Working in the Middle-Tier Environment

SAS Web Infrastructure Platform

The SAS Web Infrastructure Platform is a collection of services and applications that provide common infrastructure and integration features to be used by SAS Web applications. These services and applications provide the following benefits:

consistency in installation, configuration, and administration tasks for Web applications
greater consistency in users' interactions with Web applications
integration among Web applications as a result of the ability to share common resources

The following services and applications are included in the SAS Web Infrastructure Platform:

Services and Applications in the SAS Web Infrastructure Platform
Application or Service	Features
SAS BI Web Services for Java	Can be used to enable your custom applications to invoke and obtain metadata about SAS Stored Processes. Web services enable distributed applications that are written in different programming languages and that run on different operating systems to communicate using standard Web-based protocols. The most common protocol is the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). The SAS BI Web Services for Java interface is based on the XML For Analysis (XMLA) Version 1.1 specification.
SAS Shared Web Assets	Contains graph applet JARs that are shared across SAS Web applications. They display graphs in stored processes and in the SAS Stored Process Web application.
SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Services	Provides a common infrastructure for SAS Web applications. The infrastructure supports activities such as auditing, authentication, configuration, status and monitoring, e-mail, theme management, and data sharing across SAS Web applications.
SAS Logon Manager	Provides a common user authentication mechanism for SAS Web applications. It displays a dialog box for user ID and password entry, authenticates the user, and launches the requested application. SAS Logon Manager supports a single sign-on authentication model. When this model is enabled, it provides access to a variety of computing resources (including servers and Web pages) during the application session without repeatedly prompting the user for credentials. You can configure SAS Logon Manager to display custom messages and to specify whether a logon dialog box is displayed when users log off. In addition, you can use third-party products in conjunction with SAS Logon Manager to enable users to access multiple Web applications within the same browser session.
SAS Preferences Manager	Provides a common mechanism for managing preferences for SAS Web applications. The feature enables administrators to set default preferences for locale, theme, alert notification, and time, date, and currency display. In the SAS Information Delivery Portal, users can view the default settings and update their individual preferences.
SAS Stored Process Web Application	Executes stored processes on behalf of a Web client and returns results to a Web browser. The SAS Stored Process Web application is similar to the SAS/IntrNet Application Broker, and has the same general syntax and debug options. Web applications can be implemented using the SAS Stored Process Web application, the Stored Process Service API, or a combination of both. Here is how the SAS Stored Process Web Application processes a request: Users enter information in an HTML form using their Web browser and then submit it. The information is passed to the Web server, which invokes the first component, the SAS Stored Process Web application. The Stored Process Web application accepts data from the Web server, and contacts the SAS Metadata Server for retrieval of stored process information. The stored process data is then sent by the Stored Process Web application to a stored process server via the object spawner. The stored process server invokes a SAS program that processes that information. The results of the SAS program are sent back through the Web application and Web server to the Web browser and the awaiting users.
SAS Web Administration Console	Provides features for monitoring and administering middle-tier components. This browser-based interface enables administrators to do the following: Monitor authenticated users and system users who are logged into SAS Web applications, and send e-mail to authenticated users. Before system maintenance, use the Restart Maintenance Wizard to send e-mail to users to log off from their sessions within a specified deadline, log off users after the deadline, and prohibit new users from logging on to their applications. Before minor system maintenance, use the Quiesce System feature to allow existing users to stay logged into their user sessions, and quiesce the system by preventing new users from logging on to SAS Web applications. Create, delete, and manage permissions for multiple folders on the SAS Content Server View configuration information for each middle-tier component.
SAS Content Server	Stores digital content (such as documents, reports, and images) that is created and used by the SAS Web applications.

In the middle tier, the SAS Web Infrastructure Platform plays an important and critical role with a collection of middle-tier services and applications that provide basic integration services.

In the Web application server, two services are available to all SAS Web applications:

SAS Foundation Services
SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Services

SAS Foundation Services

The SAS Foundation Services is a set of core infrastructure services that enables Java programmers to write distributed applications that are integrated with the SAS platform. This suite of Java application programming interfaces provides core middleware infrastructure services. These services include the following:

client connections to SAS application servers
dynamic service discovery
user authentication
profile management
session management
activity logging
metadata and content repository access
connection management
WebDAV service

Extension services for information publishing, event management, and SAS Stored Process execution are also provided. All of the SAS Web applications that are described in this document use the SAS Java Platform Services. If you have correctly installed and configured the Web applications, the platform services are defined in your SAS metadata repository.

You can verify this metadata in the SAS Management Console. Depending on the Web applications that were installed, the SAS Portal Local Services (used by the SAS Information Delivery Portal) are displayed in the SAS Management Console.

In addition, other applications and portlets might have deployment of their own local services.

SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Services

The SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Services provide common infrastructure and integration features that can be shared by any SAS application. Here is a description of the features:

Audit provides a single, common auditing capability. The addition of SAS Shared Services extends the functionality.
Authentication is a common method for authenticating middle-tier applications. A corresponding Web service provides connectivity based on WS security standards for Web service clients.
Configuration is a standard way to define, store, and retrieve configuration information for SAS applications.
Directives provide application integration so that SAS applications can share intelligence and data. Applications can link to one another without requiring specific information about a particular deployment location.
Mail is a single, common mechanism for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)-based mail.
Status and monitoring is a collective set of services providing information about the configured or functioning system.
Themes provide access to theme definitions for presentation assets used in Web applications.
Registry provides access to services for desktop clients; a client needs to know only a single endpoint to determine other required locations.

Top of Page