What's New in the SAS 9.2 Providers for OLE DB

Overview

The SAS Providers for OLE DB have the following changes and enhancements:
  • a new data provider provides access to a local installation of Base SAS
  • an enhanced Data Link Properties dialog box
  • three new properties for managing SAS code before a data source is initialized
  • support for reading multilingual data from a data set with UTF-8 encoding
  • 64-bit versions of providers
  • references to 64-bit programming tips
  • a new property for the IOM provider
  • new properties for the local provider

A New Data Provider Provides Access to a Local Installation of Base SAS

The new Base SAS data provider provides access to Base SAS data sets that are available through a local installation of Base SAS. In this context, the Base SAS installation functions as a local, single-user server. Access to third-party relational data sources (with licensed SAS/ACCESS engines) is also supported. Previously, this capability was available through the SAS/SHARE provider.

An Enhanced Data Link Properties Dialog Box

The version of the Data Link Properties dialog box that is used with the IOM and OLAP providers now enables you to make the following choices:
  • specify any SAS Metadata Server
  • select from a list of workspace and OLAP servers that are defined in that metadata server
Previously, only the default metadata server could be used. No list of available OLAP and workspace servers was provided.

Three New Properties for Managing SAS Code Before a Data Source Is Initialized

The IOM provider supports three new properties for managing SAS code before a data source is initialized.
  • "SAS Workspace Init Script" (DBPROP_SAS_INIT_WORKSPACE_INIT_SCRIPT) enables you to specify SAS code to be submitted to a SAS Workspace Server immediately after a connection to the server is established.
  • "SAS Workspace Init List" (DBPROP_SAS_WORKSPACE_INIT_LIST) enables you to capture the SAS listing from the SAS code that you submitted using the "SAS Workspace Init Script" property.
  • "SAS Workspace Init Log" (DBPROP_SAS_WORKSPACE_INIT_LOG) enables you to capture the SAS log from the SAS code submitted using the "SAS Workspace Init Script" property.

Support for Reading Multilingual Data from a Data Set with UTF-8 Encoding

The SAS/SHARE provider and local provider now support reading multilingual data from a data set with UTF-8 encoding.

64-bit Versions of the Providers

In the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2, SAS offers the SAS/SHARE provider and OLAP provider in 64-bit versions. You can use a 64-bit provider to read SAS data sets from 64-bit applications. Both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions are installed at install time. In addition to these two providers, the IOM and Local providers were offered in 64-bit versions during the second maintenance release for SAS 9.2.

References to 64-bit Programming Tips

The interfaces to the 64-bit providers remain the same as the interfaces to the 32-bit versions. Applications that are 32-bit can continue to run on Windows 64-bit operating systems by using the 32-bit providers. However, 32-bit applications must be migrated to 64-bit in order to run natively in Windows for x64. In the second maintenance release for SAS 9.2, this document includes a section that provides references to 64-bit programming tips.

New Property for the IOM Provider

In the second maintenance release for SAS 9.2, this document provides information for the SAS Data Set Options property, DBPROPS_SAS_DATASETOPTS. This property is used to specify SAS data set options.

New Properties for the Local Provider

In the third maintenance release for SAS 9.2, this document provides information for the following properties:
  • DBPROP_SAS_DATASET_ENCODING
  • DBPROP_SAS_DATASET_LABEL
  • DBPROP_SAS_DATASET_TYPE
  • DBPROP_SAS_GET_MISSING_VALUES
  • DBPROP_SAS_USE_TKMANAGER_SEARCHPATH