What's New in SAS/ACCESS 4.3 Interface to R/3

The SAS/ACCESS Interface to R/3 provides a read-only engine for using SAS to access data in your SAP R/3 or SAP BW system. SAS/ACCESS Interface to R/3 has the following changes and enhancements:

• authorization checks for Business Information Warehouse Objects

• CALLRFC procedure DESCRIBE FUNCTION enhancement

• SAP LIBNAME engine AUTHDOMAIN= option

• secure network communication for single sign-on

• SAS RFC server changes

Note:   The changes discussed here are from SAS/ACCESS 4.3 Interface to R/3 and later.  

SAS provides a set of Business Add-Ins (BAdI) that the SAP LIBNAME engine uses to perform authorization checks for BW and BI objects. The authorization checks are enabled or disabled by activating or deactivating the BAdIs. The authorization check implementation depends on the SAP release:

• For SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0 and later, authorization checks are performed using the analysis authorization method. This provides an authorization check for the following:

  • the infoProvider (infoCube, infoObject, DSO)

  • column-level restrictions on master data attributes and key figures

  • row-level restrictions on attributes

• For SAP Systems older than SAP NetWeaver BI 7.0, the SAP LIBNAME engine supports checking user authorization with the reporting authorization method. User authorization is checked at the InfoCubes, InfoObject, and ODS levels.

The CALLRFC procedure DESCRIBE FUNCTION statement is enhanced to retrieve information about the expected SAS data type, length, and format of the data sets and parameters.

This new option enables retrieving user identity credentials from a SAS Metadata Server, when SAS/ACCESS Interface to R/3 is used in a metadata environment.

Secure network communication (SNC) enables secure communication between the SAP LIBNAME engine and the SAP System. SNC can be configured to provide single sign-on.

A SAS RFC Server was needed in previous releases to enable communication between the SAP LIBNAME engine and the SAP System. The SAS RFC Server required administration to start and stop, as well as configuration. In SAS/ACCESS 4.3 Interface to R/3, the SAP LIBNAME engine communicates directly with the SAP System, removing the need for a SAS RFC Server. However, a SAS RFC Server is needed for z/OS.

Copyright © 2008 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.