A short guide on importing data to a Data Type in Pega

[jedrb (Bartłomiej Jędrol)]

I recently went through a process of importing data to a Data Type - here is a quick guide

• Pega is equipped with a handy Data Import wizard allowing easily to import records to a Data Type
• possible Wizard’s transactions include:
  • INSERT or UPDATE rows
  • only INSERT rows
  • TRUNCATE rows (no rollback possible)
• the wizard supports the migration of data
  • there are data migration settings allowing to disable costly transactions in the system (for the time of the migration)
    
• to access the Data Import wizard:
  • from the Data types pane select the Data type that you want to import to
  • navigate to the Records tab
• for TRUNCATE you need to provide pyGUIDs of rows to be deleted
• this guide describes the INSERT or UPDATE rows option
  • all activities were performed in the Pega Trail environment in a cloud

Obtain the template

• using a template for an import ensures no additional mapping between source fields and target properties is required
• to export the template:
  • click on the Export link to obtain the CSV file corresponding to the Data Type
    

Prepare the import file

• now, you can populate the template with records
• in case you need to match existing records (INSERT or TRUNCATE)
  • ensure that you provide matching records (e.g. pyGUID)
• for INSERT
  • you can leave the pyGUID field blank
    
  • system will automatically generate required identifiers

Start the import

• once you have your file ready navigate again to the Records of the Data type
  • click Import and follow instructions the system displays
• Upload file (1/4)
  • select the Purpose of the import from the drop-down list
    • upload the import file
      
• Map fields (2/4)
  • specify a matching field for existing records if needed
    
  • provide mapping for fields detected by the wizard
    • when using the template you may apply the 1-to-1 mapping
      
  • keep in mind you may define the Default values for empty fields
    
  • additionally, it is possible to define Mapping options e.g. to utilize
    
    a Decision table when processing rows
• Import options (3/4)
  • you may save current settings as a template
  • here a validation of records that will be imported takes place (an optional step)
  • in my case the validation of half a million rows took 0:04:29
    
• Validate and review (4/4)
  • based on the validation results you can:
    • either proceed with the import
    • or cancel it
  • importing about a half a million rows (80MB CSV file) took about **00:09:57
    
    **​​​
• on the pega/Pega Labs environment validation and import times were noticeable shorter
  • for validation → 0:00:12
  • for import → 0:01:17

[MarissaRogers1 (Marissa Rogers)]

Thanks for sharing this information @jedrb!

I’ve added the Developer Knowledge Share tag to your post!

[VickyKK (Kaustubh K Kamble)]

@jedrb If the table is in CustomerData schema, how I can add individual instances of the data type in the product rule?

1. RAP rule - ‘Class instances to include’ option does not allow ‘Report definition’ filter for ‘external Class’

2. RAP rule - ‘Individual instances to include’ option does not display the instances as pzInsKey is not available.

Does that mean we cannot package individual instances for data types in CustomerData?

Thanks.