Special steps for installing the custom tasks that you download

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|May 19, 2013

Recent versions of SAS Enterprise Guide (version 5.1 and later) use Microsoft .NET 4.0, which enforces additional security requirements before running custom task DLLs that you download from the Web, including those that you download from support.sas.com. Because these task DLLs are downloaded from the (big and scary) Internet, the [...]

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Object-oriented access to SAS data in a custom task

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|November 18, 2012

Most custom tasks need to access SAS data in some way. Since custom tasks are built using Microsoft .NET, and the .NET Framework is object-oriented, it would be convenient if we had an object-oriented method for navigating SAS data sources. That was the thinking behind the “SasData”-namespace classes within the [...]

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SAS Custom Tasks: Wrap your variable names appropriately

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|September 24, 2012

The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book: Creating Custom Tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide using Microsoft .NET. If your custom task generates a SAS program, the chances are pretty high that your program will reference one or more variables within a SAS data set. Despite our best efforts, [...]

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Listing the data sets in a library within your custom task

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|July 16, 2012

A SAS Professionals attendee and Twitter follower named Marco asks for help: ..struggling to find a method with custom tasks in EG to be able to list the datasets in a library, can you help please? Sure, no problem. This is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. First, make sure that you have a reference [...]

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How to search your SAS Enterprise Guide project files

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|June 7, 2012

If you are like many SAS Enterprise Guide users, you’ve amassed a large collection of project files (EGP files) that contain important content: programs, logs, notes, results, and more. However, to most tools and processes, the EGP file is opaque. That is, you can’t see what’s inside of it unless [...]

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Doing more with SAS Enterprise Guide automation

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|April 17, 2012

Have you ever selected File->Schedule Project or Schedule->Process Flow in SAS Enterprise Guide? Are you curious about what magic these actions will trigger? Here’s what happens: SAS Enterprise Guide creates a VBScript program that contains the instructions to start SAS Enterprise Guide, load your project, run your project or flow, [...]

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Inspecting SAS macro variables in SAS Enterprise Guide

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|November 22, 2011

The SAS macro variable “inspector” is a custom task that plugs into SAS Enterprise Guide 4.3. You can use it to view the current values for all SAS macro variables that are defined within your SAS session. You can also evaluate “immediate” macro expressions in a convenient quick view window. [...]

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Jumping into Windows 7 Jump Lists

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|September 28, 2011

Filed under “Little changes that you probably didn’t notice”. When Microsoft introduced Windows 7 to the desktop, one of the many usability features that they added were “Jump Lists”. Jump Lists serve as a sort of shortcut to not just open an application, but “jump right in” to a particular [...]

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I'm not supposed to be writing this

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|February 8, 2011

I’m not supposed to be working on this blog post right now. I’ve stayed late at the office under the pretense of working on “the book.” It’s the book about creating custom tasks for SAS Enterprise Guide, and I’ve been working on it for quite a while. I enjoy writing [...]

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Custom tasks that do the job

Chris Hemedinger
Chris Hemedinger|January 31, 2010

Andy wrote in the NOTE: blog that he’s stumbled upon a few custom tasks to extend features in SAS Enterprise Guide. He wondered aloud whether there might be more “free” tasks out there, available for use by anyone who can find them and download them. The answer is: You betcha!* [...]

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