Allowed property type changes

The following table shows which property type changes are allowed. These changes are allowed because they do not result in data loss. For example, if a database expects a decimal for a given field and Pega Platform provides an integer, the data is safe. However, if a database expects a decimal and the system provides a Boolean, data is lost.

For example, if the original property has a type of DateTime, you cannot override it with a new property that has a type of Double. If you try, an error message similar to the following is displayed:

In this case, you can override the DateTime property in a higher ruleset version with a type of Date or TimeOfDay. Similarly, you can “specialize” a property of type Text.

It is a best practice to make such overrides when no work objects or other saved instances have a value for the property.

You can use two methods to change the property type. To avoid validation issues and other processing errors, only override properties that are not yet saved in work objects.

Method 1: Delete and recreate the property using the new property type

If the field you want to change does not exist on production, you can delete the property rule in every system (such as application, testing, and production) and then recreate the property using the correct type.

For example, assume that you created a property named Prop1 with the type Integer in the 01-01-01 ruleset version, locked the version and continued development in 01-01-02. You now realize you need to change the type of Prop1 from Integer to Text. If you change the property and attempt to resave into 01-01-02 with the new type a general error occurs:

Definition required to conform to Cahaba-Work-CPM-Claims.Prop1 instance created 20050831T162223.149 GMT

In this case, you can delete Prop1 and recreate it using Text as its property type.

Method 2: Create a new property and block the old one

You can create a new property with a different name and use it going forward. Copy the old property with an availability setting of Blocked in a new ruleset version to prevent further use of it.