Pega Test Topics

Activities % of Exam: 5%

Definition
Activities are the primary processing rules in Process Commander.
Provides procedural processing functionality

Category: Technical

Activity Concepts
For an activity in the Work- class or a class derived from Work-, the Activity Type
field (on the Security tab) of an activity determines whether it can be used in a
flow shape. A value of Utility, Connect, Assign, Notify, or Route indicates
that the activity can be referenced directly in a flow task of the corresponding
type.
Use the Call instruction to cause the current activity to find another specified
activity and execute it. When that activity completes, control returns to the calling
activity.
The calling activity can provide input parameters to the called activity, or it can
share its own parameter page with the called activity, an approach known as call-
by-reference.

Standard Activities of type Activity

Work-.ActionNotifyQuick
o Creates simple correspondence
Work-.AddCovered
o Creates a new cover work object and performs a Commit method, which
saves the work object and releases all locks
Work-.CloseWorkItem
o Closes the work object, releases the lock and sends back HTML code that
closes the work IFRAME
Work-.DoClose
o Executed when the operator clicks the close button on a work object form
Work-.GetNextWork
o Supports the Get Next Work button on the Confirmation harness form.
Retrieves an assignment from a user's worklist or from a workbasket

Activities in a Flow
Assignment Activities
 o These standard Work- activities have an Activity Type of Assign. They
can be used in the Assignment task, represented by the Assignment shape (
) in Visio.
o Standard Activities of type Assignment:
External
Creates an external assignment, an instance of the Assign-
External class (or a subclass of this class), part of the
Directed Web Access facility
WorkList
Creates a normal assignment (Assign-Worklist class) added
to a user's worklist
WorkBasket
Creates a normal assignment (Assign-Workbasket class)
added to a workbasket. If the workbasket doesn't exist, the
assignment can be routed to the current user.
Integrator Activities
o Integrator task activities have an Activity Type of Connect. They can be
used in the Integrator task, represented by the Integrator shape ( ) in
Visio.
o Because these tasks involve external systems, no standard rules have this
type. Consult Integrating with External Systems 5.2 for more information
about connectors.
Notify Activities
o These standard Work- activities have an Activity Type of Notify. They can
be used in the Notify task, represented by the Notify shape ( ).
o Standard Activities of type Notify:
Notify

Send an e-mail message as correspondence to a party

identified through a parameter
NotifyAll

Send a single e-mail message to each work party identified

in the work object.
NotifyAssignee

Send an e-mail message to the Process Commander user

who received the assignment. If the assignment is in a
workbasket rather than a worklist, an e-mail message goes
 to the first operator listed in the Contacts array of the
Workbasket tab.
NotifyAllAssignees

Send an e-mail message to the Process Commander user

who received the assignment. If the assignment is in a
workbasket rather than a worklist, an e-mail message is
sent to each operator listed in the Contacts array. .
NotifyParty

Send an e-mail message as correspondence to a party

identified through a parameter, but only send when a
threshold urgency level is reached or exceeded
Router Activities
o These standard Work- activities have an Activity Type of Router. They can
be used in the Router task, represented by the Router shape ( ). Each
of these sets the value of the AssignTo parameter as its result. Each uses
information in the Operator ID data instance to send the assignment to a
substitute operator if the assignment is to be completed during a period
when the first operator is unavailable.
o Standard Activities of type Router:
ToAgentWorkbasket

Routes the assignment into a workbasket (that is accessed

and processed by an agent).
ToWorkbasket

Routes the assignment to a workbasket identified in a

parameter.
Utility Activities
o These standard Work- activities have an Activity Type of Utility. They can
be used in a Utility task, represented by the Utility shape ( ) in Visio.
The pyTaskStatus property is the output result of these activities.
o Standard Activities of type Utility:
Resolve

Updates various properties needed for reporting, when a

work object becomes resolved.
UpdateStatus
 Changes the status of a work object (not the status of an
assignment), and adds a record of this change to the history
of the work object
Components of an Activity
Steps
o Primary processing unit of an activity
o Completed in order though conditions may alter this sequence, transfer
control to a different activity, or end the activity
Methods
o Distinct procedures performed in an activity step
o Many OTB methods provided by Pega
Iterations
o Used to repeat a step a number of time or until a condition is met
o Provides a limited from of enumeration or looping
Precondition/Transition
o Cause the step to Continue, skip step, jump to later step or exit activity
o Precondition happens before step is executed
o Transition happens after the step is executed
Parameters
o Variables used as inputs or outputs for the activity
o Parameters are placed on the Param page and accessed using the notation
Param.paramName

Standard Methods and Keywords

Page-*
o Page-New
Creates a new page on the clipboard
New Page may be a top level page or an embedded page
Page will be named using the Step Page attribute

o Page-Copy
Copies the contents of one page into another on the clipboard

o Page-Remove
Removes a page from the clipboard
The contents of the database are not affected
Best practice to remove paged when no longer needed

o Show-Page
Used to view the contents of the clipboard pages to help solve
problems
 Property-*
o Property-Set
Sets the value of one or more properties
Can set properties to:
Literals using quotes

o Property-Map-*
Property-Map-Decision-Tree
Calls a Decision Tree rule and loads the returned result into
a specified property

Property-Map-Decision-Table
Calls a Decision Table rule and loads the returned result
into a specified property

Property-Map-Value & Property-Map-ValuePair

Calls a Map Value rule passing a parameter for a row or a
row & column and loads the returned result into a specified
property

Obj-*
o Obj-Open
Opens an object from the database and loads it onto the clipboard
in the specified Step Page
Searches the appropriate data using the specified class and
properties

o Obj-Browse
Browses database for instance of classes & loads them to clipboard
as an array of embedded pages

o Obj-Save
Update PegaRULES or other database with information in the
clipboard

o Obj-Delete
Deletes an object in the database and can optionally delete the
same object from the clipboard

Step Pages
Step Pages Identify the page on which the step is to act
If left blank the step acts on the primary page of the activity
 If the step is to contain a Call or Branch to another activity, identify the page
that is to become the primary page of the called activity (unless it is the same
as the current activity's primary page). The class of that page must match the
Applies To key part of the activity
The Pages and Classes Tab is used to Identify Step Pages and the associated
classes used in the activity
Primary Page is a clipboard page loaded with the same class as the activity

Testing Activities
Unit Testing can be done on an activity by the Run toolbar button ( )
The Tracer can also be used to test the activity in context.