Add a WORD doc to EG project as a Task

[JohnH]

I know that, in EG, I can go to the server list, then the files list, click my way to a WORD doc, right click and "add to the project" and a link is created to that doc. Is there a way to create a task in EG to do that as a step in a process flow? Is there SAS code that I can put in a code task and run?
Also, once I create the link, is there a way to refresh the doc after changes are made to it? The only way I can do it is to delete the link and create the link again.
Thanks

[ChrisHemedinger]

John,

There is not currently a programmatic way to add a document link to the project.

The only way to update document-like content is by running a SAS job with ODS output that gets added to the EG project.

I'm interested in hearing what you're trying to do; perhaps we can devise some workaround to get you what you need.

Chris

[JohnH]

We use an RSUBMIT sandwich from SAS/Connect with an ODS PDF sandwhich in it to have our PC talk to the mainframe process 200 million records and produce a PROC Tabulate table. We then use PROC download to send the output to our server. (If we take the MF output directly to EG the style information does not translate across the platforms, so, we only get the usual old ascii version of the table sitting in a PDF doc.) We then go into the server list of EG, click on the files folder, work our way to the PDF file and drag it into the process flow and connect it to the task with an arrow. This is our way of getting good looking output from the MF.
The problem is this...when we modify the PROC Tabulate for bugs and send it through the same process and have it overwrite the old PDF file, the link in EG still refers to the old version of the PDF file. I cannot find a "refresh" feature. I have to delete the EG icon for the shortcut to the PDF, then go drag it in again. This is annoying as you are trying to debug a program and you have to keep deleting, clicking through the path to the PDf file on the server and dragging it in again.
Our first preference would be to bring it into the EG project as a step in the process flow, as you have in other places in EG ("import as a step in the project"). Our second preference would be to be able to refresh the link to go get the new version of the file. Any thoughts? Thanks for your help, John

[ChrisHemedinger]

I suspect the reason that the PDF content doesn't refresh automatically is because you are adding it from the server file system, EG caches a copy locally or in the project. If you add a PDF file from your local Windows desktop, I *think* EG would always show the latest content.

I can imagine a custom task doing this work: downloading the latest file from your SAS server (not the mainframe) and adding it to the project. If you had such a custom task, could you use it? It would require that each EG user who needs it have it installed on their machines.

Chris