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Creating an activity

Updated on January 14, 2022

Automate a system task for which a more appropriate rule type is not available by creating an activity. With activities, you define a sequential set of instructions, or steps, that the activity completes automatically. Each step calls a method or supported rule type to perform the required processing.

Consider a scenario in which an insurance company must submit insurance claims to the Registry of Motor Vehicles. To minimize the impact on users, you can configure an activity to automate claim uploads so that your application submits insurance claims outside of peak hours, without user intervention.
Before you begin: As a best practice, before creating an activity, investigate model-driven alternatives that can deliver the desired results. Alternatives such as data transforms, collections, declarative rules, and features of flows and case management can remove the need to create new activities. If possible, use the standard activities that Pega Platform includes. To view a list of all standard activities, flows, and flow actions that you can use in case management, in the header of Dev Studio, click ConfigureCase ManagementProcessesAPIs. Create a custom activity only if the standard activities cannot fulfill your business needs.
  1. In the header of Dev Studio, click CreateTechnicalActivity.
  2. In the Activity Record Configuration section, select Activity (legacy).
  3. In the Label field, enter a name that describes the purpose of the activity and helps identify the activity.
    Start activity names with a verb that indicates the purpose of the activity. Follow the verb with a noun or noun phrase that indicates an element on which the activity operates. Capitalize the first letter of each word in the name of the activity.
    For example: Name your activity CreateClassPage or GetHTMLFilePath to clearly convey the purpose.
  4. Optional: To change the identifier that other rules use to reference this activity, in the Identifier section, click Edit, and then enter a name that is unique within the Apply to class.
    Choose a name that starts with a letter and contains only letters, numbers, and hyphens. The name must be a valid Java identifier. The length of the class name plus the length of the identifier cannot exceed 128 characters.
  5. Optional: To automatically set the activity type and, in some cases, add prepopulated steps to the form, click View additional configuration options, and then select one of the available activity templates:
    • To create a route activity that you can use in an assignment shape to route an assignment to a worklist or work queue by using custom routing criteria, select Template for Route type activity for worklist. For more information, see Assignment shapes in processes.
    • To create a trigger activity that you can use in a Declare Trigger rule to set the values of parameters, select Template for Trigger type activity. For more information, see Creating Declare Trigger rules.
    • To create a utility activity that you can use to automate the processing of a case, select Template for Utility type activity. For more information, see Calling an activity or an automation from a flow.
  6. In the Context section, define the context in which to execute the rule:
    1. In the list of built-on applications, select an application layer for the activity.
    2. In the Apply to field, enter a class that you want to associate with the activity.
      At run time, the activity runs in the context of a page. The class that you specify in the Apply to field must be either the class of that page or in the class hierarchy of that page's class. For more information, see Understanding class hierarchy and inheritance.

      The list of available class names depends on the application context that you select.

    3. In the Add to ruleset list, select a ruleset and a ruleset version in which you want to store the activity.
  7. Optional: To override the default work item that your application associates with this development change, press the Down arrow key in the Work item to associate field, and then select a work item.
    For more information about your default work item, see Setting your current work item.
  8. Click Create and open.
What to do next: Define a sequential set of instructions, or steps, that the activity completes automatically. For more information, see Configuring steps in an activity.

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