Stored Processes

A stored process is a SAS program that is stored on a server and can be executed as required by requesting applications. The ability to store your SAS programs at the server provides a very effective method for change control management.

For example, instead of embedding the SAS code into client applications, you can centrally maintain and manage this code from the server. This gives you the ability to change your SAS programs and at the same time ensure that every client that invokes a stored process will always get the latest version available.

The stored process concept becomes even more powerful when you consider that these SAS programs can be invoked from multiple client contexts. For example, you might deploy Java applets and Windows-based applications that invoke your stored processes. If your strategy is to use a multitiered architecture, you can use Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) technology, for example, to invoke the same stored processes from an application server.

Using stored processes also enhances security and application integrity because the programs that access your sensitive data are contained on the server instead of being widely distributed with the client applications.

SAS Integration Technologies provides an application facility that enables you to implement SAS language stored processes. With this facility, you can define stored processes on the server and then use an IOM distributed object interface to execute them. This interface, named the IOM StoredProcessService, enables a client application to invoke a particular stored process by name.