Package Transports

Overview of Package Transports

The destination (or transport) for delivering a package is defined programmatically in a SAS application by using PACKAGE_PUBLISH CALL routines.

Transports are as follows:

archive

a single binary collection of all the items in a package, which is compressed and saved to a directory file. The archive contains the contents of a package and metadata that is necessary for extracting the contents. An archived package is also referred to as an SPK file, which is short for SAS Package.

channel

a conduit through which the defined transport (either e-mail or message queue) delivers package items to the subscribers of the channel. The subscriber defines the preferred transport by using personal subscription properties. Whereas publishing to e-mail is identity-centered (the publisher delivers packages to recipients whose identities are known), publishing to channels is subject-centered, allowing both the publisher and the consumer to concentrate on the subject of the package rather than on the recipients for the package.

e-mail

mechanism for delivering selected package items to identified recipients.

message queue

in application messaging, a place where the publisher can send a message (or a package) that can be retrieved by another program for continued processing.

SharePoint

Microsoft product that enables users to share files, collaborate, and publish to the Web. Publishing to SharePoint is similar to publishing to WebDAV in that it facilitates concurrent access to and update of package data on the Internet.

WebDAV-compliant server

an acronym for Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning. Whereas the traditional transports (archive, channel, e-mail, and message queue) are repositories for published package data that can be retrieved and reprocessed in a synchronous fashion, a WebDAV-compliant server facilitates concurrent access to and update of package data on the Internet.

WebDAV is not only a delivery mechanism, but also a core technology that extends the HTTP network protocol, enabling distributed Web authoring tools to be broadly interoperable. WebDAV extends the capability of the Web from that of a primarily read-only service, to a writable, collaborative medium.

Persisted Packages

Publishing a package to an archive or to a WebDAV server provides the following advantages:

You conserve disk resources.
The package stays in a static location, allowing consumers or programs to retrieve the package at their convenience.
The SAS data package entries are available to consumers who do not have SAS software installed on their systems.

After the administrator has configured channels with archive paths or base paths, the publisher can publish packages directly to an archive or WebDAV server. The publisher can use the following methods to publish to a persistent store (an archive or a WebDAV server):

publishing programmatically by using SAS
using a third-party client application

The consumer can use the stand-alone product SAS Package Reader subsequently to uncompress, or unzip, and use an archived package. SAS Package Retriever can be used to access the package from the persisted location and to store the package elsewhere. The RETRIEVE SCL application, CALL routines, and SAS Information Delivery Portal can also be used to retrieve persisted packages.

Subscription Channels

Creating Channels

The administrator uses SAS Management Console to create a channel object with the attributes that are specified in the SAS Metadata Repository. The administrator must create a channel for each distinct topic or audience. For example, users of a particular application might want a channel for discussion and data exchange, while the programmers of that application might want another channel to discuss technical problems and future enhancements. Although the topic is the same application, the discussion about the topic is different. Therefore, two separate channels might best serve the needs of the two groups of users.

Creating Subscribers

The administrator must create a subscriber for each potential user of a channel. Subscribers must be defined before subscriptions to channels can be created.

Creating Subscriptions

The association of a subscriber to a channel is a subscription. A subscription enables the information that is published to a channel to be delivered to the interested (subscribed) subscribers.

Subscriptions can be created by either the administrator or the subscriber. The administrator can create subscriptions when a publishing environment is initially configured. Individual subscribers can create personal subscriptions after the publishing environment has been configured.