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title, description, date, author, authorLink, previewImg, tags
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| Data Controller - 2025 Recap | A recap of the features delivered in Data Controller for SAS over the 34 releases of 2025 | 2026-12-31 12:00:00 | Allan Bowe | https://www.linkedin.com/in/allanbowe/ | ./dc2025.jpg |
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In 2025, Data Controller’s theme was making governed, auditable data change easier to roll out — especially on SAS Viya — while continuing to invest in metadata/catalog capabilities and accessibility.
What Data Controller is (quick refresher)
Data Controller is a SAS-powered web application for adding, modifying, and deleting data in target tables—while keeping control with data owners via a review/approve workflow and a full audit trail.
Under the hood, it’s designed for multi-user, production-friendly operation (locking, security, approvals, and repeatable update logic), and it supports multiple SAS environments (including SAS 9 and Viya).
Data Controller 2025 at a glance
Across calendar year 2025, releases moved from v6.12.2 (27JAN25) to v7.2.5 (09DEC25).
Key themes:
- Viya deployments became dramatically simpler, including "streaming app" deployment improvements (frontend in SAS Files), sensible defaults, and compute-context-aware setup.
- Data Catalog expanded to include SAS catalogs and associated objects / entries, with corresponding storage changes and migrations.
- Accessibility work accelerated, culminating in high Lighthouse scores, improved screen reader support, and CI checks to keep it that way.
1) SAS Viya: from "deployment project" to "quick start"
A major through-line of 2025 was reducing the friction of getting DC live on Viya:
-
Content Security Policy (CSP) hardening & UI refactor
The UI was refactored to comply with Viya’s default (and strict) CSP, with deploy-flow improvements targeted at Viya. -
Better defaults for single-user installs
DC began defaulting the physical deployment path and SAS Drive location in ways that reduce the need for pre-provisioned shared directories in straightforward scenarios. -
Compute-context-aware installs & streaming deploy maturity
Releases in early June focused on ensuring deployment actions happen with the selected shared compute context, and then delivering a streaming Viya version that can self-configure key deployment choices during setup.
2) Data Catalog got deeper: SAS catalogs + objects
On June 11, 2025, v7.0.0 introduced a major upgrade to cataloging:
- Explore SAS catalogs and their objects, including created/modified attributes
- Store catalog + object data alongside existing catalog entities (libraries/tables/variables)
- UX improvements like additional counts and reducing the need for manual refresh steps after table configuration changes
This aligned well with DC’s broader approach to metadata: DC’s optional data + catalog scan is designed to track how your SAS estate changes over time (including storing history using SCD2 patterns).
3) Accessibility + UX: measurable improvements (and staying power)
2025 saw repeated, explicit investment in accessibility:
- v6.14.5: "significantly improves accessibility (lighthouse) scores" and also included a practical SAS hook-related robustness fix (
%GLOBAL SQLRC;) for embedded DI Job usage. - v7.1.0: a frontend-only release focused on accessibility (Lighthouse 100%) and screen reader support, plus a small grid interaction improvement (Excel-like deselection).
- v7.2.0: introduced a Lighthouse accessibility check pipeline to keep accessibility from regressing.
4) Internationalisation + "real world" data correctness
A few 2025 changes were about getting the "last mile" right in global SAS estates:
- Handling national-language datetime formats
- Metadata navigation sorting improvements using linguistic sort sequences
5) A 2025 customer story: AFA Insurance
During 2025 we also detailed the Data Controller use case with AFA Insurance (Sweden). They describe using Data Controller primarily for steering/mapping/control tables, where:
- End users perform the mapping themselves in DC
- Approvals are done directly in production without needing fixed programs
- Filters are used so users focus only on "new signals" that need mapping
They call out the approval workflow and history/audit as standout features, and also mention value from dropdowns, hooks, and lineage.
Selected 2025 release timeline (highlights)
| Date | Version | Theme | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-01-31 | 6.13.0 | Quality | CSV upload/editor fixes + related tests |
| 2025-03-24 | 6.14.5 | Accessibility | Lighthouse/accessibility improvements; hook robustness in DI-job contexts |
| 2025-05-28 | 6.14.8 | Viya hardening | CSP-compliant UI refactor + Viya deploy flow improvements |
| 2025-06-06 | 6.16.2 | Viya deploy | Streaming Viya deploy with self-configuration improvements |
| 2025-06-11 | 7.0.0 | Data Catalog | SAS catalogs + objects captured/stored; reduced manual refresh steps |
| 2025-07-23 | 7.1.0 | Accessibility | Frontend-only: Lighthouse 100%, better screen reader support |
| 2025-08-08 | 7.2.0 | Engineering | CI pipeline for Lighthouse accessibility checks |
| 2025-12-09 | 7.2.5 | Reliability | Dependency bumps, improved testing, restore-check flexibility |
We would like to thank all of our customers for their continued support and feedback.
Our mission is for Data Controller to be secure, simple, and fast - when loading ad-hoc data into SAS.
If you'd like to kick the tyres, reach out, or just go ahead and perform an installation - the base product is completely free to use, with premium features / support plan available on request.