What's New

What's New in SAS 9.2 Stored Processes

Overview

SAS 9.2 Stored Processes provides enhancements to the SAS Stored Process Web Application and stored process metadata, as well as general enhancements.

SAS Stored Process Web Application Enhancements

The following enhancements have been added to the SAS Stored Process Web Application:

• You can select a stored process in the tree view in order to run the stored process. If there are no parameters or input forms, then the stored process will execute immediately and the results will be displayed. If there are parameters or input forms, then you will be taken to the custom input form or prompt page.

• You can use the SAS Stored Process Web Application to upload files.

• Samples have been enhanced to use ODS styles and to include prompts that enable the samples to be executed from a variety of clients. There is a new sample called Server Test, which can be used by any client to ping a server. Samples are installed with the SAS Web Infrastructure Platform.

• Execution options are no longer included by default. If you want to include execution options, they are available as a shared prompt group that is installed along with the sample stored processes.

• The SAS Stored Process Web Application is now delivered in EAR files.

• Response pages can be customized.

• Initialization parameters are now set with the Configuration Manager in SAS Management Console. The following initialization parameters are now supported:

  • ActionMask

  • AllowEncodedPassword

  • AllowGuest

  • BannerRows

  • Domain

  • GuestUsername

  • GuestPassword

  • ShowLogButton

  • UploadDirectory

  • UploadMaxSize

  • ValidatePromptValues

  The following initialization parameters are obsolete:

  • AuthMechanism

  • InputEncoding

  • OutputEncoding

  • PrivilegedUser

• The appearance of the SAS Stored Process Web Application has changed in the following ways:

  • The prompt framework is used to display parameters to users.

  • SAS Logon Manager is used by default for user authentication. Users can also run stored processes without having to log on. A guest user name can be defined to run stored processes under a fixed account.

  • Error messages and the welcome page have a new appearance.

  • There is now a standard banner with themes.

Metadata Enhancements

The following enhancements have been added to the Stored Process Properties dialog box and the New Stored Process Wizard in SAS Management Console:

• Result capabilities are now specified, rather than result types. The prompt framework can be used to develop a stored process with package results.

• Input parameters are defined using the prompt framework in SAS Management Console, which can be accessed from the Parameters tab in the Stored Process Properties dialog box, or in the New Stored Process Wizard.

• Output parameters can be defined on the Parameters tab or in the Stored Process Properties dialog box, or in the New Stored Process Wizard.

• Data sources and data targets can be defined on the Data tab in the Stored Process Properties dialog box, or in the New Stored Process Wizard. Streams can be used to send data that is too large to be passed in parameters between the client and the executing stored process. Definitions for data sources and data targets can also include an XML schema specification.

General Enhancements

The following general enhancements have been added to SAS Stored Processes:

• The following new reserved macro variables are supported:

  _BASEURL

  overrides the default value for _URL.

  _CLIENT

  identifies the client and version number.

  _METAFOLDER

  contains the name and path of the folder for the stored process that is being executed.

  _PATH

  specifies the starting level for the _ACTION=INDEX display.

  _STATUS_MESSAGE

  returns debugging information or a message to the user.

  The _ACTION macro variable now supports the following additional values:

  • LOGOFF

  • NEWWINDOW

  • NOBANNER

• The following programs are now supported: REQUEST INIT (runs at request initialization), REQUEST TERM (runs at request termination), REQUEST LOGIN (only on the middle tier), SESSION INIT (runs at session initialization), and SESSION TERM (runs at session termination).

• Prompts can be shared between stored processes or applications to perform common prompting tasks.

• In the second maintenance release after SAS 9.2, the following enhancements were made to the macro variables that are generated from prompts:

  • The PROMPT-NAME_LABEL macro variable is generated for date prompts.

  • The PROMPT-NAME_MIN_LABEL and PROMPT-NAME_MAX_LABEL macro variables are generated for date range prompts.

  • For time and timestamp prompts, the format of the PROMPT-NAME_LABEL macro variable has changed.

  • For time range and timestamp range prompts, the format of the PROMPT-NAME_MIN_LABEL and PROMPT-NAME_MAX_LABEL macro variables have changed.

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