What Is the Application Dispatcher?

Using the Application Dispatcher, you can send information from a Web browser to a SAS session for processing and receive the results on your Web browser. The results can appear as text, HTML, GIF, JPEG, or any other format that is supported by your Web browser.

By submitting an HTML form or clicking a hypertext link, you can cause SAS to run a program. The program can be written by you or someone else at your site, or it can be a sample program that is provided by SAS. You can even use the sample forms and code as the foundation for your own applications. You can easily modify almost any SAS batch program to run on the Web and thus add new life to legacy applications and legacy data. Some commercial SAS applications that run by using the Application Dispatcher are included with SAS/IntrNet software.

The Application Dispatcher exchanges and processes information by using the following components:

The input component runs on the Web server or the client. It normally consists of static or dynamically generated HTML pages containing URL references or HTML forms. The input component is responsible for selecting what program component to run and what input data to pass to that program component.

The Application Broker is a CGI program that resides on your Web server (for example, in the cgi-bin or scripts directory). The Application Broker interprets the information received from the input component and passes it to the Application Server.

The Application Server is a SAS session that receives input from the Application Broker. The Application Server accepts information from the Application Broker CGI program and invokes the program component.

The program component is a SAS program invoked within the Application Server. The program