Who Should Use Autoload? :: SAS(R) Visual Analytics 7.3: Getting Started with Data on Windows

Introduction

In many cases, import, reload-on-start, and manual reload functionality is sufficient. Before you invest in setting up autoload, make sure that you have a good reason to use autoload and that you understand autoload’s limitations.

What Does Autoload Do?

If autoload is running, it periodically makes sure that all of the data in a particular Windows folder is available for use in reports and explorations.

Here are autoload’s basic activities:

If the server is stopped, autoload starts it.
If a table is not loaded, autoload loads it.
If the loaded copy of a table is older than the table in the folder, autoload refreshes it, updating the in-memory data to reflect the data in the folder.

For a comprehensive description of autoload functionality, see the SAS Visual Analytics: Administration Guide.

Reasons to Use Autoload

Consider using autoload in any of the following circumstances:

You want the server to start automatically instead of starting only manually (from the LASR Servers tab) or indirectly (as a side effect of an import request).
You want your spreadsheets, delimited files, and SAS data sets to be available on a scheduled, automatic basis.
You have spreadsheets, delimited files, or SAS data sets that are larger than 4 GB (even in ZIP format).

Note: For SAS data sets, an alternative is to import from a server.

Limitations of Autoload

Before you set up autoload, review the following limitations:

Autoload is not a universal method. You cannot autoload ZIP files, database tables, or data from Google Analytics, Facebook, or Twitter.
For spreadsheets, autoload is less flexible than import. For a spreadsheet that has multiple worksheets, only the first worksheet is loaded. Autoload assumes that the first row contains column headings and begins data import with the second row.
Autoload requires some manual maintenance. A new autoload log file is generated every time autoload runs. You must periodically empty your equivalent of the following directory:

C:\SAS\Config\Lev1\Applications\SASVisualAnalytics\VisualAnalyticsAdministrator\Logs
Each implementation of autoload provides data to a particular LASR library. To autoload data to another LASR library, you must set up an additional implementation of autoload.