Conversation
Labb
GB
Last activity: 14 Jan 2026 18:09 EST
Is it possible to define Data entities as abstract in our Blueprint?
I have recently having a play with Blueprint and I noted that all data types, when imported, are treated as Concrete classes.
What is the recommended way to create Abstract Data Entities? I would love to avoid creating them as concrete and then having to change them to abstract, plus all the clean up that comes with it, and I was wondering If there was another recommended way to do this, avoiding the cleanup.
Pegasystems Inc.
IN
@MartiGruart Hello,
Thanks for posting your question here.
As of now we can't define abstract Data entities in Blueprint. I would be intrested to understand your use case so that I can suggest the best possible option we have to achieve that use case.
Regards,
Labb
GB
@SumanKumarthank you for your reply.
As part of Data Model design, I can see how I will require some Data classes as reference classes which I would then use to define Pages/Page Lists (at Case Type level) as Embedded Data fields. In my use case, I do not see a need for storing that page or list of pages back to the data type, instead I would be comfortable with it being stored as part of the work object.
I hope this helps in providing a recommendations, otherwise happy to provide any other clarifications.
Updated: 12 Jan 2026 9:56 EST
Pegasystems Inc.
US
This is a very common ask. We typically prefer to use abstract classes for embedding data structures into our case types where we do not intend to persist that data outside of the case itself. Address is the most frequently used of these, but on a typical application, I would estimate that 50-70 percent of the classes we create will never be used to persist data, they will just be used to structure information on a case.
@MartiGruart the workaround you are looking for is to use "embedded data" classes. Embedded data classes are defined by adding a property to your case type and marking the field type a "Create New Embedded". You define the properties for it and you can then use that for other property definitions. On import, this will still be defined as a concrete class, but no data pages, data base table records, history classes, reports will be generated. At present, you get just one view with embedded data, we are hoping to see this change early February.
Labb
GB
@ChrisBoone Thank you!