Application properties
When creating an application interface, the developer creates the properties that reflect the features of the application intended for visibility and use in robotic automations. There are two types of application properties: basic, which are built upon the existing application controls, and advanced properties, which provide information that isn't available on a control directly.
Basic properties make a property of a control public so that an automation developer can see the value or modify it in the case of read-write properties. They are also created to expose the Asset Globals to an automation developer. Advanced properties contain information about the application elements that are not connected with an existing control, such as constructing a fullName property from two controls called firstName and lastName.
Application properties can be used to prevent the automation developer from addressing application controls directly, so that they don't need to get into the application implementation details and can more easily build robotic project use cases.
Basic properties
When developing an application interface, you choose the application elements that should be visible and ready to use by an automation developer. You then create basic properties that are built upon existing application controls for the properties you want to expose.
For example, you create a basic customerFormCreated property to indicate that a customer form is currently displayed, and that the automation developer can add or edit a customer. To add a property as part of the application's external interface, you drag the desired control to the Application property form, as shown in the following figure:
After selecting a control or component to build on, you choose the built-in property of the control, and decide whether it should be read-only. The automation developer can modify the values of read-write properties in their project.
Note:
You can limit developers' access to the application's controls and their properties to make the application easy to use and make creating the target robotic project more convenient. Using the basic properties means that the automation developer does not need to directly use application controls.
You can limit developers' access to the application's controls and their properties to make the application easy to use and make creating the target robotic project more convenient. Using the basic properties means that the automation developer does not need to directly use application controls.
Advanced properties
You can create customized application properties and implement how the property value is set or obtained. After adding and naming the property on the Interface tab of the application, you select the Advanced checkbox to display the advanced property options.
In the following image, click the + icons to learn more about the advanced property settings:
For example, you create the customerIdEmpty property to indicate that the operator hasn't assigned an ID, so a new customer can't be added. After saving the property, you click the Configure logic for property read (GET) link to open and configure the GET method, as shown in the following figure:
The following figure shows an example implementation of the GET method created for the customerIdEmpty property:
Read-write advanced properties
When creating an application property, you set the read-only property to False if you want to assign its value manually. The read-write property requires that you define both GET and SET methods. Both methods are accessible from the property form, as shown in the following figure:
For example, when preparing to add a new customer to Robotic Banking, a developer saves the creation date from the customer agreement using the accountCreationDate application property. The SET method adjusts the date format and updates the account creation form with a desired value, as shown in the following figure:
Depending on the scenario, you can also compute or modify the assigned value and retain the value of the advanced property using the Asset Globals variable.
When adding a new customer, the automation assigns an account number to the customer and combines it with the bank code, sort code, and control numbers using the SET method shown in the following figure. Then, the whole account number is stored as a global variable accessible with the GET method.
When you configure the logic for the GET and SET methods, you must not edit or delete the Entry and Exit points and their parameters. GET methods have one parameter of the property type on the Exit Point that returns the property value, while SET methods have one parameter on the Entry Point, which is an input value. Additionally, you can not add any additional Exit Points.
Editing Application properties
Creating an application interface is an iterative process, in which every deployed version can be used by the automation developer. Pega Robot Studio restricts some of the operations for editing the properties that you add and save in a project, to secure backward compatibility:
- Once saved, you are not allowed to change the name or the type of the application property.
- You cannot make any changes when you add the read-write advanced property to the project.
- The read-only property can be changed to read-write once saved, but you cannot roll it back to read-only afterward.
- Once you make the property advanced, you can not decrease it to the basic property.
The general rule is that you can make the property definition less restrictive, but not more restrictive after saving it, to prevent deleting functionality that the automation developer might already be using.
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