Analyze SAS xpt Data in Infragistics Reveal

Reveal is a data visualization solution provided by Infragistics and can be paired with the CData API Server and SAS xpt ADO.NET Provider to build dynamic dashboards from live SAS xpt data. The CData API Server generates an OData API for SAS xpt, which is natively consumable in Reveal. In this article, we walk through connecting to SAS xpt in API Server and connecting to the API Server from Infragistics Reveal to create a simple dashboard.

Connect to SAS xpt from API Server

CData API Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Open API Server and click Settings -> Connection -> Add Connection
2. Select "SAS xpt"
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAS xpt.

   Connecting to Local SASXpt Files

   You can connect to local SASXpt file by setting the URI to a folder containing SASXpt files.

   Connecting to S3 data source

   You can connect to Amazon S3 source to read SASXpt files. Set the following properties to connect:

   • URI: Set this to the folder within your bucket that you would like to connect to.
   • AWSAccessKey: Set this to your AWS account access key.
   • AWSSecretKey: Set this to your AWS account secret key.
   • TemporaryLocalFolder: Set this to the path, or URI, to the folder that is used to temporarily download SASXpt file(s).

   Connecting to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2

   You can connect to ADLS Gen2 to read SASXpt files. Set the following properties to connect:

   • URI: Set this to the name of the file system and the name of the folder which contacts your SASXpt files.
   • AzureAccount: Set this to the name of the Azure Data Lake storage account.
   • AzureAccessKey: Set this to our Azure DataLakeStore Gen 2 storage account access key.
   • TemporaryLocalFolder: Set this to the path, or URI, to the folder that is used to temporarily download SASXpt file(s).
   

Add SAS xpt Resource Definitions in API Server

After connecting to SAS xpt, create Resources, which represent API endpoints for SAS xpt data.

1. Click Settings -> Resources -> Add Resource
2. Select the SAS xpt connection
3. Select the table you wish to retrieve and click Next
4. (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
5. Save the settings

Add an API Server User

Create a User to connect to SAS xpt from Reveal through API Server.

1. Click Settings -> Users
2. Click Add
3. Configure a User with access to the SAS xpt Connection and Resource(s)

(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

When accessing and connecting to multiple different domains from an application such as Ajax, there is a possibility of violating the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in Settings -> Server.

• Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
• Allow all domains without '*': ON
• Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
• Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization

Save the changes to the settings.

Create a Dashboard in Reveal

With the API Server configured, we can visualize SAS xpt data in Reveal.

1. Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New
2. Click Data Source -> OData Feed
3. Specify the API Server API endpoint URL, for example: https://serverurl/api.rsc
4. Select Generic Credentials and specify the API Server username and authentication token
5. Select the entity you wish to visualize
6. Select fields and choose a chart type

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live SAS xpt data. For more information on creating OData feeds from SAS xpt (and more than 150 other sources), visit the API Server page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live SAS xpt data in tools that consume OData APIs.