What Is a Package?

Definition of Package

A package is a container for information, or digital content, that is generated or collected for delivery to a consumer.

Knowledge takes the form of package entries, which can be either of two types:

SAS results
unstructured content

SAS Results

A category of package entry type is SAS results, which can take the form of any of the following:

SAS catalog
SAS data set
SAS database (such as MDDB)
SAS SQL view

Unstructured Content

Unstructured content is any package entry that is created external to SAS. Supported unstructured content types include the following:

binary file (such as Excel, GIF, JPG, PDF, PowerPoint, and Word)
HTML file (including ODS output)
reference string (such as URL)
text file (such as a SAS program)
viewer file (such as an HTML or plain text template that formats SAS file items for viewing in e-mail)

Filename Extensions for Package Entry Types

Each entry in a package is implicitly contained in a file whose filename extension reflects the entry type. Knowing filename extensions might be useful when retrieving packages from the archive, WebDAV, and SharePoint transports.

Default filename extensions are as follows:

.csv - Comma-separated values
.ref - Reference
.sac - SAS catalog (for archive and WebDAV transports)
.sad - SAS data set (for archive and WebDAV transports)
.sam - SAS MDDB
.sav - SAS SQL View
.spk - Archive package
.stc - SAS catalog or SAS data set (for SharePoint transport)