Key Happenings at support.sas.com - Sharing Updates and advances in SAS Online Support

I saw an interesting question posted to Twitter by @sastips. She asked experienced SAS programmers what advice they would give to new or junior SAS programmers. New user advice is always needed. On support.sas.com, we are frequently asked for advice on how to get started, so this question peaked my interest. I may have missed a few responses, but I managed to catch a few of them and post them here for you.

@SASJedi: Get certified!

@Jeff_Bailey: learn PROC SQL.if they deal w/ databases this is priceless: OPTIONS SASTRACE=',,,d' SASTRACELOC=saslog NOSTSUFFIX;

@gtcox76: my tip to jr programmer. learn the data. You can write great code but if logically wrong it's bad code.

@SSessoms: My advice to a jr SAS prgmr? Read "The Little SAS Book." It's a wealth of info! http://tinyurl.com/yaat224

@sasbi: My advice to a jr SAS pgmr? ALWAYS check the log first!

@sastip: just because it runs doesn't mean it's right.

These tips are interesting and useful. Let's continue this topic and offer more help to those just starting to learn SAS. If you have a tip, post your advice in the comments for this blog post.
What advice would you give?

My advice is more generic than the tips offered on Twitter. I suggest using the free resources available to you.

Two great resources are support.sas.com and sasCommunity.org. Both of these sites contain so much information. I recommend:

• starting with a few sample programs from the support.sas.com samples database or the Tip of the Day on sasCommunity.org


• signing-up for training or tutorials from SAS Training


• Finally, leverage the knowledge of the user community. Take advantage of the discussion forums, sasCommunity.org, SAS users on Twitter, and your co-workers.

And one last thing for junior and senior SAS programmers. I saw this great thread on SAS-L Some Tips and Tricks from SAS-L. It is loaded with years of sage advice on all sorts of SAS topics.

We received several comments noting extremley slow loading pages, especially in the search and browse areas. I checked on the pages and the slowness seemed random and impossible to reproduce. Then I remembered that the world just found out that SAS is the #1 place to work according to Fortune Magazine. I know our Web sites saw a lot more traffic yesterday than usual. I jumped to ideas about pipes and traffic and such. Luckily, our Webmasters are always watching and checking and tweaking, so they were keeping an eye on it. Everything is good.

This gives me a chance to say that if you experience this or any other issues with support.sas.com, post a comment here or use this feedback form to let us know about your experience. We read every comment and do our best to correct and respond.

[I'm putting this topic in the Q&A topic category because I am responding to feedback received in our feedback forms. I hope that Customer Support Site users are starting to look here for answers to questions and comments that are submitted about support.sas.com.]


If you find yourself thinking "what search and browse pages?", read on.
We have a few sections of the site where the pages are tagged with metadata (words that we think you use to describe the topics within those pages). You can drill through the topic hierarchy to narrow the resulting document list to only those pages that were tagged with a specific topic value (browse). Searching is still a powerful way to locate content, so you can also use the search box to search the content in the same way that you search any part of support.sas.com.

Topic browse is available for

• Samples and SAS notes


• SAS 9.2 installation documentation


• SAS 9.2 usage and reference documentation

You have probably heard the news by now. SAS is ranked as the #1 best place to work by Fortune Magazine. You can read more about why SAS is ranked #1.


But here's my story
I have worked at SAS for a long time. Some of my best friends work here. We met in the gym or the break room or a conference room.Some I even met at local stores and restaurants. Over the years, we have worked together, played together, grieved together, and celebrated together. The people are great. If you ask a SAS employee to tell you why they like working here, most say healthcare, daycare, and the people. I'll agree with all of those things. But let me tell you about yesterday and you'll understand why I really like my job at SAS.

We're ready to make some updates to support.sas.com/community. We want these updates to be innovative, useful, and fun. So I scheduled a brainstorming session over lunch (yes, over lunch) and invited colleagues from around the company to come and participate. Ok, here's the good part: 17 people gave up their lunch hour to discuss ideas that can enhance how our customers work with our Web site, with us as a company, and with each other. It was exciting.

And that is why I think SAS is a great place to work -- the number of work days that offer something to be excited about outnumber the days that don't.

I hope that you find something at work to be excited about this week. It sure makes working more fun.

If you have a magazine subscription or you read the magazines at the checkout counter, you know that they are always a month ahead of your calendar. My January 2010 magazines have already arrived and they are all talking about resolutions. Resolutions are a good thing, but shouldn't be limited to January 1. So try this year-long resolution -- challenge your comfort zone once each week. That's only 52 new things for 2010.

We all get in ruts and don't always realize it. These ruts can keep us from having innovative ideas, from meeting interesting people, or from finding a new favorite food. Stepping outside of your comfort zone can make you happier, healthier, and maybe wealthier if your innovative ideas are good enough.

I have started to work on this concept already. Here's my small, fun story. I went to a holiday lunch with a couple of friends. At the last minute, we picked the cafe in the landscaping company next to the resturant for which we had driven downtown. With a little encouragement, I bought a new swag to decorate my mantel. It is beautful and I can't wait for my family to take Christmas pictures in front of it.




My comfort zone challenge continues into the new year, personally and professionally. Over the next few weeks, I'll be finishing up a paper to be presented at SAS Global Forum 2010. This is a big step for many of us, but when you have information to share, the payoff for you and your audience can be well worth the sweaty palms and rapid heartbeat.

But, you don't have to go that far. I've provided a few simple personal and professional suggestions to help you challenge your comfort zone in 2010.

Start small. Try the resturant next door to your favorite resturant. Sit at a different table in your company cafe. Watch a video to learn a new skill instead of using your favorite documentation. Visit your local library and check out an author you have never heard of. Or, try one of these:

• Meet one new person in your professional field by attending a user group event.


• Share your knowledge on a SAS discussion forum. Start with a single response.


• Skip your support.sas.com bookmarks and discover a new technical resource by searching support.sas.com.


• Attend a Live Web SAS course.


• Write a tip for the sasCommunity.org tip of the day project.

support.sas.com is loaded with detailed information about SAS 9.2. (I'll include a few references at the end of this post.) We heard you say that you were looking for more generic information about SAS 9.2; the 5,000 foot view if you will. I picked 5,000 feet because I believe that you can get the 10,000 foot view on www.sas.com and the 1,000 foot and lower view in the depths of support.sas.com.

In response to your comments, we rounded up people from all over SAS and collected their input. From that, we updated the SAS Software section. The landing page (to use a Weby term) has high level information with pointers into sections in which you might be interested. The right column offers some other resource links. The meat of this content appears behind the SAS 9.2 link found in the left navigation column.

The SAS 9.2 overview content is broken down into 5 major areas of interest, each listed in the left navigation column. The right column is again a resource list. Only this time, the resources are much more detailed. We broke them down into documentation (information for product users), installation (information for Installation Reps and IT departments) and migration (information for all three groups).

The most recent addition to this content is the 9.2 Maintenance information. The Release Announcement page will keep you up-to-date on the current maintenance release, define maintenance and point you to the self-service application for maintenance. [One thing to remember: Only a SAS installation Representative can request maintenance for your site.]

After all of that, we still heard you say that you couldn't find general SAS 9.2 information. We didn't get comments that indicated that the content was not what you were looking for. The comments we did receive indicated that you couldn't find the information. Especially the maintenance information. So. Staring the first week in December you can find a SAS Software highlight box on the right side of the support.sas.com Home page. The image to the right points out the SAS 9.2 box.

Resource list follows....

Contributed by Dwight Mouton, Customer Intelligence Product Management, SAS

I would consider myself a SAS User rather than an "IT" type, which adds two perspectives to my story.

First, there will be a little less detail than what my Sales Engineer friends might provide.
Second, this proves that a non-IT, though somewhat technical, SAS user can install and configure SAS 9.2 and Marketing Optimization 5.3.

Of course this install was on my laptop, so I'm not recommending that an end-user try this on a complex multi-server system. It's best to leave that to the IT professionals and the SAS Engineers so that us SAS Users can focus on our real jobs.

That said, this write-up is hopefully useful to those who install and configure SAS for a living.

Before you get any software, be it CDs or a downloaded "Software Depot" you can set up your Users and User Groups. For SAS 9.2 and Marketing Optimization 5.3 this is a critical step. There is a lot more control over security via user groups and if certain groups are not created, Marketing Optimization will not work. Luckily for me I work with the guru's and had it pounded into my head that I HAD to set these up. Since this was my own machine I simply put all the SAS users (myself plus the SAS created users) into a Marketing Optimization User Group. Of course you would want to get more complex and can set up several levels of user access.

Once everything was set up and I double checked my pre-installation check list, I started the installation of the application server. Since the guru's around me had the most experience with WebLogic, that's what I went with. This is also where I made my first error. WebLogic is installed via the CMD prompt and requires two commands. One to set the path for the install and the other to start the install. The first time through I forgot to set the path and it looked like everything was OK so I started the SAS Deployment Wizard. Of course I got through most of the server install but then it errored out. I went back and realized the error of my ways and started over.

The second time through WebLogic was more obvious in telling me something was wrong by giving me a popup window error. Going back to my checklist I realized that I hadn't fully installed the Java components. There are two files that need to be installed. One ends in JRE and the other in JDK. These are quick installs but to make sure everything was going to work I had to uninstall the SAS components that had already completed. Lesson learned, read your instructions very carefully. This is not like putting together a child’s bicycle on Christmas morning where you can pretty much wing-it based on experience (wheels on bottom, handle bar and seat on top).

In starting over I also realized that the scheduler, LSF Platform Suite, does not install as part of the Deployment Manager. To make sure it was in place ahead of going through the configuration I decided to install it now. It installed with no issues.

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is screaming to a close. I can see the faint twinkle of Christmas lights on the horizon. But it is never too late for a thankful post. I read somewhere (Reader's Digest, I think) that optimism can bring happiness, health, and friends. The article also said that one great way to be more optimistic is to be thankful. Timely, don't you think?

I am always thankful for my family and friends, for their support and love, and for time spent with them in good health. But this is a support.sas.com blog, so let me move on to topics relative to those of you reading. Thanks for reading, by the way!

I am thankful for a job that enables me to interact with so many different and interesting people. Do you remember back in college when you were picking a career and you would say "I want to make a difference"? Somehow I thought that was limited to doctors and firemen and the Peace Corp. I'll chalk that up to the short-sightedness of youth. I am none of those things, but I do work on support.sas.com, which in turn, helps SAS users world-wide be more efficient at their jobs.

We see the Customer Support Web site as a 24-hour self-serve helpdesk. The goal of my team is to make support.sas.com useful for you so that you can do the things that you do. Things that include: research cures for disease, seek out financial fraud, help protect endangered animals, and allow us to send flowers to the family and friends that me miss during the year. Yep, you all help make the world a better place and that is really cool. I'm thankful for all that you do.

Finally, I'm thankful for each of you who have taken the time to send a comment about how the Web site is or is not working for you. All of those comments and conversations add up to change in the way support.sas.com works.

Thank you for reading this blog, for your comments, and for using SAS!

I haven't reminded you about YouTube in a while. After reading a recent post in the Open Mic blog, I thought it might be time to nudge you toward SAS resources on YouTube. It is a great way to take a break from your normal workday while still learning about SAS and analytics.
There are some great videos out there. Here are a couple favorites from my last YouTube visit:

• Kent Reeve giving a tip on using informats


• Why Attend SAS Global Forum 2010


• John Elder talking about his book

Visit the SAS channel on YouTube. If you have a favorite SAS-related YouTube video, share it with others. (OK now, remember that I asked for a video related to SAS!)

I'm making a leap of faith that one of the resources I provide in this post answers the question from a recent feedback form submission. If you have other interpretations or resources, please add them to the comments. Let's help each other out.

Q: I'm trying to find the Excel Add-In
A: I'm not sure if you need to locate it and install it, or if you are looking for information to help you use it. Both are addressed below.

My #1 suggestion when you are truly stumped:
Leverage the user community and post your questions to the Integration with Microsoft Office discussion forum.

If you are looking for usage information and tips or debugging information, try these links on support.sas.com:

• Documentation references for SAS Add-In for Microsoft Office


• Papers about integration with Microsoft Office


• Search results from the support.sas.com Knowledge Base for Excel add-in

If you are looking for a download of the add-in, that is not available from our software downloads site. The option is to contact the SAS Installation Contact at your company or contact SAS Technical Support.

We launched another forum on Friday afternoon! The Web Report Studio forum was created to establish a community of users that can share information, questions, and ideas about SAS Web Report Studio. While watching the discussions in our existing forums, I noticed that Web Report Studio questions were being asked in many of our forums. When the Web Report Studio forum launched, I searched for some of the more active posts and moved them to the new forum. If you haven't visited it yet, take a look. The forum already contains some nice discussions.

If you are a Web Report Studio user, you may also be interested in some of these resources:

• RSS feed for the forum


• Documentation page for Web Report Studio


• Papers that focus on Web Report Studio


• Samples that are valid for use with Web Report Studio

As always, we hope that you will use this forum to share experiences, post questions and suggestions, offer solutions, and interact with other SAS customers. Remember that you can follow the conversation in e-mail by setting a watch or in an RSS feed by subscribing to items that interest you. Instructions for both of these tasks are provided in Watching a forum.

Q: One site visitor added this comment to his feedback form:

I am trying to find the answer to a simple question about getting started with Enterprise Miner 6.1.

A: Visit the product page for SAS Enterprise Miner.

What will you find on the product page?
This visitor specifically asked for a tutorial. We don't have one listed for Enterprise Miner. However, the product page does have some good information that may be helpful. The following lists a few of those resources.

• Getting Started with SAS Enterprise Miner (This book addresses release 5.3, but it will be helpful with 6.1 until the updated book is released.)


• What's New in SAS Enterprise Miner 6.1.


• Available training for SAS Enterprise Miner


• SAS Data Mining and Text Mining forum. Use this forum to exchange information with others users and learn from their experience.

I hope these suggestions help you get started with SAS Enterprise Miner.

UPDATE:
The advanced search functionality is now production on support.sas.com. It is available at support.sas.com/search. You can also access it by selecting the search button when the search field is empty. Links to advanced search will start to appear on the site over the next few days. The first link is now available as shown below.




Thanks for your comments. Based on your feedback, the Search and Reset buttons have switched locations on the page. If you have additional comments, please send them to us or post them here.
--- end of update ---

I have written about the search functionality on support.sas.com before and you have provided feedback about what you need from the search tool. If you missed those conversations, you may want to take a minute to review other posts about searching.

Based on your comments and site usage evaluations, there is no mistaking the importance of searching. Given that, we have a team of dedicated people looking at reported issues and potential search improvements. The team is proud to announce our first major update to search: Advanced Search. Below is a screen shot of the new search page.



The Advanced Search is available today on support.sas.com. However, we have not made it a production feature yet because we are still testing and gathering feedback. Today, I am offering you early access to the search features. All I ask in return is that you let us know what you like and what you don't like.

Give it a try
While we are polishing the last few rough edges, I invite you to visit support.sas.com/search/advanced.html and kick the tires on these features.

More questions answered:
Q: I'm looking for a simple install guide for 9.2
A: I couldn't answer the question about why SAS 9.2 has different installation documentation, so I enlisted the help of Fred Perry who is a major contributor of content to the Install Center.

How do I find my usual installation documentation?
In SAS 9.2, we introduced the SAS Deployment Wizard to replace the SAS Software Navigator. The SAS Deployment Wizard is a far more robust tool to drive the deployment of your software. Here are some improvements you may notice:

• The SAS Deployment Wizard allows a quiet or silent installation which was difficult to perform with the SAS Software Navigator.



• The SAS Deployment Wizard prompts you for installation and configuration information at the beginning of your deployment, so you provide the information only once and then allow installation to continue unattended.



• The SAS Deployment Wizard also replaces the SAS Configuration Wizard so you have the option to install SAS and run the configuration at the same time or perform them separately.

Instead of one or two generic paths through the deployment tool, the SAS Deployment Wizard supports a path that is tailored for your individual software order. With such a big change in the way SAS software is deployed, the documentation path for SAS 9.2 has also been updated.

Your installation experience begins with a Software Order E-mail that each customer receives. This customized starting point explains exactly what you need to do to install your software. It also includes a list of the other documents you might need and how to find those documents.

• For Windows and UNIX users, your installation path continues with SAS QuickStart Guides. Then you will move through the SAS Deployment Wizard and find targeted explanations in its Help dialogs.



• For z/OS users, your Software Order E-mail directs you to a set of installation instructions specific to your type of deployment.

For deployment on any of these hosts, you will finish with the configuration information available for the products in your software order.

Install Center continues to offer valuable documentation, the same way it did in releases of SAS software prior to SAS 9.2. Your documentation path describes when you need to visit Install Center to retrieve that documentation.

Now that the deployment path is more personalized, you may notice fewer documents in the "Installation Instructions" section of Install Center. That change is part of our effort to produce a less generic, more efficient deployment experience for you. Users have told us that, from the Software Order E-mail to the completion of any configuration steps, deployment of SAS software is faster than ever before. We hope these improvements provide an easier deployment experience for you as well.

We have recently added feedback forms and short surveys on some pages on support.sas.com. We don't ask for your e-mail address or require you to log in to the site. That means that all of the comments are anonymous. We think the ease of commenting will increase the amount of good feedback we receive. It seems to be working.

I have found a downside. Some of the comments express frustration about content that can't be found. If only I could contact the person and offer some help. I can't do that, but a girl with a blog can provide answers as blog posts. The comments are usually short, so I have to guess at the detailed meaning. May I get a few right!

Here's my first attempt.

Comment: I just wanted some common sample programs for statistical analysis.
Response: When looking for statistical analysis samples, bookmark these links:

• Samples tagged as being about analytics.


• Examples that investigate a variety of analytical techniques using SAS Software.


• If these links don't deliver, visit the Statistical Procedures discussion forum.

We launched a new discussion forum at the end of August. The SAS/GRAPH and ODS Graphics forum provides a place to discuss the visual representation of data, to share your questions, suggestions, experiences, and pains regarding graphics. Join the discussion about SAS graphics.

We all love to see our data represented in fancy graphs and we love the fact that these cool visual displays can get so much attention for our data. I bet that almost every report you generate includes at least one graphic. And, I bet that you are always looking for ways to pump up the visual elements included in your reports. SAS/GRAPH software and ODS Graphics can help you in that effort. Review the list of resources below.

• SAS/GRAPH and ODS Graphics forum


• SAS/GRAPH samples gallery


• Data Visualization focus area


• Getting Started with ODS Statistical Graphics in SAS 9.2 paper


• SAS/GRAPH product page

Update, Nov 6:
This ondemand Webinar presented by Bob Rodriguez is a companion to the Getting Started with ODS Statistical Graphics paper referenced above. Watch the Webinar now.
[end update]

Here's one example that you can find in the samples gallery. Enjoy!

The following graph was produced using PROC SGRENDER. It is a Monthly Stock Price and Volume Graph [View the code in a new window]