Features that are new in SAS ETL Studio 9.1.3 include the following:

• Support for the SAS Scalable Performance Data Server (SPD Server). The SAS SPD Server is a high performance, multi-user, parallel-processing data server with a comprehensive security infrastructure, backup and restore utilities, and sophisticated administrative and tuning options. The SAS SPD Server can be faster and more flexible than other storage options, including the SAS SPD Engine.

• Two new transformation templates provide additional support for slowly changing dimensions (SCD):

  • Unlike the SCD Type 2 transformation, which tracks changes to a table's descriptive attributes, the Key Effective Date transformation tracks changes in a table's keys. The Key Effective Date transformation can be used to track changes in a table that does not have descriptive attributes, such as an intersection table, which is a table that describes the relationships between two or more tables.

    For example, suppose that you have a table of users, called USERS, and a table of groups, called GROUPS. An intersection table called USERS_X_GROUPS could describe the many-to-many relationships between USERS and GROUPS. The Key Effective Date transformation would use date ranges (beginning and end dates) to detect when a new key combination has been entered in USERS_X_GROUPS.

  • The Surrogate Key Generator transformation enables you to create a unique identifier for records, a surrogate key. The surrogate key can be used to perform operations that would be difficult or impossible to perform on the original key. For example, a numeric surrogate key could be generated for an alphanumeric original key, to make sorting easier.

• The "Redeploy Jobs to Stored Process" feature rebuilds all stored processes that are associated with SAS ETL Studio jobs. Use this feature when you update a job for which a stored process has been generated. You can also use this feature when the computing environment changes, such as when a metadata repository is promoted from a test environment to a production environment, for example.

• The property window for the Mining Results transformation was updated to make it easier to select inputs and outputs.