Suggestion: Enable EG to store log (or project log) as an external .log file

[Quentin]

Hi All,

Wondering if users (or developers) would see much benefit of adding an option to have EG store the log (or project log) as a txt file (.log) outside of the .egp file.

Seems like over time EG has been moving from saving stuff (code, data) inside the actual project file (.egp) to having mostly links in the project file to files sitting elsewhere (code, data, stored processes).  I like that.

As someone who is used to running DMS  / batch SAS, I'm used to having a text log file from my jobs.  It's nice for archiving, for log scanning, etc.

Obviously PROC PRINTTO is an option in EG, but then you don't see the log.  Since -ALTLOG can only be specified at start-up, it can't really help when EG connects to a server and users want to specify where the log is sent.  I would LOVE to be able to specify options ALTLOG= ;  within a session.

So I think it would be nice to have an option to have the log automatically written to a .log file, and just have a link to that log file in the project.

Would be interested to hear what others think.

Or please let me know if there is already a way to set this up. I'm still new to EG.  Only recently discovered that I could actually view both a program and log at the same time, thanks to a bi-notes.com post from Sunil Gupta:

  http://http://www.bi-notes.com/2012/02/sas-enterprise-do-you-know-its-top-three-unknown-benefits/

Almost feels like using DMS SAS...

Thanks,

--Q.

[ChrisHemedinger]

Quentin,

You can use EG automation to "pull" this information from your EG project file.  See an intro on the topic here:

http://blogs.sas.com/content/sasdummy/2012/04/17/doing-more-with-sas-enterprise-guide-automation/

And see more details with examples, including an example for extracting all programs and logs from the EGP file:

http://www.sascommunity.org/wiki/Not_Just_for_Scheduling:_Doing_More_with_SAS_Enterprise_Guide_Autom...

You can also "export as a step" various items in the project, such as the log items, each time that you run a process flow.  That might be a little bit more tedious to set up, especially if you're a fan of automating such things.

Chris

[Quentin]

Thanks Chris,

That automation is definitely neat stuff, and it's a useful method for extracting the log from a project into a separate file.  But still seems to me like it would be nice to have an option to just write the log (or a copy of the log) to a file by default.

--Q.

[TomKari]

Hi, Quentin

Let me suggest that you give EG a try with the log incorporated in the project. I'm a longtime EG user, and personally I find it preferable to have the code, log, and results all together in the project. I agree that it's different from DM, but if you give it a try you might come to prefer it as well.

And, of course, if after giving it a fair try you still prefer the old mechanism, you can implement Chris' suggestions. Either way, you win!

Tom

[Quentin]

Thanks Tom,

I agree that it is very nice having the code, log, and results incorporated into a project!  And data, and flat files, and....

Just to me, I would prefer to have the option of incorporating the log into the project as a link (just as I incorporate code, data, stored processes, and flat files via links), rather than actually having the log stored in the .egp file.

--Q.

[ChrisHemedinger]

Quentin,

Your suggestions are good and are in line with some other efforts that have been made recently -- for example, the "relative path" support for referencing external files within your project (supported since EG 4.3). 

In the meantime though, the automation APIs can produce the artifacts you need.  A custom task could also probably facilitate something like this...more for the backlog...

Chris

[Hetty]

I, for one would like to export the log to a time-stamped text file automatically.   Unfortunately that is not an option in EG.    What I've done is set up a task exporting the log to a work location and then using a SYSTASK step to rename the log and move it to a more permanent location.  This keeps the current version in the project and current/old versions externally.