During the recent delivery of the SAS Visual Analytics 8.3: Basics course, I did a demo highlighting how Data Views can now be used to provide a "business layer" between the CAS Table and the Report, which would be used as the basis for future reports.
The functionality is great but, as far as I can tell, the only way to determine if there is a view associated with a CAS Table is to add the data source to a report, then click Data Options and select "Data View..." from the menu.
Suggestion(s):
Minimum: If there ARE data views, indicate how many in parenthesis beside the Data View... menu option in VA. e.g. Data Views (2)...
Better: Suggestion above, and change the behavior of the menu so that the Data View... option is disabled if there are NO data views associated with a selected data source (similar to how the Data Source Filter only shows Edit/Delete Data Source Filter options if there are data source filters currently in effect.
Ideal: Both of the above techniques, plus an indication in the Manage Data application and the Add Data Source dialog box within VA, which allows expanding the Available list for tables with Views, to see the views. If clicked, the Details shows the structure of the view (Sample Data and Profile would disappear).
