Explore Data and Insights provide a pathway to more self-service, intuitive reporting and data visualization functionality within Pega applications, unlike anything we have had in the Platform before! Whether you are building or using an app, you’ll be able to quickly and easily create and use these objects in your daily business life.
This webinar was conducted on May 10 and May 12, 2022 - presented by Adam Torrey @torra and Meghan Atkins @MeghanAtkins - providing context around the evolution from Pega’s current offering to the next generation of Pega data consumption.
Watch the replay - or review the attached handout - for guidance on how and when to best take advantage of these new capabilities and how to get your applications up and running with the latest and greatest Pega has to offer. Learn about our technology shift and how your short/medium/long term plans can best incorporate adoption of Insights into dashboards and contextually into case pages, driving more business value!
… or watch any of the following replays:
- The full webinar, including all the live Q&A from both events
- Each of the demos which Adam presented during the webinar in full resolution
Questions & Answers can be found below, beneath the replays.
Have you missed any of our earlier CLSA webinars? Click here to catch up!
Webinar replay and Q&A from both events
https://players.brightcove.net/1519050010001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6306270342112
Demo: Basic authoring of Insights (slide 10)
https://players.brightcove.net/1519050010001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6306269748112
Demo: Insights on landing pages (slide 15)
https://players.brightcove.net/1519050010001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6306269839112
Demo: Insights on dashboard pages (slide 17)
https://players.brightcove.net/1519050010001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6306269062112
Demo: Insights on case pages (slide 19)
https://players.brightcove.net/1519050010001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6306267754112
Questions and Answers
Are there limitations to the amount of records, number of columns and size of a class to use within Explore Data?
No official limits, but we encourage applications use the Elasticsearch index (Search & Reporting Service, or SRS) to help reduce impact to the operational database.
Is the data fetched from the Pega database or does it use Elasticsearch?
By default, Insights & Explore Data will query Elasticsearch, falling back to the application database when querying for a feature that is not yet supported in Elasticsearch.
In Explore Data, we can report on data objects and cases. Is there a way to include data from related objects in those insights?
Yes, you can report on data from other classes by leveraging an Association rule (which gets generated automatically from the App Studio data modelling tooling if you set up a Case Reference or Data Reference that is set to “single record”). As of version 8.7, we currently only support the “simple” version of the Association ruleform.
Can we use data from embedded pages in cases for the Insights?
Yes. As of version 8.7, you can report on properties from an embedded page. The properties from the page need to be optimized for reporting and must also be marked as relevant records.
As of version 8.7, reporting on properties from page lists is not supported. This is a known gap that we are actively working on addressing, so you should see this support in a future release.
What is the best way to report on embedded pagelist data? Can we leverage a Declare Index for example?
As of version 8.7, reporting on properties from page lists is not supported. This is a known gap that we are actively working on addressing, so you should see this support in a future release. The implementation of this will rely on Declare Indexes.
Can insights be built from external data sources and create complex joins?
Insights can be built from external data sources only when that data is brought into the Pega ecosystem. We are looking towards expanding upon that in future, but as of version 8.7 it is internally-focused. More complex joins may be supported in the future as well.
Can we influence what the drilldown shows in a chart?
Yes you can. The order of fields in the dimensions blocks defines the drilldown. When you drilldown in the visualization you can also author “how you want that drilldown to look”.
Is there a rule type for insights?
Insights get saved as a rule instance of a new ruletype: Rule-UI-Insight. Insight rules can only be authored through Explore Data. There is no Dev Studio ruleform to modify the rule directly.
Can Insights use unexposed properties?
No. As of version 8.7, only optimized columns are supported with Insights/Explore Data to help keep your application performant.
Will Insights and Explore Data replace Report Definitions?
For the time being, these will continue to exist in parallel. Report Definitions will continue to exist in the platform, and are even used behind the scenes to deliver some of Insights’ capability. Report Definitions will continue to be leveraged for use in the application to retrieve data from the Pega Platform database, until such a time when an equivalent tool is available.
Is there a way to limit the available options on Explore Data and Insights for business users?
Not as of version 8.7. However starting in version 8.8, we plan to provide an authoring experince in App Studio that allows the developer to select the classes to show at runtime in the “What would you like to explore?” dropdown. This will be the only feature limitation for business users.
Is an open ruleset required in production for users to be able to create and change insights?
Yes, an open ruleset in production is required.
With Insights, is Pega moving into the enterprise reporting space as an alternative to tools like PowerBI?
Explore Data and Insights are intended for operational reporting of Pega applications, with a focus (as at version 8.7) on data held in the Pega database. Enterprises would be able to bring in external data using native Pega Platform data integration functionality like connectors and data types, but Insights is not intended to replace an enterprise’s existing data warehousing and business intelligence capabilities, such as those provided by PowerBI or similar products.
