In this article we walk through what a SAS Studio Workspace is, how you can use it to be more productive and two snippets to help you can make using Workspaces even more powerful.
What is a Workspace and how do I create it?
Workspace files in SAS Studio enable you to specify files that are going to be opened on startup. This is helpful when working across different projects where you need context, certain programs or context files to be available to enable you to collaborate better or be ready to work faster.
Creating a Workspace file is simple you just click on the New button in the top toolbar of SAS Studio. In the menu that opens up you select Workspace which is revealed by hovering over the More file types menu entry. This opens up a new file called Workspace.workspace.
Workspace files follow the following JSON syntax:
{
"openfiles": [
{"path": "sasserver:/path/to/file.extension"},
{"path": "sascontent:/path/to/file.extension"}
]
}
The array opened contains a list of objects where each object represents a file that will be opened. You have to first enter a notation to indicate if your file is located within SAS Content (sascontent) or on the SAS Server (sasserver). After the colon you have to specify the full path to the file, including the files name and its extension - you can get this by right clicking a file and from the context menu select Copy path.
Finally we have to save our workspace file. You can save workspace files on both SAS Content and on the SAS Server. My main recommendation is to save it alongside the project for which you have created it so that everything is in the same place.
And how can I use them?
There is two main ways of using workspace files:
- Setting a workspace file for your on start-up configuration.
- By specifying it as a URL parameter.
Let's first talk about setting workspace files for your on start-up configuration. This option can be found by clicking on your profile within in SAS Studio and then selecting Settings. Then in the section SAS Studio there is the entry Start-up and in the dropdown Tabs to open you will find the following entries:
- None - this is the default.
- Restore saved tabs in Open items pane - the Open items pane is the top pane in SAS Studio and this option essentially enables you to pick back up from where you last left off.
- Open a new file - this will open up a new file, in the default it is a SAS program, but in the additional dropdown you can also select Python program or Flow.
- Load a workspace file - Here you are then asked to navigate to your workspace file and select it and the next time you log into SAS Studio the workspace file will be run and open up the specified files.
The second way is to utilize the URL parameter sas-studio-workspace. This parameter empowers you to append the URL in the following way:
https://sas-viya-base-url/SASStudio?sas-studio-workspace=sascontent:/path/to/file.extension
Of course if you have stored the file on the SAS Server replace sascontent with sasserver. If you open up SAS Studio in this way than the workspace file will be run and its specified files will open up. Saving these links to project documentations can help everybody to easily context switch and be ready to go right away.
Two Helping Snippets
Here I am sharing two SAS Studio Snippets that I created for myself to help me work with workspace files:
- Project Link Creator, utilizing the abbreviation @plc this snippet creates a code template to create a deeplink into SAS Studio that opens up a new session with a specified workspace file and compute context.
- Workspace Template, utilizing the abbreviation @wst this snippet creates a JSON template for you to fill in for a new workspace file - yes snippets can also be used within .workspace files.
You can download these snippets and upload them via the Sinppets pane and clicking the Upload snippets to My Snippets button.
Additional Resources
