Issue with Savable Data Page: Data save options When rule - unexpected behavior
Hello all,
please find a summary of my issue here and screenshots of all relevant rules, tracer and clipboard pages further below.
Question:
In which context is the when rule of a data save option evaluated?
Summary:
I am experiencing unexpected behavior with savable datapages that have multiple save options. I am aware that each save option's when rule is evaluated and when true then the save option is performed (thus allowing us to perform multiple save options in a single datapage-save operation).
The documentation on this is not explaining in detail in which context the when rules are evaluated in. My assumption was that it is the datapage itself but that does not seem to be the case: https://community.pega.com/knowledgebase/articles/data-management-and-integration/85/savable-data-pages
The primary question is: in which context is the when rule of a data save option evaluated?
If the answer to that is not the data page itself, then my follow up question would be how to write a when rules that evaluates a datapage save option based on the data on the datapage at the point in time when the datapage-save operation is called?
Example:
Here is what I am experiencing in this scenario (screenshots further below).
There's an OOTB flow calling datapage-save for the D_Contact_Details datapage.
Hello all,
please find a summary of my issue here and screenshots of all relevant rules, tracer and clipboard pages further below.
Question:
In which context is the when rule of a data save option evaluated?
Summary:
I am experiencing unexpected behavior with savable datapages that have multiple save options. I am aware that each save option's when rule is evaluated and when true then the save option is performed (thus allowing us to perform multiple save options in a single datapage-save operation).
The documentation on this is not explaining in detail in which context the when rules are evaluated in. My assumption was that it is the datapage itself but that does not seem to be the case: https://community.pega.com/knowledgebase/articles/data-management-and-integration/85/savable-data-pages
The primary question is: in which context is the when rule of a data save option evaluated?
If the answer to that is not the data page itself, then my follow up question would be how to write a when rules that evaluates a datapage save option based on the data on the datapage at the point in time when the datapage-save operation is called?
Example:
Here is what I am experiencing in this scenario (screenshots further below).
There's an OOTB flow calling datapage-save for the D_Contact_Details datapage.
We have specialized this data page to have multiple Data save options, which trigger based on when rules named UpdateExternalContactSOR and WriteToPegaContactSOR.
In Tracer we see these rules executed in the context of a page named =unnamed=.
The first data save option, which uses the UpdateExternalContactSOR When rule evaluates to false in tracer. That is because it checks certain fields to have certain values but the =unnamed= page is completely empty.
If that When rule would have been executed in the context of the datapage itself, it would have evaluated to true and executed the save option.
I am looking for a way to execute that save option, but only if certain fields on the datapage have certain values and have a when rule for that. Is there a way to achieve this and is it expected that data save option when rules are evaluated in an empty =unnamed= page context?
Thank you for your support!
Pegasystems Inc.
US
There are updates learned from the conversation in INC-169011:
As of now, it is expected behavior for the when rules on data save plans to evaluate in the =unnamed= empty page context. This is subject to possible change in a future release. Feedback item FDBK-79657 has been created for this.
This implies that the when rule on a data save plan can not evaluate any fields which are on the data page itself.
This raises a follow up clarification question: if the data page from where the when rule is referenced is not the context from where it's going to be evaluated, what is the rule resolution context for that rule?
Assuming there exists a circumstanced version of the rule (e.g. .CustomerValue = "Gold") and the data page content fulfills the circumstance condition, will the circumstanced version of the rule be picked at runtime or not?
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Per in INC-169011 it is explained that in above scenario the circumstanced version of the rule would be picked.
In summary, the system behavior regarding when rules in data page data save plans is:
- Data page context is used to rule resolve the when rule
- =unnamed= empty page context used for evaluating the when rule
This deviation from the default principle (rules are resolved in the context from where they are referenced and then executed in the same context) isn't documented and IMHO unexpected.
As the documentation does not call this out, I am wondering if this truly the intended way it should work or actually a bug that should be fixed?