Rapidly Develop SAS xpt-Driven Apps with Active Query Builder

Write standard .NET to expose SAS xpt data through an SQL interface: Active Query Builder helps developers write SQL interfaces; the CData ODBC Driver for SAS xpt enables standards-based access to SAS xpt. This integration uses the Microsoft ADO.NET Provider for ODBC as a bridge between the ODBC Driver and the Active Query Builder objects to build a visual SQL composer.

Connect to SAS xpt as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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).

Use SQL to Interact with SAS xpt

Follow the steps below to create a WinForms visual query builder.

1. In a new Windows Forms project, drag the QueryBuilder from the Toolbox onto the form.
2. Add a reference to ActiveQueryBuilder.ODBCMetadataProvider.
3. Add an OdbcConnection and set the connection string to the DSN that you created in the first section. OdbcConnection connection = new OdbcConnection(); connection.ConnectionString = "DSN=SASXpt"
4. Initialize ODBCMetadataProvider and GeneralSyntaxProvider instances and set the Connection property of the ODBCMetadataProvider object to the OdbcConnection. GenericSyntaxProvider syntaxProvider = new GenericSyntaxProvider(); ODBCMetadataProvider metadataProvider = new ODBCMetadataProvider(); metadataProvider.Connection = connection;
5. Set the corresponding MetadataProvider and SyntaxProvider properties of the QueryBuilder object. queryBuilder1.MetadataProvider = metadataProvider; queryBuilder1.SyntaxProvider = syntaxProvider;
6. Call the InitiatelizeDatabaseSchemaTree method of the QueryBuilder class to retrieve SAS xpt metadata and generate a tree view of SAS xpt tables. queryBuilder1.InitializeDatabaseSchemaTree();

7. After creating the QueryBuilder, connect it to a TextBox or, as we use, the ActiveQueryBuilder SQLTextEditor: Drag and drop an SQLTextEditor onto the designer.

8. Add the following code to the Validating event for the SQLTextEditor: private void sqlTextEditor1_Validating(object sender, CancelEventArgs e) { try { // Update the query builder with manually edited query text: queryBuilder1.SQL = sqlTextEditor1.Text; } catch (SQLParsingException ex) { e.Cancel = true; // Set caret to error position sqlTextEditor1.SelectionStart = ex.ErrorPos.pos; // Report error MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "Parsing error"); } }
9. Add the following to the SQLUpdated event: private void queryBuilder1_SQLUpdated(object sender, EventArgs e) { sqlTextEditor1.Text = queryBuilder1.FormattedSQL; }

10. You can now build queries visually: Double-click a table in the Columns Pane Area and an entity/relationship diagram is displayed in the Query Building Area. Columns that you select in the diagram are added to the query.