As discussed in the IOM Servers section of the SAS Integration Technologies Technical Overview, Version 9 Windows clients can access an IOM server using the SAS Object Manager. The object manager can access metadata from either a SAS Metadata Server or an LDAP server. The object manager can also access an IOM server by supplying server parameters directly in the source code.

If you are using a SAS Metadata Server or supplying server parameters in the source code, the object manager can connect to SAS Workspace Servers, other SAS Metadata Servers, SAS OLAP Servers, and SAS Stored Process Servers.

Note: If you are using an LDAP server, the object manager can only connect to SAS Workspace Servers. Under LDAP, SAS Integration Technologies does not support access to other types of IOM servers.

Note: The SAS 8 Workspace Manager interface is still supported. However, it is recommended that you use the SAS Object Manager interface in order to take advantage of the new features available with SAS 9 Integration Technologies.

SAS Object Manager Overview

The SAS Object Manager is a component that executes on the client machine and it is used to create and manage objects on IOM servers. When using a metadata server, the object manager can use IOM server definitions that are administered separately from the application. This enables, for example, a client application to connect to a server simply by using a server name. The definition for this server can change as required without affecting the application.

The object manager can create a SAS object, in one of four ways:

through local COM if the SAS server runs on the same machine as the client
through DCOM if the SAS server runs on another machine that supports DCOM
through the IOM Bridge for COM (SASComb.dll) if the SAS server runs on another machine that does not support COM/DCOM functionality (z/OS or UNIX [Solaris, HP-UX IPF, HP 64, AIX, ALX, Linux])
through the IOM Bridge for COM (SASComb.dll) if the SAS server runs on Windows.

With the SAS Object Manager, you can perform the following tasks:

launch SAS objects, such as SAS Workspaces
select between running SAS objects
retrieve definitions from a metadata server (SAS Metadata Server or LDAP)
store new definitions on a metadata server (LDAP only).

The object manager can be used from Visual Basic, C, C++, and VBScript (with the help of Scripto).

The object manager can also be used from the .NET framework using COM Interop.

Code Reference

The reference documentation for the SAS Object Manager is shipped with the object manager as online Help in the file sasoman.chm.

By default, this file is located in C:\Program Files\SAS\Shared Files\Integration Technologies.