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Data Records

Data objects are reusable building blocks that collect and organize fields, Data Pages, Views, and other elements. During Case processing, the elements associated with a data object are assigned values. The unique collection of fields and values that make up an instance of a data object is called a Data Record. When stored locally in a Pega database, each Data Record is a row in a database table. After adding Data Records to a data object, you can reference the records in a form or View. 

The following image shows an example of customer Data Records:

Image showing an example of customer Data Records

Data Records and data objects

In Pega Platform™, data objects represent key business entities. Data objects contain all the fields that are necessary to describe the object they represent. For example, the First name, Last name, Email, and Phone fields are used to describe a customer, so these fields are stored in a Customer data object.

Data Records for a data object are sets of assigned values for each of the fields that describe the object. A list of Data Records may be used to define the permissible values for a field in a View, but not all fields are constrained by Data Records. Using Data Records to limit input values to valid options helps to reduce errors and facilitate automation.

Generally, a change to a Data Record does not require a change to the business process itself. For example, adding or updating a customer does not change how the business handles customer data. A change to the fields stored within the Customer data object does represent a change in the way the business handles information. A business that wants to add service subscription levels to their offerings might add a Subscription level field and require all new customers to select a subscription upon account creation.

Using a travel application as an example, a drop-down control is used to display a list of airports to search for upcoming flights. There is an airport data object associated with the Case Type. Each airport is individually described by a code, city, and country. In this example, each grouping of values that describe an airport represents a single Data Record. Because the airport data does not differ from Case to Case, using Data Records provides data consistency.

Data Records are displayed in a selectable list by default. You can pick which field is shown in the list. The rest of the data displays in the form once the user makes a selection. In the following image, airport Data Records are shown in the drop-down selection menu and the airport code is the field displayed. The values displayed for city and country are updated based on the selected airport code.

Image showing airport codes representing data records in a drop-down list

Local data storage

In a Pega Platform application, there are several ways to create and use Data Records to access information.

Data Records can be input directly into the data object from the Records tab. This allows you to enter data directly into the application and store the data locally in tables in the Pega database without ever having to access the database directly.

In the following image, click the + icons to learn more about data records stored locally in a data object:

External data sources

You can also configure a data object to retrieve data from an external data source, such as a database or a web service.

In this situation, while each row of data is still a Data Record, the information is not stored in Pega Platform. Instead, the Case uses the integration settings and Data Pages associated with a data object to reference the configured external data source to supply the values for the data fields.  For example, an online grocery delivery application references the supermarket's external product database to retrieve a list of available products from which to order.

Note: For more information on configuring external data sources, see About the Connector and Metadata wizard.

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