What's New in SAS/CONNECT 9.3

Overview

SAS/CONNECT has the following changes or enhancements:

system options to specify the amount of time a SAS/CONNECT server listens for a client to connect before terminating and to specify whether a SAS/CONNECT server is authorized to access a SAS Metadata Server at server sign-on
ability of the UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD procedures to support the transfer of data containing extended SAS names that are enabled by using new Base SAS system options
new options on the %SYSLPUT macro statement to create a single macro variable in the server session or copy a specified group of macro variables to the server session

SAS/CONNECT System Options

TCPLISTENTIME

The TCPLISTENTIME= option is a portable SAS system option that enables you to control idle and unresponsive sign-on connections. The option enables you to specify how long (in seconds) a server “listens” for a response from the client during sign on before it exits automatically. For more information, see TCPLISTENTIME= System Option.
CONNECTMETACONNECTION

This option specifies whether a SAS/CONNECT server is authorized to access a SAS Metadata Server at server sign-on. The metadata credential passing now always looks for a metadata connection by default. When a SAS/CONNECT client session has an active metadata server connection and signs on to a SAS/CONNECT server, the server is automatically given access to the SAS Metadata Server for the duration of the SAS/CONNECT server session. For more information, see CONNECTMETACONNECTION System Option.

Support for Extended SAS Names In the UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD Procedures

New system options in Base SAS enable greater flexibility when transferring data that contains enhanced SAS names.

By specifying the system options VALIDVARNAME=ANY and VALIDMEMNAME=EXTEND, names that contain special characters or national characters are now allowed for the following types of data with the UPLOAD and DOWNLOAD procedures:

a SAS data set
a SAS library
a SAS variable
a DBMS table
a table column heading in a DBMS table

For more information, see VALIDMEMNAME= System Option in SAS System Options: Reference, VALIDVARNAME= System Option in SAS System Options: Reference, DOWNLOAD Procedure, and UPLOAD Procedure.

Enhancements to the %SYSLPUT Statement

The enhancements to the %SYSLPUT macro statement save you time and effort by allowing you to copy multiple macro variables to a SAS server session in a single statement rather than having to copy them one by one. The new arguments enable you to define a group of variables to be copied based on variable type (automatic or user-defined), variable scope (global or local), and variable name (/LIKE= wildcard). The new wildcard option, /LIKE=, lets you specify the group of variables to be copied based on pattern-matching in the variable name. The following is a summary of the new %SYSLPUT macro statement options:

_ALL_

copies all user-generated and automatic macro variables to the server session.
_AUTOMATIC_

copies all automatic macro variables to the server session. The automatic variables copied depend on the SAS products installed at your site and on your operating system. The scope is identified as AUTOMATIC.
_GLOBAL_

copies all user-generated global macro variables to the server session. The scope is identified as GLOBAL.
_LOCAL_

copies all user-generated local macro variables to the server session. The scope is the name of the currently executing macro.
_/LIKE_

Specifies a subset of macro variables whose names match a user-specified character sequence, or pattern. Only this identified group of variables with names matching the pattern will be copied to the server session.
_USER_

copies all user-generated global and local macro variables to the server session. The scope is identified either as GLOBAL or as the name of the macro in which the macro variable is defined.

For more information, see %SYSLPUT Statement.