Introduction   SAS Enterprise Guide 8.6 now supports more SAS server types, improving integration with SAS Viya. Users can work with both SAS 9 and Viya servers in the same project, leveraging features from each platform within their preferred SAS desktop application. Figure 1 - SAS Enterprise Guide 8.6 - Supported SAS servers     The newly added support for SAS Viya Workbench uses REST over HTTP. Support for SAS Analytics Pro uses SAS IOM (Integrated Object Model), the same technology as is used for SAS 9 servers.   Let’s have a look at these enhancements in more detail.   Integration with SAS Viya Workbench   Connecting SAS Enterprise Guide with SAS Viya Workbench enables users to utilize low-code/no-code tools, manage SAS code files, coordinate the execution of those files, and reuse SAS Enterprise Guide Task code in other compatible development environments provided by SAS Viya Workbench. For more details about SAS Viya Workbench, visit https://support.sas.com/en/software/sas-viya-workbench-support.html.   Users working in SAS Viya Workbench now have the option to select SAS Enterprise Guide as the client application when they start a workbench session.   Figure 2 - Launch Enterprise Guide option on SAS Viya Workbench   Selecting Launch Enterprise Guide opens a new browser tab requesting permission to start SAS Enterprise Guide 8.6 locally. Once approved, SAS Enterprise Guide launches and registers the SAS Viya Workbench Server if needed, displaying it in the Server panel.   Figure 3 - SAS Enterprise Guide Servers panel, showing expanded SAS Viya Workbench entry     SAS libraries, tables, and the Table Viewer can be accessed in the same way as with other SAS Server connections.   The file system (workspace) on the SAS Viya Workbench server is also accessible, displaying the same files and folders as viewed through the Visual Studio Code application within SAS Viya Workbench.   Figure 4 - SAS Enterprise Guide and Visual Studio Code in SAS Viya Workbench showing the same file system   Using SAS Enterprise Guide Tasks on files and data in SAS Viya Workbench   You can use SAS Enterprise Guide Tasks with files and tables on SAS Viya Workbench. The example below demonstrates reading a CSV file from the workspace using the Import Data wizard.   Figure 5 - SAS Enterprise Guide - Using Tasks with files and data in SAS Viya Workbench   The generated SAS code from a Process Flow can be exported and saved to SAS Viya Workbench directly within the SAS Enterprise Guide interface. Then use the SAS Extension for Visual Studio Code and incorporate (parts of) that generated SAS code into other SAS code files within Workbench or perhaps orchestrate execution of those SAS code files in a SAS Enterprise Guide Process Flow. Various implementation strategies are possible with this integration.   Figure 6 - SAS Enterprise Guide project orchestrating Tasks using data and SAS Code files in SAS Viya Workbench   Integration with SAS Viya 4   Last year in March we released SAS Enterprise Guide 8.4 which introduced integration with SAS Viya 4. With version 8.6 we have added two new features, so called file root navigation support and SAS Content folder support.   File root navigation support   Users can now set the root folder displayed when expanding a server connection in the Servers panel of SAS Enterprise Guide, as part of the SAS Viya 4 server connection definition.   Figure 7 - SAS Enterprise Guide - Specify file navigation settings for SAS Viya 4 compute server   A SAS Viya Administrator can set attributes in SAS Environment Manager to define the default root folder for a compute context, overriding any SAS Enterprise client-side settings.   Figure 8 - Compute Context definition in SAS Environment Manager showing fileNavigationRoot settings     Attribute Value Description fileNavigationRoot SYSTEM | USER | CUSTOM SAS Server root folder, user login directory, or custom path fileNavigationCustomRootPath <path> Applies only when fileNavigationRoot is set to CUSTOM.    When SAS Enterprise connects to SAS Viya 4 using the above displayed Compute Context, it disregards client-side file navigation settings and follows those set by the SAS Viya administrator.   Note: This behavior also applies to the SAS Extension for Visual Studio Code v.1.16 and later.   Figure 9 - SAS Enterprise Guide Servers panel using SAS Viya 4 server-side fileRootNavigationSettings     SAS Content folder support   SAS Enterprise Guide 8.6 also introduces support for SAS Content folders on the SAS Viya 4 server as shown in the previous screenshot, and allows for standard file operations like paste, and folder creation.   Integration with SAS Analytics Pro   Beginning with SAS Analytics Pro 2025.08, SAS client applications that run outside the SAS Analytics Pro container can use SAS IOM (Integrated Object Model) to connect to the SAS Analytics Pro server running inside the container.    For more details on SAS Analytics Pro, visit https://support.sas.com/en/software/analytics-pro-support.html.   In SAS Enterprise Guide 8.6 there is now an option in the Servers panel to add a SAS Analytics Pro Server.   Figure 10 - SAS Analytics Pro Server connection definition   The properties window for the SAS Analytics Pro Server is identical to that of the SAS 9 Workspace Server. The "SAS Analytics Pro Server" option in the Add menu simplifies server selection, but "SAS 9 Workspace Server" works as well. Both servers use SAS IOM and share the same API, so SAS Enterprise Guide treats them the same way.   For more details about SAS Analytics Pro, visit https://support.sas.com/en/software/analytics-pro-support.html.   Note that SAS Extension for Visual Studio Code also supports SAS IOM connections, so this extension can also be used to connect to SAS Analytics Pro Server. For more details see the documentation for “remote-IOM” connection profile: https://sassoftware.github.io/vscode-sas-extension/Configurations/Profiles/sas9iom.   Other enhancements   Scheduling a SAS Enterprise Guide project now uses a Microsoft PowerShell script to invoke SAS Enterprise Guide automation to run the project, instead of using a Visual Basic script. VBScript has been deprecated by Microsoft, see https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/vbscript-deprecation-timelines-and-next-steps/4148301 for more details.   Conclusion   In conclusion, the latest updates to SAS Enterprise Guide introduce significant enhancements to its integration with SAS Viya by adding SAS Viya Workbench and SAS Analytics Pro (Viya) support. SAS Content folder support for integration with SAS Viya 4 allows for easier collaboration with users of SAS Studio on SAS Viya 4.   These updates boost flexibility, reliability, and compatibility across evolving SAS environments - ensuring SAS Enterprise Guide remains a powerful companion for both SAS 9 and Viya platforms.   Additional Resources Using SAS Enterprise Guide with SAS Viya 4 SAS® Enterprise Guide® Is Now Integrated With SAS® Viya® 4 Q&A, Slides... - SAS Support Communities Effortlessly Migrate Multiple SAS® Enterprise Guide Projects to SAS® Viya Using the Migration Wizard SAS Enterprise Guide | SAS Support   ... View more

Introduction A custom step in SAS Studio enables you to create a user interface for users at your site so those user can complete a specific task without having to know or write SAS code.   Meanwhile the SAS Studio Custom Steps repository on GitHub has well over 100 custom steps, contributed by more than 30 step authors, taking advantage of this powerful capability to build point-and-click extensions for SAS Studio. Many thanks to all contributors!   As primary maintainer of this GitHub repository, I have come across several routines in the code generation part of custom steps that are performed in multiple entries. Code snippets for those routines have been standardized and are now available in the GitHub repository as well, hopefully making it even easier to build your custom steps. This article will walk you through some of them.   Programmatically stop SAS Studio flow execution Sometimes there is a need to stop the execution of SAS code at runtime, as you might not be able to validate all pre-requisites in the custom step UI itself. Therefore, the generated code needs to perform validation at runtime and then programmatically stop flow execution when not all pre-requisites have been met.   One example would be where the custom step requires both the input and output table to reside in a libref that points to a caslib. The custom step UI doesn't provide an option to the step author to check this as usage time, so this can only be done at runtime.   How to exactly perform that check for an input or output table will be discussed in the next section, we will first focus on how to inform the user that their input is not meeting the pre-requisites.   To programmatically stop code execution you can use the abort statement in a data step, and precede it with a put or putlog statement that explains the reason why.  More details about the abort statement can be found here: SAS Documentation for the abort statement.   Here is a simple code sample and a screenshot to show how this presents itself in SAS Studio:           data _null_; putlog "ERROR: aborting this step because ..."; abort cancel; run;               Finding the CAS library name for a table In certain scenarios your custom step code generator might want to directly invoke a CAS action using proc cas when the selected input table is a CAS table.    As a custom step always uses SAS Compute, the inputtable (and outputtable) UI control in a custom step return the selected table as libref.tablename.   The code generator then first needs to check whether the libref points to a caslib, and then check which caslib that is. This because the CAS action only understands about caslib names and not about SAS Compute libraries. And you cannot guarantee that the libref used by the libname points to a caslib with the exact same name.   Here is an example showing a setup where libref and caslib name are different, in this case libname casdata points to caslib mydat42:   Now assume the user has selected table casdata.class_castable in your custom step for an input table control named inputtable1.     This would result in the following SAS macro variables being generated:           /* Macro variable(s) for UI control with ID of inputtable1 */ %let inputtable1=CASDATA.CLASS_CASTABLE; %let inputtable1_engine=CAS; %let inputtable1_label=; %let inputtable1_lib=CASDATA; %let inputtable1_name=CLASS_CASTABLE; %let inputtable1_name_base=CLASS_CASTABLE; %let inputtable1_tblType=table; %let inputtable1_type=dataTable;             You would use the inputtable1_engine macro variable and check its value. If its value is "CAS" then use data step function getlcaslib (SAS doc link here) to retrieve the caslib name associated with the libref provided in macro variable inputtable1_lib.   Here is a code sample:           %if "%upcase(&inputtable1_engine)"="CAS" %then %do; %let _usr_inputtable1_caslib=%sysfunc(getlcaslib(&inputtable1_lib)); proc cas; action table.tableInfo / caslib="&_usr_inputtable1_caslib" name="&inputtable1_name"; run; %end; %else %do; data _null_; putlog "ERROR: The selected input library does not point to a CASlib"; abort; run; %end;             This SAS Studio documentation page explains which SAS macro variables are available for each control type.   HINT: Look at the generated code of your custom step in a SAS Studio flow and make sure you have selected “Unfold all regions” from the popup menu in the panel that shows the generated code. Then find the section for your custom step. This will show which SAS macro variables are being generated for each UI control and what their values are.   Wrap up Hopefully some of these code snippets will be useful when creating your custom steps. This page in the SAS Studio Custom Steps GitHub repository lists which code snippets are currently available.   ... View more