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Activities

In Pega Platform™, activities automate processing. Scripted in Dev Studio, activities contain a sequence of steps that perform in the instructed order. Activity rules automate the system when more appropriate rule types are not available, usually due to more complex calculations or processes, or when a rule requires an activity to run. For example, a Declare Onchange requires the use of an activity to automatically run a process or suspends work when the value of a specified property changes.  Once the activity is complete, control returns to the rule that called the activity.

Note: When an activity rule is appropriate, use the standard activities included in Pega Platform and avoid writing custom activities unless necessary to satisfy an application requirement. Standard activities apply to the @baseclass, Work-, Assign-, and History- classes.

For example, an insurance company is required to upload submitted insurance claims to the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Automated uploads occur at off-peak hours to minimize the impact on users. In Pega Platform, an activity can be configured to allow the system to automate claim uploads without user intervention.

Activities best practices

  • Keep activities short. Limit your activities to fewer than 25 steps, and focus each activity on completing one task.

  • Whenever possible, use alternative rule types, such as using a data transform to set a property value.

  • Limit hand-coded Java. Avoid Java steps in activities when standard or custom rule types, library functions, or activity methods are available. 

Note: The Java method allows you to add custom Java code to an activity. Use this method with extreme caution, the use of a custom Java code in activities is a severe violation of Pega application development best practices. Use the Access Control Check landing page (Configure > Org & Security > Tools > Access Control Check) to identify activity calls that require mitigation.

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