Set rule status and availability to elaborate on the usage information that you provide, and ensure that users interact with the correct version of your rule at run time. By setting rule status and availability, you also define application behavior during rule resolution, and how users can interact with rules at design time. As a result, you ensure that your application works correctly even if users apply extensions and make modifications.
For example, if you need a core functionality of your application to remain unchanged, you can set the status of rules that build the functionality as final, because users cannot override final rules.- In the navigation pane of Dev Studio, click Records.
- Expand the category that stores your rule, and then select a subcategory. For example: Click Process Service Level Agreement .
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In the header of the form, next to the short description, click the rule availability
label.
Pega Platform displays rule availability in brackets.
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In the Availability list, select an option to control how your
application selects the rule during rule resolution:
You cannot change the availability of some rule types, such as classes and rulesets, which are always available to users.
- To consider the rule in rule resolution, select Available.
- To exclude the rule from rule resolution and disable validation logic so that you can continue to edit the rule even if errors occur, select Not available.
- To consider the rule during rule resolution but to stop processing and return an error to the user when the user selects the rule, select Blocked.
- To consider the rule during rule resolution but prevent users from extending the rule by copying it to a different ruleset unless the ruleset is a higher version of the current ruleset, select Final.
- To exclude the rule and all instances with the same name in previous versions of the same major-version ruleset, from rule resolution, select Withdrawn.
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In the Status list, select an option to indicate how users
interact with the rule:
- To enable users to provide standard input parameters to this rule and receive standard return values or results, select API.
- To communicate that Pega Platform no longer supports the rule, select Deprecated.
- To enable users to override the rule to provide custom functionality, select Extension.
- To enable users to select this rule as a starting point to save time when they create a rule, select Template.
- Click OK.
- Click Save.
- Troubleshooting final rules
After a rule is marked as final, no one can create a second rule with the same visible key in any ruleset other than the ruleset that the first rule belongs to. If the ruleset version of a final rule is locked, you cannot create a second rule with the same visible key in any version of any ruleset, except a higher version of the ruleset containing the final rule.
- Troubleshooting blocked rules
Rule resolution processing is halted (with no rule found) when it encounters blocked rules. The rule form colors change from greens to grays for blocked rules.
- Extension points
An extension point is an activity or other rule that is designed and intended to be overridden to meet application needs. Many such rules are empty stubs that contain no steps. Typically, the overriding rule is in a derived class.