SAS Viya 2021.1.4 (August 2021) and later – Controlling the Execution Order in SAS Studio Flows

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The SAS Viya 2021.1.4 stable release (August 2021) introduces the ability to control the execution order of individual flows within a flow file in SAS Studio.  This is done by grouping the individual flows (or nodes) into "swimlanes" and specifying the order in which the "swimlanes" are executed.  

Below is an example of a SAS Studio Flow with "swimlanes" to control the execution order. In this blog, I will discuss how the flow was created.

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SAS Studio Flow Submission Order

Before the introduction of swimlanes in SAS Studio Flow, if my flow file was divided in the same three chunks, I had to ensure by position that the three sub-flows were positioned just right in order to have them execute in the correct order.

If I just slightly move the Terminate CAS Session node, then the flow errors since the CAS session is terminated before it is used in the Promote Table to CAS node.

However, now in the SAS Viya 2021.4 stable release (August 2021) I can explicitly control the order of these three sub-flows to ensure they will always run in the proper order.  I can also name the sub-flows to help document the overall flow.

To organize my flow into swimlanes, I select: .

This opens the Submission Order pop-out window.  Select the slider to Enable submission order and create swimlanes for each of the individual sub-flows.

I can enter names each of the created swimlanes.

Also, on the Submission Order pop-out window I can refresh the arrangement for the selected swimlane(s), add/delete swimlanes, and rearrange the order of the execution for the swimlanes.

Note: If you disable the submission order feature, any changes you have made to the swimlane names and order are not saved.  

My flow is now organized and is guaranteed to run in the proper order.

Summary

For more information on this newly available feature to control the submission order in SAS Studio Flows in the 2021.1.4 (August 2021) stable release review its documentation.      

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