We recently hosted a webinar on Leveraging the Pega Common Application / Common Data Model as part of the UX Expert Circle.

We received a lot of enthusiastic participation and active Q & A through out the session. We wanted to capture these conversations and hopefully continue to build on top of it. Here are a few questions that we discussed in the webinar chat. We will add more as we can curate them. Keep the conversation going. Thanks a ton for your participation. 

When building from blueprint; is there a quick way to determine which data references to use ( the drop down is extensive! ),  

Currently, all data objects are shown, including picklist reference objects, embedded, and top-level data entities.  Pega is evaluating how to introduce categories or other means to differentiate between the types which will help when choosing the object or in App Studio data designer. 

Data portal and its support for class level specialization?, Could you please elaborate this question a little bit?   If the question is do we have any way to use class level specialization, then designer tool can be used for that. As for the data portal that is a little different and is used to experience the data model. Demos for both to come later in the meeting 

We are planning to build Pega Constellation Customer Service application. We already have built some modules around data objects like Policy, Person. I understand that Pega CS uses Common data model underneath. How can we use the data objects from the modules and the common data model?,  

You can inherit your data object from the objects in Pega common app (class specialization) for the existing and if something doesn't exist you can use it directly from common data model too. So, your EDM will be on top of CDM 

Will this Sample data be used only for simulation? 

live answered 

Where we can find an updated entity relationship diagram and description of entities of common data model? thinking in case new entities are added by Pega in the future...,  

In the Data Portal, there is a Use Case Gallery that links to our docs site: https://docs.pega.com/bundle/common-data-model/page/common-data-model/i…;

There is a page with the entity descriptions and pages with use cases for each industry with ERDs that show use cases within them. 

Do I need to have database access to extend a reference or another entity?,  

No, you don't need database access to extend. You can extend using App Studio or the tooling provided in marketplace 

Are the common data types already class specialised in each industry framework, or would we expect a straightforward transition if we incorporated an existing application as a component of a framework at a later date? I.e. a simple platform app, leveraging the contact, being added into Customer Service.  

No, the common data objects are not class specialized out of the box. They are present in the Pega common application or if some objects are specific to industry such as Observation in healthcare is directly created in Common-Healthcare. There is a capability of dynamic labels that Pega has added in 25.1 where you can change labels for the objects in industry version. For example, if you want to call a contact as member in healthcare you can do that today and it will reflect as member across appstudio, blueprint etc. 

How does the mentioned reference data correlate to the market place's component for "Reference Data"?  

You mean the ADK component? I am not exactly share but this pattern is very widely used today by all clients as this has simplified and standardized the process 

"The question refers to this Marketplace component 

https://community.pega.com/marketplace/component/adk-reference-data-mai…;

 This was built prior to Constellation. This relies heavily on design patterns that were UI Kit friendly (Sections and Delegated Data Portal).  

 This still works in Constellation; it should be stressed. The Common Application version was built with Constellation in mind, so the major differences are around the end user experience interacting with admin of the data. 

 The marketplace component is still valid and will still be supported on Marketplace." 

If someone is upgrading to constellation from theme cosmos, and as every app will have some data model created to support the application and may not find immediate need to use the CDM, do you suggest to still try to explore and add CDM if possible for such apps as well? or should it be done only when there is need ?  

If you are upgrading to Constellation and feel that your existing data model works perfectly with Constellation, you don't need to switch to CDM. If you have to go ahead and make a lot of changes to be compatible then the suggestion would be to explore what is available and, based on the effort needed for each, take a decision. As I said earlier if you are planning to use strategic applications in Pega on constellation, the building on CDM will make it much easier if you use the core objects. However, if you are building app on platform, it is optional and should be used if you see value 

You might find that upgrading to Constellation is a good opportunity to introduce a centralized data model that's used across several Pega applications.  This can save a lot of time since data is sourced once and shared instead of each app building integration. 

Does CDH framework follows CDM?  

No CDH doesn't yet follow CDM and still uses its existing model. 

Have you improved the  "REST API wizard" in 25  release?   In 24.2 Data and Integration Designer had many issues with complex API data models. Very poor exception/error handling.  Seems to leverage App Studio's API wizard under the hood which is not good enough for enterprise level integration authoring.....  

There have been quite a few enhancements done in integration mapper in terms of error handling and supporting nested properties. Please do evaluate the latest version and give feedback. 

"Do you face any issue on controlling the version of model? And do you have any recommend way for CoE control who can do what for tenants. e.g. if one of tenant change the data type breaking the previous version."  

live answered 

how would you design an application data model with Customer and Vendor entities, should both inherit from Contact entity in Common Application or reuse Contact for Customer and create a new one for Vendor? (considering Customer and Vendor share many properties in common)  

live answered 

When will be the Pega Infinity '25 released?  

live answered 

I don't see this common data model classes in cloud 24.2. any ruleset to add  

Have you downloaded the Pega common application and installed it? It doesn't come by default with the platform. You will need to download the software and install it. 

Ours is Pega SaaS env so do we need to create Cc ticket to get common data model application installed?  

Yes 

Related Resources

• Webinar: https://community.pega.com/event/leveraging-pega-common-application-common-data-model
• Event summary blog: https://community.pega.com/blog/leveraging-pega-common-application-common-data-model