Contents Publish Package Interface Previous Next

PACKAGE_BEGIN

Initializes a package and returns a unique package identifier.

Syntax

CALL PACKAGE_BEGIN(packageId, desc, nameValue, rc
<, properties, propValue1, ...propValueN>);

packageId
Numeric, output.
Identifies the new package.

desc
Character, input.
Describes the package.

nameValue
Character, input.
Identifies a list of one or more space-separated name/value pairs, each in one of the following forms:

  • name
  • name=value
  • name="value"
  • name="single value with spaces"
  • name=(value)
  • name=("value")
  • name=(value1, "value 2",... valueN)

Name/value pairs are site-specific; they are used for the purpose of filtering.

rc
Numeric, output.
Return code.

properties
Character, input.
Identifies a comma-separated list of optional property names. Valid property names are as follows:
  • ABSTRACT
  • EXPIRATION_DATETIME
  • NAMESPACES

propValue1, ...propValueN
Character/numeric, input.
Specifies one value for each specified property name. The order of the property values must match the order of the property names in the properties parameter. Valid property values are defined as follows:

ABSTRACT
Character string provides an abstract (short summary) of the inserted package.

EXPIRATION_DATETIME
Numeric SAS datetime value. See SAS Language: Reference for details.

NAMESPACES
specifies unique names that associate published packages with specific contexts on a WebDAV-compliant server. The association of a namespace with a package organizes package data on a server according to meaningful criteria, or contexts. A namespace is an additional scoping criterion for a name/value description of a package or package entry. When you publish a package to WebDAV, the name/value descriptors are stored with the package or its entries to the specified WebDAV namespaces.

As an example, a package might be described as containing first quarter profits that were generated by the Houston office. The specified description and scope uniquely define the package so that consumers can filter name/value pairs on packages or entries unambiguously.

An example of a namespace definition that you enter in the Namespaces field follows:

HOUSTON='http://www.AlpineAirways.com/revenue/final'

A namespace specification is case-sensitive with single quotation marks surrounding embedded values. To specify multiple namespaces, separate each namespace definition with a space.

For details about retrieving packages with the aid of scoping and filtering criteria, see Specifying Name/Value Pairs.

Details

The package identifier returned by this CALL routine is used in subsequent INSERT and PACKAGE CALL routines.

Examples

The following example initializes a package and returns the package identifier in packageId. 

packageId=0;
rc=0;
desc = "Nightly run.";
nameValue='';
CALL PACKAGE_BEGIN(packageId, desc, nameValue, rc);

The following example initializes a package with an expiration date and returns the package identifier in packageId. 

packageId=0;
rc=0;
desc = "Nightly run.";
nameValue='';
dtValue = '20apr2010:08:30:00'dt;
CALL PACKAGE_BEGIN(packageId, desc, nameValue, rc, "EXPIRATION_DATETIME",
                   dtValue);

The following example initializes a package with an expiration date and an abstract character string and returns the package identifier in packageId. 

packageId=0;
rc=0;
desc = "Nightly run.";
nameValue='';
dtValue = '20apr2010:08:30:00'dt;
abstract = "This package contains company confidential information.";
properties="EXPIRATION_DATETIME, ABSTRACT";
CALL PACKAGE_BEGIN(packageId, desc, nameValue, rc, properties, dtValue,
                   abstract);
The following example initializes a package with two namespaces and returns the package identifier in packageId. 
packageId=0;
rc=0;
desc = "Nightly run.";
nameValue='';
namespaces = 'A="http://www.alpair.com/myNamespace1"
              B="http://www.alpair.com/myNamespace2"';
CALL PACKAGE_BEGIN(packageId, desc, nameValue, rc, "NAMESPACES",
                   namespaces);

See Also


Contents Publish Package Interface Previous Next