What's New in Application Dispatcher?

Release 8.2

May 17, 2001

BrokerPassword directive: Documentation for the BrokerPassword directive was added. The directive enables users to specify a password in order to protect the Broker administration interface.

February 2001

Improved administration interface

When you access the Application Broker URL using no parameters, a default administration page appears in your browser. This page gives you access to administration information, SAS/IntrNet samples, and SAS/IntrNet documentation. Also, additional usage statistics are now available from a Load Manager statistics report.

Support for new catalog entry types

The replay program feature of Application Dispatcher supports several new Web-related catalog entry types. These new types include CSS, CSV, PDF, RTF, WML, and XML.

Support for Application Server and Load Manager as Windows NT services

The Application Server and the Load Manager can now be installed as Windows NT services. This enables you to automatically invoke Application Dispatcher at system boot time on a Windows NT server.

Improved tools for configuring Application Dispatcher services.

The inetcfg utility now generates shared configuration files for all servers in a service. On some hosts, the inetcfg utility generates sample configuration information for the broker.cfg file.

Improved Load Manager scheduling

Load Manager scheduling for Web applications that use sessions has been improved.

Customized handling of expired and invalid sessions

A user exit for expired and invalid sessions is now available. You can customize the handling of expired sessions to enable users to re-authenticate and restart a Web application. For more information, see the INVSESS option for the SESSION statement.

Improved Application Dispatcher samples

Improved Application Dispatcher samples demonstrate many features of ODS, including generating multiple output formats, building drill-down links into an application, and generating graphical output with the GIF, JAVA, and ACTIVEX drivers.

Support for new operating environments

The Application Server is now available for the following operating environments:

64-bit AIX/6000
64-bit HP-UX
64-bit Solaris

Also, support for the Linux operating system, which was previously experimental, is now at production level.

Release 8.1

May 11, 2000

New Features and Enhancements

New Application Server communication access method. With the new access method, the Application Server can now return results by using the request connection. A new Broker configuration directive (FullDuplex) enables communication between the Broker and the Application Server by means of one socket. This feature eliminates the need for the fwproxy when a firewall is between the Broker and the Application Server. It also reduces the number of TCP/IP connections made by the Application Server.
A STATISTICS statement that allows the capturing of request statistics into a data set. This data set can then be used to analyze Application Server usage and performance.
Automatic header generation has been added. The Application Server now generates a set of default HTTP headers for requests, automatically. The default header includes Content-type only.
Encryption of all data between the Broker and Application Server is supported. SASPROPRIETARY encryption is available to all SAS/IntrNet users. But, if you license SAS/SECURE software, you can use RC2, RC4, DES, or other encryption standards. A new Broker configuration directive (Encrypt) enables encryption for a service.
Improved administration of multi-server services. Administrative programs such as PING, STATUS, and STOP, are now sent to all Application Servers that run for the service specified (for example, pool, launch, and socket services).

Version 8.0

November 11, 1999

New Features and Enhancements

The Application Server is re-implemented as a procedure (PROC APPSRV). The new server is faster for many applications and much more tolerant of application errors and programming bugs. PROC APPSRV will run most existing applications written for the Version 6 or Version 7 Application Server.
Sessions allow you to save state between multiple client requests. Sessions give you a working library for catalogs and data sets that is saved for the life of the session. Sessions also save selected macro variables at the end of a request and restore them for the next request in the same session.
Host-based authentication allows you to control access to applications. Clients can be required to supply a valid host username and password before a request is executed. All accesses made by that request to catalogs, data sets, and external files are automatically checked against the supplied username.
Pool services allow Application Servers to be started on demand. The Load Manager component can start servers on local or remote systems based on the user loading. Options are provided to pre-start servers, limit total number of servers per system, and stop servers after an idle time-out.
User exits are provided to allow the server to run a fixed program before or after every client request. These programs can be used by the server administrator or application developer to set up a standard request environment, implement security policies, log application activity, or implement other site-specific procedures.
Input variables have unsafe characters such as & or % removed before the request is executed. This makes it easier to write secure applications. The full input value is available by means of a user function.
Improved handling of input variables allows you to preserve line breaks in multi-line input text.
Improved server logging options.
Upgrading From a Previous Version provides guidelines for upgrading from a previous release.