Access SAS xpt Data in PHP through Connect Server

You can use CData Connect Server to access SAS xpt data from SQL Server clients, without needing to perform an ETL or cache data. Follow the steps below to create a virtual SQL Server database for SAS xpt and connect to SAS xpt data in real time through PHP's standard SQL Server interface, i.e. sqlsrv_connect.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for SAS xpt, allowing you to easily build reports from live SAS xpt data in PHP — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, PHP generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SAS xpt, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested SAS xpt data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for SAS xpt Data

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

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "SAS xpt" from Available Data Sources.
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).

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to SAS xpt data from PHP.

Connect in PHP

The following examples show how to use object-oriented interfaces to connect and execute queries. Initialize the connection object with the following parameters to connect to the virtual SQL Server database:

• Server name/Host: Specify the remote host location where the service is running.
• Username: Specify the username for a user you authorized in Connect Server.
• Password: Specify the password for the authorized user account.
• Database Name: Specify the name of the virtual database you created for SAS xpt.
• Port: Specify the port the service is running on, port 1433 in this example.

sqlsrv_connect

<?php
$serverName = "connect_server_url, 1433"; //Connect Server Address, portNumber (default is 1433)
$connectionInfo = array( "Database"=>"SASXpt1", "UID"=>"userName", "PWD"=>"password");
$conn = sqlsrv_connect( $serverName, $connectionInfo);

if( $conn ) {
     echo "Connection established.<br>";
}else{
     echo "Connection could not be established.<br>";
     die( print_r( sqlsrv_errors(), true));
}
?>

PDO

<?php
<?php
$user = my_connect_user
$pass = my_connect_pass

$pdo = new PDO("sqlsrv:Server=connect_server_url,1433;Database=SASXpt1", $user , $pass);

?>

Query in PHP

With the connection established, you can then access tables. The following steps walk through the example:

1. Query the table; for example, SampleTable_1. The results will be stored as an associative array in the $result object.
2. Iterate over each row and column, printing the values to display in the PHP page.
3. Close the connection.

sqlsrv_connect

$result = $sqlsrv_connect->query("SELECT Id, Column1 FROM SampleTable_1 WHERE Column2 = '100'");
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
  foreach ($row as $k=>$v) {
    echo "$k : $v";
    echo "<br>"; 
  }
}
$sqlsrv_connect->close();

PDO

$result = $pdo->query("SELECT Id, Column1 FROM SampleTable_1 WHERE Column2 = '100'");
while($row = $result->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
  foreach ($row as $k=>$v) {
    echo "$k : $v";
    echo "<br>"; 
  }
}
$result = null;
$pdo = null;

SQL Server Access to SAS xpt Data using PHP

You have retrieved live SAS xpt Data using PHP. Now, you can easily access data sources and more — all without replicating SAS xpt data.

To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your applications, try CData Connect Server.