Customizing Screens in SAS Risk Stratum

Introduction

SAS Risk Stratum empowers you to tailor screens for the solutions it supports, ensuring a seamless and customized user experience. Whether you're working with SAS Model Risk Management, SAS Governance and Compliance Manager, SAS Solution for IFRS 17 or any other solution based on Risk Stratum, the process of screen modification remains consistent, as all these solutions leverage the SAS Risk Governance Framework as their user interface. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the steps required to customize a selected screen by incorporating additional fields, enabling end users to input values dynamically while using the solution. You must have a familiarity with SAS Risk Governance Framework and basic knowledge of XML to perform the activities and appropriate administrator level access to the SAS platform.

You can obtain more information on

SAS Risk Governance Framework and

SAS Risk Stratum using the following links.

SAS Risk Governance Framework Solution Overview

Data Preparation, Configuration, and Administration in SAS Risk Stratum

Screen Definitions

Screen definitions in solutions supported by SAS Risk Stratum uses XML for handling the underlying display logic. XML is a powerful yet easy language which uses simple tags to carry the logic for any screen used by SAS solutions. Note that XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a structured, self-descriptive data format used for storing and transporting data. It consists of root tags that encapsulate the entire document, nested elements that represent hierarchical data, and attributes that store metadata within elements. Additionally, DTD (Document Type Definition) defines the structure, rules, and allowed elements in an XML document, ensuring data consistency.

The following table provides an example of tags used most across various screen definitions across the solutions.

Tag	Description
<ui-definition>	Root element defining the UI configuration, with attributes like id and type.
<title>	Specifies the title of the UI definition.
<screen>	Represents a screen layout within the UI, identified by an id attribute.
<initialize>	Defines initialization logic, setting default values for variables and components.
<set>	Assigns a value to a variable or field, often using conditional logic.
<if>	Specifies a conditional block that executes based on a test expression.
<field>	Defines a UI field, with attributes such as name, type, component-name, default, visible, and required.
<label>	Specifies the label for a field or UI element.
<message>	References a localized message key for display text.
<param>	Defines parameters for components, using name and value attributes.
<on-change>	Specifies an action to be taken when the field value changes.
<refresh>	Refreshes a specified UI component when triggered.
<tab-section>	Groups multiple tabs together within the UI.
<tab>	Represents a UI tab, identified by an id, containing fields and components.
<validation>	Defines validation rules for a field, ensuring correct data input.
<errmsg>	Specifies an error message to display when validation fails.
<finalize>	Marks the finalization block, potentially used for cleanup or final adjustments

Here is an example of screen XML code for Users screen in SAS Risk Governance Framework. Note that this screen is same for any SAS solution based out of SAS Risk Stratum. To edit any screen, you may use the Edit Screen Definition icon at the top right corner of any screen.

Figure 1: Illustration of XML code for a screen.

Select any image to see a larger version.
Mobile users: To view the images, select the "Full" version at the bottom of the page.

You can also access and manage screen definitions through the Administration module or menu by navigating to the Screen Definitions tab. This tab allows you to edit, download, upload, or delete any screen definition as needed. However, to perform these actions, you must have administration-level access within the SAS Risk Governance Framework.

Figure 2: Illustration of Screen Definitions tab under Administration menu.

Steps to modify a screen definition

Primarily there are five steps:

Add fields to the data base
Add field labels in Custom Message Properties
Download or edit on screen
Add XML code related to the fields and upload plus activate the screen
Open the screen to verify and test the newly added fields

Figure 3: Illustration of steps for modifying a screen definition.

In this article, we take an example of modifying the screen Create Risk for the Risk Management module in SAS Governance and Compliance Manager. Note that the business object Risk is known as CustomObject96 in SAS Risk Governance Framework.

Add Fields

To capture the required fields, you must first ensure they exist in the database. This can be seamlessly achieved using the Data Loader functionality in the SAS Risk Governance Framework. The data is imported through MS Excel templates, which can be conveniently downloaded from multiple locations within the solution. One efficient way is to navigate to the Administration module, click on the Data tab, and select "View Available Loaders" to download the appropriate loader for your screen.

Figure 4: Illustration of Data Loader facility.

Each of the Excel template has a specific sheet name and column names. You can learn more about these Excel template and related topics by referring to the following link.

Administration and Customization Guide

The Excel template we are using in this article defines two fields using four excel sheets. The two fields are:

x_empDep, which captures employee department from a drop-down list.

x_empId, which captures employee ID as string.

Here is a brief description of the sheets.

Sheet Name	Description
CustFieldDefns	It defines fields for different objects. It stores custom field definitions, including object name, field name, type, length, and description.
NamedLists	It contains predefined lists that can be used for the fields with type OPS (field with multiple possible options, like a list of departments)
NamedListMappings	It connects specific object fields (in CustFieldDefns) to the corresponding lists (in NamedLists)
NamedListTranslations	provides values with codes & descriptions) for each list option for the lists defined (in NamedLists)

Following figures provide illustrations for these sheets. Ensure that you carefully observe the column names and values in these sheets, as they follow a predefined structure. It is crucial to retain the original sheet and column names in these standard templates without any modifications. Your task is solely to add the corresponding data while maintaining the integrity of the existing format.

Figure 5: Illustration of CustFieldDefns and NamedLists sheet.

Figure 6: Illustration of NamedListMappings and NamedListTranslations sheets.

Uploading of the Excel is very simple. You must click Browse under Data tab for loading and click Load. You must select Test Mode radio button first and if there are no errors then select Process All Records mode. Check the Figure 4 above for these options.

Add Labels

SAS Risk Stratum uses a specific text file called Custom.MessageProperties which is used to store various labels used across the screens. The file is available on SAS Content Server and can be accessed using a browser or a free application like DAVTree.

You must add your labels for your fields in the file. Using DAVTree you can simply open the file and edit the file to update your changes. Following is an example of the code or label that should be added in our case.

customObject96.field.x_empId.displayName.txt = Emp ID customObject96.field.x_empDep.displayName.txt = Emp Department

Following figure shows the typical location of the file CustomMessage.Properties using DAVTree.

Figure 7: Illustration of DAVTree utility.

Download or Edit Screen

If the modification is minor, you can edit the screen’s XML directly using the Edit Screen Definition icon. In this step, we will insert the following code into the Risk screen definition at a suitable location of our choice, ensuring the necessary customization is seamlessly integrated.

This XML code defines form fields with different types and dynamic labels. The first field, x_empId, is a string field (text input) representing an employee ID, while x_empDep is a dropdown field for selecting an employee's department. Both fields use a <label> tag with a message key (customObject96.field...), which fetches display text dynamically for localization and flexibility. The dropdown field has predefined options, though you need not specify here.

Open the Screen and Verify

You must click the appropriate workspace or module and open the relevant screen to see or test the effect of these changes. In our example of modifying the screen for Create Risk page in SAS Governance and Compliance Manager, you must click Risk Management menu and then click Create New icon for creating the new risk.

Figure 8: Illustration of modified screen with custom fields.

Conclusion

In conclusion, SAS Risk Stratum offers a robust and highly flexible approach to customizing screens across various solutions, enabling organizations to create a seamless, intuitive, and user-centric experience. With its adaptability, users can tailor interfaces to meet unique business needs, ensuring that critical data is captured efficiently. This article has provided a structured overview of the key steps required to incorporate additional fields, allowing end users to dynamically input values and interact with the solution in a more meaningful way.

By effectively leveraging these customization features of SAS Risk Governance Framework, organizations can improve decision-making, and align the solution with their evolving requirements, ultimately driving greater efficiency and maximizing the value of their SAS Risk solutions. For more information, use the following link: Administration and Customization Guide.

Find more articles from SAS Global Enablement and Learning here.