This probably won't surprise any of my regular readers: "SAS custom tasks" is one of my favorite topics to talk about.
Since 2007, I've written blogs about how you can use custom tasks to extend SAS Enterprise Guide and the SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office. I've shared lots of examples, many that you can use simply "as-is" without any special technical knowledge. I presented a SAS Talks webinar on the topic. And I even wrote the book: Custom Tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide Using Microsoft .NET.
Now I'm ready to take this show on the road, and teach this topic in a classroom setting. I've built a new SAS course: Developing Custom Tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide.
I taught the course for the first time this past April. All new SAS courses go through a "test teach", in which internal SAS folks participate as students. The purpose of a test teach is to ensure that the course materials, software setup, and instructor are all up to the high standards for SAS Training offerings. In my test teach, I had students from Technical Support, R&D, Product Management, Education, and Professional Services. That's a pretty good mix, and I got some good feedback. At the end, we agreed that the course is ready for prime time.
Here are some high-level features that you can expect from the course:
- It's a two-day course -- and we fill the time!
- We cover the SAS APIs and toolkits that make custom tasks possible. We also cover best practices for design and build, which make it much easier to have successful custom task projects.
- Students will get plenty of hands-on experience, some as instructor-led tutorials and some as independent lab exercises.
- You will build a complete custom task, in class!
- You don't need to be a SAS expert or Microsoft .NET expert coming in, but I recommend that you have base SAS programming experience and also experience with some object-oriented development tool, such as Microsoft Visual Studio (C# or Visual Basic) or Eclipse (with Java).
- You should come having at least working knowledge of SAS Enterprise Guide.
If all of this sounds interesting to you, I hope to see you in a SAS training center in the near future! Check the SAS Training & Books web site for schedules and locations. (Note, this link is from the USA course catalog. Other countries might add the course later, based on interest. Hint, hint.)
8 Comments
Hi Chris,
I request you to develop a elearning programme on Developing Custom Tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide.. It would be very advantageous for people like me who are not in USA. Even for people in USA who are not in NY and CA.
Yes it was a long journey ever since you started working on Developing Custom Tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide. I hope my wish comes true very soon.
regards
Ramana
Ramana, thanks for the suggestion.
I'm not sure I'll ever build a self-paced e-learning version, since you can get that experience by having the book plus the many examples -- and the dedicated time to learning.
I'm looking forward to getting out in the classroom with this course. If things go really well and demand warrants, I might develop an instructor-led "live web" version.
Thank you Chris.
Can I please ask at least for the class notes.
Hi Ramana,
The class notes are designed to facilitate the course work, but the "take home" version for independent study is really the book, which each student receives as part of the course. Of course, you can order a copy of just the book at any time, if you like.
Hi Chris,
I was just wondering if you'd considered running this course prior (i.e a day or so) to the Global Forum 2015. As it's a 2 day course you may catch people who are interested in Custom Tasks and who also want to attend the Forum. I'm including myself in that pot ;)
Just a thought.
regards
David
Thanks David. Yes, we talked about it and I had agreed to do it if there was a time slot in our facilities, but I guess it didn't get scheduled. I'll need to round back with the folks and see if there is a plan to change that...
Hi Chris,
Did you get any news back from the SGF15 folk to see if you can get a time slot pre-conference? It would be shame if this course couldn't be organised for SGF15 as it's a chance to get people in one place to learn this topic which isn't one of the general SAS course offered.
David -- still working on it. If we hold the class in Dallas, it would likely be after SAS Global Forum, on Thursday and Friday. This is a tentative plan right now; a few scheduling logistics to work out.