Re: Sas Web Services Demo

Alan and Don:
Great preview! Ever since my infamous Cable Guy (with co-conspiritor =
Wild Bill) presentation at the last SUGI in Orlando, I've maintained an =
interest in network and Web delivery of SAS datasets. Looks as if you =
have pulled it off. Shades of David Ward and Onyx. This time around =
within the limits of SAS licensing...
=20
In the demo I don't seem to have much control over the process. I assume =
that future versions will give more control over the Web service to the =
user. Or perhaps I am missing something. In any event, Web services look =
promising for a number of applications.
Sig

________________________________

From: owner-sas-l@listserv.uga.edu on behalf of Alan Churchill
Sent: Wed 11/16/2005 10:08 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Sas Web Services Demo



All,

Don Henderson and I have been working on a demo application showing
SAS\IntrNet packaged as a web service. We originally started work on =
this as
an example for Don's book on the SAS/IntrNet Application Dispatcher.

The example client application is now available for download at the
following address:

http://www.savian.net/utilities.aspx (id 17, Sas Web Services Demo)


It comes with a full installer and does NOT require SAS on your machine =
as
it connects to a web service on my web site. After downloading, run
setup.exe.

[Note: If it asks for .NET 2.0 install, please select the .NET 2.0 =
Framework
Redistributable Package x86 from the link]




The demo is just a simple application that allows the user to select a =
SAS
dataset and return the data to the client application. The data set can =
be
displayed in one of two ways:

- as a simple HTML table (most of you will recognize the output as ODS
output).
- binding the returned data from the SAS dataset to a datagrid.

Of course, the web service could return any SAS output. The demo shows
returning a data set (e.g., the results of an analysis, a forecast, a
summary file, etc) as we expect that to be a typical request.

The complete demo has two components:

- a web service that is hosted on a web site; and
- a client application that we decided to make available now to spark =
some
conversation about web services and SAS.

The current download is only the client application. The plan is to =
include
both the client and a web service application (including code examples) =
in
the sample environment that is part of Don's book. That will allow =
readers
to access their own data using the sample client application. The reason =
a
web service is not provided now is that it depends upon the sample
environment for the book (i.e., it uses programs that are part of that
environment).

Web services have gained wide acceptance and interest and demand for web
services is growing. As of the fall of 2005, for example, there are over =
350
vendors (including SAS Institute) that are part of the Web Services
Interoperability consortium (www.ws-i.org). This represents an expanding
opportunity for SAS and its users to make the facilities of the SAS =
system
available to a broad range of business applications. Programmers who =
make
use of the interoperability of web services to provide access to as well =
as
leverage SAS will add extraordinary depth and power to the rapidly =
growing
world of web services.

We will leave it to your imagination as to what kinds of SAS =
functionality
(within reason) you would want to expose/deliver via web services. =
Hopefully
we can have some interesting discussions about this on the L. And, =
perhaps
as a result of those discussions, we might add additional demos showing
other functionality.

We hope you find this demo compelling.

We look forward to your comments and questions.

Alan and Don