Data Records
An application often requires access to data that is necessary to process cases but is not directly part of the application. Data records provide values for the fields that are associated with a specific data object, and you can store them outside the case. As a result, you can widely reuse and reference data records.
Data records define the permissible values for data fields. Not all fields have data records, but fields with data records limit the input values to valid options, reduce errors, and allow for automation.
Each record requires a unique identifier to identify each record in the data object. In some cases, this identifier might be a business concept, such as an employee ID for each employee. By default, Pega Platform™ creates its own unique identifier, pyGUID, for each record in the data object. With pyGUID, you can guarantee that you have a unique identifier for each record in a data object.
In the following image, click the + icons to learn more about data records using a travel application example:
Data records and data objects
In Pega Platform™, data objects represent key business entities, such as customers. Data objects contain all the fields that are necessary to describe an object. For example, an identifier, name, address, and date of account creation describe a customer.
Generally, a change to data record values does not require an associated change in the business process to support the change. At the same time, a change in the data object fields represents a change in the business processes. For example, adding a new customer is part of the standard business process. Adding a new customer level (for example, platinum) results in a modification to the business processes to manage platinum customers.
Local data storage
In a Pega Platform application, there are several ways to create and use data records to reference data.
A local data storage lets you store data records for a data object without creating or maintaining database tables.
In the following image, click the + icons to learn more about data records:
External data sources
You can configure a data object to retrieve data from an external data source, such as a database or a web service. In this situation, data records are not used, but rather, the case references the configured external data source to supply the values for the data fields. For example, a purchase application needs access to currency exchange rates. The values used to populate the Exchange rate fields are stored in and referenced from an external database table.
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