be performed by the FMOS Proway server. All access to database servers are executed only by the FMOS Proway server. This approach grants the maximum re-use of code already developed for FMOS Proway. On the other hand Java is a real modern object-oriented programming language that allow to easy maintain and evolve the product. The Proway server runs a modified version of the existing code that includes the interface to the Java Client. The following SAS modules are used: SAS base SAS/STAT SAS/GRAPH SAS/AF SAS/INSIGHT SAS/QC SAS/ACCESS for each database to interface (Ingres, Oracle) SAS/CONNECT SAS/IntrNet TM WEB Publishing Tools It has to be noticed that the SAS/SHARE module is not included in the list. This constrain, introduced because of budget problems, has influenced many implementation decisions and strategies. Project Result The ThinProway client is a single Java Applet that have three main areas:

5 data source selection: used to select the type of database and the database the user want to analyze; data selection: used to perform the data selection on the specified database; report management: used to execute a report on selected data. Before accessing the system the user is asked to identify himself using a user name and a password (see Figure 3). Data source selection FMOS Proway and ThinProway, access the data sources using a meta-data concept. All data sources types are classified in hierarchical way: datatype: it s a main classification category that define if the data source is related to a process (history) data or to a given test phase data; dbfamily: a set of database very similar but of different version; usually the databases follow their own evolution through new releases including some small differences dbmodel: the exact database model (i.e. structure) For each dbmodel there is a database descriptor that describe the type of data stored in it, how they are stored and the relation with other database models. The FMOS Proway system uses only this descriptor to access the database. The first ThinProway panel - Database - (see Figure 4) allow the user to select the database to be used in the data analysis procedure by mean of the classification categories. The configured databases are stored in dedicated datasets on the FMOS Proway server and are directly retrieved by the client. In this way they must me defined in only one place. Once the data base is selected the Java Client load from the FMOS Proway server all related information like: the field to be used during the data selection process; the list of available applications. The other areas are filled as consequence. Data Selection The Data Selection panel is used to composed of selection criterion. In ThinProway a selection criterion is set of simple condition with the following structure: <database field> <logical operator> <values> Examples are: product = producta start_date BETWEEN 20Apr1999 and 28Apr1999 lot IN l1,l2,l3, ln The criterion is composed using a set of controls dedicated to each database field (see Figure 5) that allow to:

6 select the logical operator; directly type in the required value or select it from a list proposed by the system. It is important to notice that the list of available values proposed by the system is computed in this way: all condition already specified are taken into account; the list is extracted directly from the database creating on the fly an ad hoc query; the Java Client send to the FMOS Proway server the current conditions and the field to extract; the server compose the query and run it on the database server; the resulting dataset is sent back to the client. Report management Once the user has performed the data selection he can run a specific data analysis procedure (a Report ) on the identified data by mean of the Report panel (see Figure 6). All supported report for the selected database are listed. The user can select the desired one and optionally set some execution options that affect how the data are summarized or how they are presented. After this step the user can execute the report. The reports are produced following these steps: the Java Client send the report request, together with all execution options, to the FMOS Proway server; the FMOS Proway server: extracts the needed data from the databases; creates the report; converts the report in html format; saves the html file in a special area reachable from the web server (a URL); sends back to the Java client the name of the file produced; the Java Client launch another browser window on the html page just produced to display the report. It is important to notice that using this approach all existing FMOS Proway applications can be ported on ThinProway simply adding the output conversion to the html format. The Java to SAS interface The system architecture has been designed in order to minimize and clearly identify the type of interaction between the Java client and the SAS server. As a consequence only the following interaction types have been defined and implemented: start a FMOS Proway (SAS ) session on the remote SAS server from the Java client; a single session is executed for each ThinProway client running; read a dataset stored on and produced by the SAS server from the Java Applet create a new dataset on the SAS server from the Java applet start a SAS procedure from the Java Client They are described in the following paragraphs.

7 Start a SAS session from the Java Client Every time a user login into the ThinProway system a SAS session is started on the SAS server. The session remains active during the whole ThinProway session and execute all SAS tasks required by the application. Since the SAS server and the web server are two different machines, it is needed to use the JTunnel feature provided by the SAS/IntrNet TM software. Since Java applets can only connect to the server they where downloaded from, that in this case is not the same machine as the SAS server it is necessary to use the JTunnel feature provided by the SAS/IntrNet TM software. It includes a CGI script plus a set of Java classes that allows to use the web server as a gateway between the Java applet and the SAS server. The SAS session is started using the dedicated class part of the JTunnel feature. Read a dataset from the Java Client The communication of data from the SAS server to the Java client is implemented using datasets stored on the SAS server. As a consequence it is necessary to make the Java applet able to read them. This function has been implemented using the JDBC driver included in the SAS/IntrNet TM software. Obviously also in this case the JTunnel feature is also applied. Create a new dataset from the Java Client The communication of data from the Java Client to the SAS server is also implemented using datasets stored on the server. As a consequence the Java Applet must be able to creates datasets on the server. This function is implemented executing ad hoc SAS scripts on the SAS server from the Java Client. Here again the functionality included in the JTunnel features have been used. Start a SAS procedure from the Java Client As described in the previous point the dedicated functions included in the JTunnel feature have been used. TXT Ingegneria Informatica Mission TXT Ingegneria Informatica provides software solutions based on innovative technologies to customers strategic application areas. Main activities areas Supply Chain Solutions for manufacturing: strategic planning, supply chain management, planning and control, plant supervision and diagnostics, quality control.

8 Operations Management Solutions using Intranet, Internet and Workgroup technologies for industrial, commercial and service companies: automation of retail centers, order management, customer service management, retail and remote banking. Mission Critical Software for real-time embedded applications: avionics, medical systems, remote control systems, intelligent peripherals and telecommunication equipment and networks. Background TXT Ingegneria Informatica is a young company with a remarkable history. Founded in 1989, TXT has its roots in TXT S.p.a., a firm founded in 1983 by a group of technicians which has been successfully operating in the software field since TXT Ingegneria Informatica s dynamic core consists of a well-organized group of managers and professionals who have been working together for 15 years. The key people are also shareholders in the company. In 1997 a new branch, in collaboration with the Università degli Studi di Genova university, has been opened in Genova. In 1994 TXT Ingegneria Informatica was certified ISO9001. The team, in continuous and constant growth, is currently composed of 120 professionals. TXT Ingegneria Informatica invest, each year, almost the 15% of its revenue in R&D and take part, with a leading role, in the main national and international Information Technology and Communication Research projects. Why TXT Innovation & technology leadership. Enhanced application know-how. Highly motivated team shareholder of it s company. Long partnership relationship with it s customers. Focusing on it s main activities areas. Products & Services TXT Ingegneria Informatica has developed Business Solutions to serve specific markets. These solutions are based on rigorously tested and engineered software kernels, which are customized to clients specific needs. Support services, training and assistance during start-up are key ingredients of TXT s offering. How to contact us TXT Ingegneria Informatica S.p.a. address: Via Socrate, Milano phone: fax: info@txt.it web site: FMOS Proway and ThinProway specific contact: Riccardo Proni

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