The SAS Information Delivery Portal 2.0 includes the following new features:

• enhanced user interface

• integration with the new SAS solutions and Business Intelligence tools

• new metadata architecture

• development of new portlets

• enhancements to the information map viewer

• enhancements to the SAS Web Infrastructure Kit

• improved management of content items

• more robust management of pages and portlets

The SAS Information Delivery Portal's user interface is completely redesigned. It provides increased usability, improved quality of presentation, and consistency with other products in the SAS solutions and Business Intelligence suites.

From a single point in the portal, you can enter your preferences for locale, theme, e-mail notifications, and date and time formats. These selected preferences apply to all SAS solutions that run in the portal.

The SAS Information Delivery Portal can now be installed as part of a larger interoperable suite of SAS solutions and Business Intelligence tools that are designed to meet the needs of different audiences, with the portal serving as a single access point. A single sign-on mechanism enables user authentication and session information to be shared among applications. You need to log on only once in order to access all of the information that you are authorized to see.

The new SAS Metadata Server provides a central point for administering portal users, configuring system resources, and controlling access to portal content.

The portal was developed using a new Web application architecture that eases customization and enables new portlets to be developed and deployed quickly.

The following new portlets have been added:

• In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 2, you can create your own WebDAV content portlets. A WebDAV content portlet displays the contents of an HTML fragment that is stored in the portal's WebDAV repository.

  In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 4, a WebDAV content portlet can contain a link to additional detailed information. To specify the link, you can enter a URL that uses the proprietary SAS Business Intelligence Platform (SBIP) protocol. You can also enter an SBIP URL to specify the HTML fragment for the portlet.

• In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 3, you can create your own WebDAV graph portlets. A WebDAV graph portlet displays a graph that uses data from the portal's WebDAV repository. The portlet can also include a link to additional detailed information.

• In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 3, you can create your own information map viewer portlets. An information map viewer portlet displays data by using bookmarks that you create in the Visual Data Explorer component.

The following enhancements were made to the information map viewer:

• The new information map viewer enables relational and OLAP data to be viewed using graphics and tables.

• In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 2, extensive enhancements were made to the information map viewing functions.

• In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 4, you can perform the following tasks:

  • view ESRI maps

  • edit properties for each of the data viewers

  • apply SAS formats to your data items

  • calculate data items by using functions

  • create data filters that are based on relative time values

The following enhancements have been made to the SAS Web Infrastructure Kit, which serves as the infrastructure for the SAS Information Delivery Portal Web application:

• In SAS 9.1.3, the SAS Web Infrastructure Kit includes the capability to run the remote SAS Services application as a Windows service. This capability is enabled through the use of the Java Service Wrapper from Tanuki Software, which is provided with SAS Foundation Services.

• In SAS 9.1.3, the IBM WebSphere servlet container is now a supported platform for the SAS Web Infrastructure Kit.

• In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 2, the SAS Web Infrastructure Kit includes new tools that content administrators can use to delete shared pages and page templates from the metadata repository.

• In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 2, the SAS Web Infrastructure Kit includes a new theme called SAS Winter, which administrators can use as a basis for creating new themes. In addition, the style sheets that are included in the themes have been modified.

In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 2, if you log on to a Web server in order to access the portal, you now have the ability to log off from a portal session.

In SAS Information Delivery Portal 2.0, you can perform the following tasks:

• e-mail links to portal content

• share content with other users in a group

• publish content to SAS publication channels

• bookmark content for future reference

• receive alert notifications for some types of content

In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 3, you can create, edit, and delete applications and syndication channels. In addition, you can create new content items (including pages, portlets, applications, syndication channels, and links) without adding them to the portal.

In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 3, you can delete and edit content items from the search results page.

In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 3, content administrators can perform the following tasks:

• create, share, and delete page templates

• share pages, portlets, links, applications, and syndication channels

• edit and delete shared portlets, links, applications, and syndication channels

In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 3, the following enhancements have been added for laying out and deleting pages:

• Pages can be laid out either in columns or in a grid (with rows and columns). In a grid layout, individual portlets can span columns and rows. For both types of layouts, you can specify the percentage width for each column.

• When deleting a page, you can now specify whether to also delete the portlets that are on the page. When deleting a collection portlet, you can now specify whether to also delete the items that are displayed in the portlet.

In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 3, the properties of a page now include a page rank, which indicates the importance of the page as compared to other pages. This value can be used to determine the order in which pages are listed in the navigation bar.

In SAS 9.1.3 Service Pack 3, the workflow for adding, creating, and editing pages and portlets has changed:

• The Options menu now includes two entries for editing pages, one for editing page content and one for editing page properties.

• Editable portlets now include two edit icons, one for editing portlet content and one for editing portlet properties.

• When editing the contents of a collection portlet, you can specify whether the portlet is to display each item's location and description. This option is also available for the Bookmarks portlet.