Sharing Reports in SAS Viya for Learners

[#1]

SAS Viya for Learners is a full suite of cloud-based analytics software. It’s free for anyone with an academic email, accessible quickly and easily in-browser, and is, in my opinion, the quickest way to get from concepts to hands-on in teaching and learning analytics.

So, what’s the catch?

Without boring you with the software architectural details (which is code for “I don’t actually know the software architectural details”), the way we’re able to have hundreds of users from across the globe all connect at the same time is by splitting users across multiple instances of the software called “tenants”.

This is fantastic for accessibility… Not so great when it comes to sharing content.

In a commercial environment, sharing a report in SAS Visual Analytics is as easy as clicking the three-dot menu button next to the save icon and selecting "Share report":

Yup. That easy.

But in Viya for Learners, sharing between tenants isn’t possible, and there's no way to ensure that users who may want to share reports (like students in a class, for example) are all on the same tenant.

Is that it, then? We’re out of luck? Not so fast! Sharing reports is still doable, just with a little bit of behind-the-scenes ingenuity.

The trick is that every report can be exported as code, and then imported by another user.

Important! Before following these steps, keep in mind that any data being referenced in the report (i.e., the data loaded into memory) must be exactly the same for both the sharer and the recipient, including the name of the data file. This isn’t an issue if using one of the pre-loaded datasets in our nifty Viya for Learners Data Repository, but if you’re using custom data, just ensure that the recipient has exactly the dataset being referenced. If the datasets differ in any way, certain parts of the report may display incorrectly or not at all.

With that out of the way, here are the steps to export your report:

1. With your report open, press CTRL+ALT+B to open the diagnostics tool. It will look something like this:
   

2. Click "Save" and follow the prompt to save the report code as a .txt file to your computer.

   

3. Send that file to the intended recipient.

To view the report:

1. Open Viya for Learners and navigate to "Explore and Visualize"
   

    

2. If you're using custom data, don't forget to ensure that you've loaded the dataset into memory! 🌩
3. Press CTRL+ALT+B to open the diagnostics tool (it will look the same as above).
4. Click "Open" and find the .txt file you received.
   
   
   
5. Click "Load" in the diagnostics tool to load the report from that code.

That's it! As long as the datasets are consistent, you'll see the exact same beautiful report.

If you run into any issues, or just want to learn more about how you can use tools like SAS Viya for Learners in the classroom, drop us a line at academics@sas.com.

[Joanna_Edu]

Thanks Bryan! Now about that software architecture...;)

[LGroves]

Love this! Students sharing their work - either to another collaborator or their professor - has been a challenge in VFL.  This could be a great solution.  Thanks @bryanmehi!

[Rachel_McLawhon]

This is mega cool! And as @LGroves said - a total game changer when it comes to students sharing reports with colleagues or teachers!

[askibins]

Hello, Can someone tell me what would be CTRL+ALT+B on Mac? Many thanks.

[bryanmehi]

@askibins great question - I forgot there's no ALT key on Macs! You can open the diagnostics tool using control + option + B.

[askibins]

Thank you bryanmehi for answering my question. I actually would like to ask if you have a solution how to transfer reports from Student account to the Educator account? The problem that I have is that I cannot use the same machine to login in both accounts because SAS shows an error when I try to do that. When I saved the report on USB to upload it on to my Educator account, even I click CTRL+ALT+B I do not get the diagnostic tool view... so I am a bit lost. Any advice on that would be hugely appreciated. Many thanks.

[bryanmehi]

@askibins Are you in "Explore and Visualize" (Visual Analytics) and have a new report open when you try to open the diagnostic tool on the other account? If so, can you confirm which browser and OS you're using? There aren't any differences between the versions of Viya that you would be accessing through your two accounts (just which tenant you're on), so we'll need to troubleshoot why the diagnostics tool isn't opening. Your solution of saving the code to USB is a good one and should work!