Custom Tasks for SAS® Enterprise Guide® Using Microsoft .NET

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Chapter 1. Why Custom Tasks? 2 Options for Custom Processes in SAS Enterprise Guide If you have a need to customize a process that isn’t covered by a built-in task in SAS Enterprise Guide, you have several options. Write a SAS program. For a SAS programmer, it’s the ultimate in flexibility. Anything that you can do in DATA step, macro language, or any of the SAS procedures – it’s all available to you in the SAS program. What’s the problem with this approach? The only person who understands how to really use it is a SAS programmer. If you serve an audience that includes non-programmers, you probably need something more controlled. Write a SAS program, and add prompts. With SAS Enterprise Guide you can add placeholder values, called prompts, to your project. When you reference one of these values in a SAS program or in any task, SAS Enterprise Guide will present a friendly prompt dialog window to collect the values to use from the end user. When you attach prompts to a SAS program, you can make the program more usable in a variety of situations – those covered by the range of prompt values – and the end user doesn’t really need to understand the content of the program. However, the end user still has to know how to run the SAS program. The prompt dialog, while somewhat flexible, does not offer much interactivity. You can define prompts that include a predefined list of values and simple range checking, but you have little control over the presentation of the prompts. Create a stored process. A stored process is a SAS program that you store in a central repository. You can add prompts to the program and define permissions to control who can run it. And you can run the program from a variety of application environments, including SAS Enterprise Guide, SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office, SAS Web Report Studio, and custom web applications. It’s a great way to reuse a SAS program and apply its use consistently across an enterprise. With authoring tools like SAS Enterprise Guide, it is relatively simple to create stored processes. Like the previous example of “SAS program, with prompts”, your control over the user experience is limited. You don’t have much say in how the prompts are displayed to the end user, although you can offer predefined lists of valid values and simple range checking. And because stored processes can leverage the SAS metadata environment, you can build prompts that are dynamic (that pull values from live data, and allow for cascading prompt selections). Create a custom task. Anything you can do with a SAS program, you can include in a custom task. And anything that you can do with a Windows application – offering the best in an interactive, responsive user experience – you can include in a custom task. If your process requires access to data or resources that you cannot reach with a SAS program, a custom task can act as the bridge to bring your information into SAS. Hemedinger, Chris. Custom Tasks for SAS® Enterprise Guide® Using Microsoft .NET. Copyright © 2012 SAS Institute Inc., Cary, North Carolina, USA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. For additional SAS resources, visit support.sas.com/bookstore. Draft copy for promotional purposes. Additional changes may be made during the production process for the book.
Chapter 1. Why Custom Tasks? 3 Unlike a stored process, custom tasks work only in two SAS applications: SAS Enterprise Guide and SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office. If you must offer the same feature to users of a SAS-based web application or SAS Web Report Studio, a stored process might be the way to go. Table 1.1 summarizes these options and how they rank in usability and difficulty to create. I don’t want to lead you down a primrose path: the process of creating custom tasks is more involved and requires more technical skill than some of the other options. But the payoff can be well worth the investment. And the tools and techniques presented in this book should make the process much easier. Table 1.1: Comparing the Custom Processes in SAS Applications Technique End user skills Designer skills Usability SAS program Run/modify SAS programs SAS programming None: code window SAS program Run SAS programs; SAS programming; Constrained by with prompts point-and-click to prompts design prompting answer prompts technology; static prompts only SAS stored Point-and-click to run SAS programming; Constrained by processes process, answer prompts prompts design; SAS prompting metadata knowledge technology; dynamic prompts possible SAS custom Point-and-click to run SAS programming; Almost anything is tasks task Microsoft .NET possible: intuitive programming; UI UI, dynamic and design responsive experience What Can I Do with Custom Tasks (and What Can’t I Do)? Custom tasks straddle the gateway between two very powerful worlds: the world of your SAS session and the world of your Windows desktop. Your SAS session provides access to the most advanced analytics and reporting capabilities available in business intelligence applications today. And your Windows desktop, using Microsoft .NET as a framework, can provide a truly innovative and rich user experience, while accessing data from your desktop, network, or the internet. Here are some example uses for custom tasks: Hemedinger, Chris. Custom Tasks for SAS® Enterprise Guide® Using Microsoft .NET. Copyright © 2012 SAS Institute Inc., Cary, North Carolina, USA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. For additional SAS resources, visit support.sas.com/bookstore. Draft copy for promotional purposes. Additional changes may be made during the production process for the book.
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Custom Tasks for SAS® Enterprise Guide® Using Microsoft .NET

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