topic Re: Is it possible to create shared default prompts for EG? in SAS Enterprise Guide

Is it possible to create shared default prompts for EG?

Vrin — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 21:28:47 GMT

Hello,

In my team we frequently use a pair of prompts called "begin_date" and "end_date" and we find that we are creating these two prompts over and over again when we create new projects. Is there a way to save these two prompts either within EG or to some shared location so they can be selected from a list rather than re-created each time via Prompt Manager?

I currently use Shared Prompts when creating stored processes, but I don't see a way to access these shared prompts from within EG.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Note: We are running SAS 9.2 on Linux with EG 4.2 on Windows client machines.

Thank you,

Pearl

Re: Is it possible to create shared default prompts for EG?

ChrisHemedinger — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 13:13:04 GMT

Unfortunately, shared prompts are supported only within SAS stored processes.

Right now I can't think of a great workaround. You could create a nearly empty project that has these prompts that you want, then use that as a "seed" to start new projects that you know will need the prompts. But I'll admit that's a very limited approach.

Chris

Re: Is it possible to create shared default prompts for EG?

Vrin — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:32:22 GMT

Hi Chris - Thanks so much for the response. That's what I was afraid of - I couldn't see any way to do it from the existing options in EG. Do you know if this is something that is being considered for a future release?

Currently we are doing as you suggested - we have a generic "template" project that has these prompts plus a few other frequently used blocks of code, but as you say, this has its limitations and can be a little difficult to manage at times.

Thanks again,

Pearl

Re: Is it possible to create shared default prompts for EG?

ChrisHemedinger — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 16:56:36 GMT

Pearl,

The next version of EG has great improvements for re-using sections of existing projects (via copy/paste of process flows, very often requested). But unfortunately that operation doesn't bring the prompts over -- which I acknowledge is a gap. If you copy/paste items that reference a prompt, EG tells you that you've got some work to do to redefine the prompt in your new project.

Chris

Re: Is it possible to create shared default prompts for EG?

Vrin — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:12:14 GMT

Thanks Chris, I appreciate the clarification. Hopefully this functionality will get added in some future version.

Given my team is in the dark ages with SAS 9.2/EG 4.2, we can't really complain about lack of features at least until we upgrade to the latest versions, which will hopefully be soon. But this would definitely be something that would encourage us to move up our upgrade schedule.

Thanks again,

Pearl