SAS/IntrNet 1.2: Application Dispatcher

Application Dispatcher Version 1.2 Configuration File Directives

Required directives are shown in bold. For usage tips, see Creating Your Own Configuration File

Directive	Description
Administrator *name* ServiceAdmin name	The name of the person who is the administrator of the entire system or service. Passed to the Dispatcher program in the `_ADMIN` variable and used in error messages.
*AdministratorMailemail*** ServiceAdminMail email	The fully qualified e-mail address of the system or service administrator. Passed to the Dispatcher program in the `_ADMAIL` variable and used in error messages.
Allow method1 ...	Lists the allowable values for the request method; this line does not actually set the method. The method names are `GET` and `POST`. See also HTML Syntax: FORM tag.
Debug flags ServiceDebug flags	Flags for debugging and output management. May be overridden with the _`DEBUG` field. The default is 2 (display status line). See also Debug Flags.
DebugMask flags ServiceDebugMask flags	The debug values that users are allowed to set. The default value for the `DebugMask` is 32767, which indicates that all debug values are allowed. Some debug values may represent a security risk, so you may want to selectively disable them by specifying a different `DebugMask` value, and then allow them only on certain services or when tracking down a problem. See also Debug Flags.
Export env-var sas-var ServiceExport env-var sas-var	Environment variables to be made available to Dispatcher programs. The sas-variableis optional; if omitted, the SAS variable name will be the same as the environment variable name (as long as it is a valid SAS name). Variables not beginning with an underscore are subject to long value splitting according to the field width. See also Common Environment Variables.
FieldWidth characters ServiceFieldWidth characters	Split column for fields with long values. May be overridden with the `_FLDWDTH` field. The default is 80 columns; the maximum is 200. See also Understanding Name/Value Pairs.
InitCmd (in LaunchService only)	The AF command necessary to invoke the Application Server. Do not include the `port=` parameter, which is valid only with the SocketService.
LaunchService id name	Begins a service definition and accepts two values: an ID and a name for the service. The ID specified for the service is used as the value for the `_service` field passed to the Broker from the HTML information in the Browser. The ID value is required.
Port *port1 port1-port3 ...* (in SocketService only)	The TCP/IP port number(s) that the Broker uses to send requests to the Application Servers. You can define multiple ports by separating their values with spaces or issuing the Port directive multiple times. Port ranges and symbolic names defined in the system services file are supported.
SasBin *command* (in LaunchService only)	The SAS command necessary to invoke a new SAS session. It is usually the fully qualified path to your SAS executable. When specifying SasBin on a Windows system, you must include the .exe extension for the SAS executable.
SasOpts options (in LaunchService only)	The SAS command line options that should be used when invoking a SAS session.
SASPoweredLogo URL ServiceSASPoweredLogo URL	The location of the Powered by SAS logo image file. See also Displaying the Powered by SAS Logo.
SelfURL URL	The self-referencing URL identifying the Broker program. The default value is the `SCRIPT_NAME` environment variable set by the Web server. The URL is passed to the SAS program in a variable called `_URL`. See Notes.
Server *host1 host2 ...* (in SocketService only)	The name or names of the physical machines on which the Application Servers are installed. You can supply the DNS name (for example, `APPSRV.YOURCOMP.COM`) or IP address (for example, `127.0.0.1`) of the machine. This directive is required with the socket service. A value of `localhost` can be used instead of a fully qualified DNS name if the Application Server is running on the same machine as the Web server. See also Fine-tuning System Performance.
ServiceCompatibility version	Application Server version number, if not the current version. Useful for transitioning between incompatible releases. Not needed if the Broker and server releases match.
ServiceDescription description	A long description for the service.
Set variable value ServiceSet variable value	A variable to define on every request. This is similar to Export, but no environment variable is needed. Useful to avoid hardcoding values such as the location of htmSQL in your applications. Variables not beginning with an underscore are subject to long value splitting according to the field width.
SocketService id name	Begins a service definition and accepts two values: an ID and name for the service. The ID specified for the service is used as the value for the `_service` field passed to the Broker from the HTML information in the Browser. The ID value is required.
Timeout seconds ServiceTimeout seconds	The number of seconds that the Broker should wait for a response from the Application Server. When the specified time elapses, the Broker returns an error message to the Browser. If no global timeout is specified, then timeout defaults to 60 seconds. See Notes.
TmpDir directory (in LaunchService only)	A directory (that must end with a slash) on the Web server machine (with read and write permissions allowed) where the application writes temporary files. All temporary files and directories, including the SASUSER and WORK libraries, log files, and other files used by the Broker and server, are created in TmpDir. Passed to the Dispatcher application in the `_TMPDIR` variable.

Notes

If a timeout occurs, your Dispatcher program exists in an undefined state. If queued up on a hung server, your program may never execute. However, if it was running or just about to run, it will most likely finish processing. If your program has an infinite loop error, it will run until the Application Server process is killed or interrupted by an administrator. Because a program may have no errors but simply require more than a few seconds to run, timeouts should be avoided by adding more Application Servers and/or increasing the ServiceTimeout value for long-running requests. You might also consider using LaunchServices for long programs.
The self-referencing URL identifies the Broker program URL. Most of the time you will not need to set this value. The URL is passed to the SAS program in a macro variable called _URL. The Web server uses the SCRIPT-NAME environment variable to change the value of _URL. You may need to change the self-referencing URL in the following situations:
- if your Web server does not set the SCRIPT-NAME environment variable or sets it incorrectly.
- if your site uses DNS load balancing with its Web servers. For example, a site may have a Web server WWW.COMPANY.COM that dynamically refers all browser requests to WWW1.COMPANY.COM-WWW5.COMPANY.COM. In this situation, the self-referencing URL might direct the request to WWW2.COMPANY.COM/CGI-BIN/BROKER rather than to the original, load-balanced Web server. If all the company's Web servers used the Dispatcher, you could set the self-referencing URL to point to WWW.COMPANY.COM/CGI-BIN/BROKER, which would direct all requests to the load-balanced service to maintain the use of Web server load balancing with each page of the Dispatcher application.

SAS/IntrNet 1.2: Application Dispatcher