110 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
110 lines
6.0 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Data Controller - 2025 Recap
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description: A recap of the features delivered in Data Controller for SAS over the 34 releases of 2025
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date: '2025-12-31 12:00:00'
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author: 'Allan Bowe'
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authorLink: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allanbowe/
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previewImg: './dc2025.jpg'
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tags:
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- Data Controller
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- SAS
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- Excel
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---
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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.
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## What Data Controller is (quick refresher)
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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**.
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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).
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## Data Controller 2025 at a glance
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Across calendar year 2025, [releases](https://git.datacontroller.io/dc/dc/releases) moved from **v6.12.2 (27JAN25)** to **v7.2.5 (09DEC25)**.
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Key themes:
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- **Viya deployments became dramatically simpler**, including "streaming app" deployment improvements (frontend in SAS Files), sensible defaults, and compute-context-aware setup.
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- **Data Catalog expanded** to include SAS catalogs and associated objects / entries, with corresponding storage changes and migrations.
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- **Accessibility work accelerated**, culminating in high Lighthouse scores, improved screen reader support, and CI checks to keep it that way.
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## 1) SAS Viya: from "deployment project" to "quick start"
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A major through-line of 2025 was reducing the friction of getting DC live on Viya:
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- **Content Security Policy (CSP) hardening & UI refactor**
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The UI was refactored to comply with Viya’s default (and strict) CSP, with deploy-flow improvements targeted at Viya.
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- **Better defaults for single-user installs**
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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.
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- **Compute-context-aware installs & streaming deploy maturity**
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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.
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## 2) Data Catalog got deeper: SAS catalogs + objects
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On **June 11, 2025**, **v7.0.0** introduced a major upgrade to cataloging:
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- Explore **SAS catalogs** and their **objects**, including created/modified attributes
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- Store catalog + object data alongside existing catalog entities (libraries/tables/variables)
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- UX improvements like additional counts and reducing the need for manual refresh steps after table configuration changes
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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).
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## 3) Accessibility + UX: measurable improvements (and staying power)
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2025 saw repeated, explicit investment in accessibility:
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- **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.
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- **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).
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- **v7.2.0:** introduced a **Lighthouse accessibility check pipeline** to keep accessibility from regressing.
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## 4) Internationalisation + "real world" data correctness
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A few 2025 changes were about getting the "last mile" right in global SAS estates:
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- Handling national-language datetime formats
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- Metadata navigation sorting improvements using linguistic sort sequences
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## 5) A 2025 customer story: AFA Insurance
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During 2025 we also [detailed the Data Controller use case with AFA Insurance (Sweden)](https://datacontroller.io/afa-insurance). They describe using Data Controller primarily for **steering/mapping/control tables**, where:
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- End users perform the mapping themselves in DC
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- Approvals are done directly in production without needing fixed programs
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- Filters are used so users focus only on "new signals" that need mapping
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They call out the **approval workflow** and **history/audit** as standout features, and also mention value from dropdowns, hooks, and lineage.
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## Selected 2025 release timeline (highlights)
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------------
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We would like to thank all of our customers for their continued support and feedback.
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> Our mission is for Data Controller to be secure, simple, and fast - when loading ad-hoc data into SAS.
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If you'd like to kick the tyres, [reach out](https://datacontroller.io/contact/), or just go ahead and perform an [installation](https://docs.datacontroller.io/dci-requirements/) - the base product is completely free to use, with [premium features](https://datacontroller.io/pricing/) / support plan available on request.
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<!--
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## Selected 2025 release timeline (highlights)
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| Date | Version | Theme | What changed |
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|---|---:|---|---|
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| 2025-01-31 | 6.13.0 | Quality | CSV upload/editor fixes + related tests |
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| 2025-03-24 | 6.14.5 | Accessibility | Lighthouse/accessibility improvements; hook robustness in DI-job contexts |
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| 2025-05-28 | 6.14.8 | Viya hardening | CSP-compliant UI refactor + Viya deploy flow improvements |
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| 2025-06-06 | 6.16.2 | Viya deploy | Streaming Viya deploy with self-configuration improvements |
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| 2025-06-11 | 7.0.0 | Data Catalog | SAS catalogs + objects captured/stored; reduced manual refresh steps |
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| 2025-07-23 | 7.1.0 | Accessibility | Frontend-only: Lighthouse 100%, better screen reader support |
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| 2025-08-08 | 7.2.0 | Engineering | CI pipeline for Lighthouse accessibility checks |
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| 2025-12-09 | 7.2.5 | Reliability | Dependency bumps, improved testing, restore-check flexibility|
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--> |