Connecting to Common Data Sources

Registering and Verifying Tables

You need to make sure that the end users of your SAS applications can gain access to tables in your data libraries. The exact steps and authorization requirements vary across applications and data types, but you must always log on to the application, create the needed metadata, and verify the existence of the tables. This example will focus on the process used to verify SAS tables in SAS Management Console.

One important consideration for registering tables is that you must not use an unrestricted user account. This is because the libraries you access often require retrieving database passwords from the metadata repository. An unrestricted user does not have the ability to access passwords stored in metadata. The user account you log in with must have the necessary permissions to access stored database credentials in the metadata. Also, this user account must have the necessary permissions:

ReadMetadata and WriteMetadata permission in the DefaultACT for the repository
ReadMetadata and WriteMetadata permission on the library
WriteMemberMetadata permission to the folder where the table metadata is to be stored
permission to the underlying data source to read the tables

Verifying your access to tables in SAS Management Console is a two-stage process:

Register the tables.
View the data in SAS Data Integration Studio.

Stage 1: Register the Tables

To register the tables, perform the following steps:

Open SAS Management Console, if necessary. Be sure to select the metadata profile of a user who is not an unrestricted user.
Expand the Data Library Manager node. Then, expand the Libraries node to see the list of libraries. Right-click the library that contains the tables that you need to import. Then, select the Register Tables option to access the first page of the Register Tables wizard.
Verify that the values shown in the fields in the Library details group box are correct. Click Next.
Click the tables that you need to select. (Hold down the CTRL key and click to select more than one table.) Click Next.
Examine the final page of the wizard to ensure that the proper values have been entered. Click Finish.

Note: You can also register tables by using SAS Data Integration Studio and also by using the METALIB procedure. For information about using the METALIB procedure, see Managing Table Metadata.

Stage 2: Verify Access to the Data in a SAS Application

Open an application that can view SAS data in order to view the data in the imported tables and review the data. For example, you can use SAS Data Integration Studio. To use SAS Data Integration Studio to view a registered table, perform the following steps:

Navigate to the Inventory tree and expand the Table node.
Right-click a table that you need to verify and select the Open option. Examine the data contained in the table in the View Data window.
Close the View Data window.
(Optional) You can also examine the table's Properties field. Right-click the table and select the Properties option.
Click the Columns tab to see column data for the table. Close the Properties window.

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