Constellation Modernization Assistant

Before migrating a Theme Cosmos or UI-Kit-based application to Constellation, the migration team must have strong expertise in both Constellation and the existing application. A solid understanding of the latest release of Pega Platform™, its features, and the current application is crucial to streamline the migration process and minimize potential bugs. Address technical debt early to avoid delays and adopt a phased approach, which begins with the enterprise application. Conduct comprehensive application testing at each phase to ensure a seamless transition and prevent production issues.

The migration process consists of four key phases: Discover, Prepare, Migrate, and Adopt. 

In the following figure, click the + icons to learn more about the different phases of the Migration process:

Running the application in Analysis mode of the Constellation Modernization Assistant generates a report of issues to address for modernization. In Dev Studio, you can select the application stack to analyze and run the analysis. The Constellation Modernization Assistant reviews all sections in your selected applications, identifying issues with Flow Actions, properties, and Case Types.

The system processes the analysis as a queue processor in the background. The duration depends on the number of Rules in your application. The analysis is available to all the users of the application, and the system stores the results as instances of the Pega-Constellation-Migration class and its subclasses.

On completion, the analysis generates a summary of the application that includes the number of analyzed Rules and a list of issues. After the analysis is complete, you can download an Excel file containing a comprehensive list of Rules (by pzInsKey), the issue IDs, and the number of occurrences for each issue in the respective rules.

In the following figure, click the + icons to explore the different sections of the application summary that the Constellation Modernization Assistant generates in Analysis mode:

When you run Constellation Modernization in Analysis mode, the tool generates a categorized list of issues by type. It detects several modernization issues, each classified by severity (minor, major, complex, or critical) and complexity (low, moderate, or high). The report includes links to documentation with suggested solutions, and some issues are auto-fixed. The Constellation Modernization Assistant highlights issues you must address before migrating your applications to Constellation, providing detailed insights to guide the resolution process.

Running the application in Migrate mode of the Constellation Modernization Assistant creates a new application with a new Ruleset and Access Group. It converts sections into Views, upgrades Flow actions to include the new View name, marks properties as Relevant Records, and adds Case Types and Data Types to the new application. The migrated application retains all existing Portals and includes a new Constellation Work Portal with default access to App Studio. The Constellation Modernization Assistant does not migrate existing or create new Pega Digital Experience (DX) Components.

In Dev Studio, you can navigate to the summary of the application generated during the analysis and click Migrate my application to begin the migration process. The migration runs in the user context, so you must keep the Application Modernization Assistant tab open. The duration of the migration depends on the number of rules in the application. When migrating Rules, you can choose to save them in either a branch or a newly created Ruleset. For better collaboration and version control, it is recommended to use a branch.

Once complete, the built-on application stack of your application includes Constellation, and the migrated application and UI Runtime are set to Constellation UI, as shown in the following figure:

Check your knowledge with the following interaction:

The Constellation Modernization Assistant has several limitations:

• The tool does not fully convert section models to Views, leaving Components such as tables and repeating dynamic layouts unsupported.
• Migration locks the current user, which prevents them from performing other activities during the process.
• The process requires temporarily adding the new Ruleset to the current application.
• Version 1.0.x of the tool identifies over 50 modernization issues but does not detect all potential problems.
• The tool excludes support for migrating to the Pega Common Data Model, which requires manual conversion for applications that use Pega Sales Automation™ or Pega Customer Service™ on Constellation.

Upcoming releases aim to address these limitations.