Constellation and the Data Model
In Constellation, how you build Pega applications shifts from heavily customizing a Section-based UI to accommodate your Data Model, to configuring Views derived largely from the design of your Data Model. The UI controls available to you when you configure Views in Constellation are determined by fields, and their corresponding Field Types, which are built into your Case Type Data Model.
This is the crux of the Constellation experience. When authoring in Constellation, you start by creating the data objects in the application-level Data Model, and the fields and data relationships in your Case Type Data Models. The fields and Field Types defined in your Case Type Data Model determine the controls prescribed when you are building out the Views required by the Steps in your Case Type.
The most common, high-value action patterns that clients need for successful Case resolution are offered as prescribed configurations for the respective Field Type. For example, fields associated with a list will automatically include configuration options to display the data as a table in the View.
Constellation aims to eliminate that cost by replacing customization with prescribed configuration. One of the ways it accomplishes this is by eliminating Action sets.
No Action sets
Applications built on Pega's Traditional UI heavily utilize Action sets. Action sets are an example of event-driven programming, where if you perform an event, some Action occurs as a result. For example, if you click an "Add to cart" button (event), the contents of a user's shopping cart is updated (action).
Constellation is based on declarative programming. Declarative programming consists of instructing a program on what needs to be done, instead of telling it how to do it. For example, by telling it that when the Use as billing address checkbox is selected, it should copy the mailing address information to the billing address fields.
Constellation incorporates the most high-value patterns that are typically built out in complex Action sets and includes them as simple control configurations that are associated with each Field Type. This result is adherence to Pega development best practices, faster time to value, more consistent user experiences, fewer bugs, less Rule maintenance, and simplified upgrades.
Field Types and their corresponding UI controls
Each Field Type has an associated UI control.
A Text (single line) Field Type has a single UI control - a text input box.
In contrast, the Data Reference Field Type has multiple UI controls that you can choose between: Autocomplete, Dropdown, Table, and Simple table, as seen in the following figure:
A pattern-based UI example
The simple examples above demonstrate how the Field Types dictate the View prescribed by Constellation. Typical Case Management patterns are represented as configuration options in the Data Model, which then generate a consistent front-end experience across the application stack.
For example, a common Customer service Case Management pattern involves a CSR’s need to search for and select a Customer Data Record to associate with a Service Case.
In Pega’s Traditional UI, this search and select pattern is built using an Action set combined with Activities and other UI controls, likely requiring the developer to engage with an overwhelming number of Rules and UI control property panels, including:
- Server-side logic, to perform the search.
- A search form with dynamic layout and various form controls.
- A Search button, and then create an Action set to call server-side logic to search.
- A Section Rule to hold the search form and results table.
- Configuration of the data source and visible columns, including a column to hold a radio button for selection.
The following video depicts the process of building a search and select pattern with an Action set using Pega’s Traditional UI architecture:
With Constellation, using object reference and auto-populate properties derived from the Data Model configuration makes it easier for Pega Platform to understand the relationship between the data objects and elements in your application and appropriately reflect that relationship in the UI.
The following video depicts the process of building a search and select pattern using Constellation's configuration approach:
With Constellation, UI controls that were previously delivered through complex Action sets can now be configured quickly and consistently.
Constellation's prescribed UI fundamentally produces the same outcome as Section Rules and Action sets in the Traditional UI architecture. With Pega's Constellation architecture, the configuration of your Data Model leads to the prescribed design of a UI that follows Pega's best practices for the collection and display of Case data.
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