| This post was kindly contributed by Business Intelligence Notes for SAS® BI Users - go there to comment and to read the full post. |
A nice feature of SAS Enterprise Guide is the “Files” folder. 
This provides direct access to the file system where the workspace server is running. You can take advantage of this by configuring a central location where users can store data, SAS code, CSV files, Excel files, or anything useful. If this is not configured it defaults to a user-specific area. In some cases this may be the most appropriate location of the “Files” link.
Simple Ways to Use
- Centralize SAS code developed by users
- Centralize SAS datasets or other types of data for users
- Stage incoming files from external sources for end users to consume and analyze
Important Note: Make sure file permissions are set appropriately for the file system location on the server!
How to Configure the “Files” Folder
Use SAS Management Console to configure the location of the “Files” folder. This requires an administrative role to accomplish because it is seen across the enterprise. The workspace server runs SAS code from EG so it will be the item of interest in Management Console.
Since users will access data and submit code through the SASApp context server, you will want to navigate to the workspace server through the “SASApp – Workspace Server”.
This is the physical location exposed by the workspace server:
Backdoor for Administrators
One thing I like doing for SAS Administrators (or BI developers 
) is providing an easy way to access the root file system through the SASMeta context server in SAS Enterprise Guide. SASMeta by default is only visible to SAS Administrators. Rather than using the SASApp context server, I like setting the SASMeta context server file path to the root of the file system or something at a higher level than normal users. In certain environments this can be a quick way to manage files across the enterprise.
It is possible to set the “File” file path to a network share in a windows environment but this requires additional configuration…. for future blogging!
| This post was kindly contributed by Business Intelligence Notes for SAS® BI Users - go there to comment and to read the full post. |