An external class is a concrete class (instance of the Rule-Obj-Class rule type) that corresponds to a table in an external relational database, rather than to a table or view in the PegaRULES database. C-1854External classes are normally created using the Connector and Metadata accelerator.

No inheritance or rule resolution applies to external classes, even if the class name contains a dash character. Each external class has an associated database table instance (Data-Admin-DB-Table class) and so cannot be part of a class group.

These methods can operate on an instance of an external class:

• Obj-Browse Suprakash 7/15/08
• Obj-Open
• Obj-Open-by-Handle CLINB 5/17/06
• Obj-Delete
• Obj-Refresh-and-Lock
• Obj-Save
• Obj-List NOT OBJ-BROWSE per CLINB 10/17/07
• Obj-Save-Cancel
• Commit
• Rollback

You can't create Declare Index rules which have an external class as the Applies To key part. However, Declare Expression rules (Rule-Declare-Expressions rule type), validate rules (Rule-Obj-Validate rule type), and trigger rules (Rule-Declare-Trigger rule type) do operate on clipboard property values for external classes. OTHERS?

External classes do not contain the two properties @baseclass.pzInsKey and @baseclass.pxObjClass, which are present in every internal class. In some cases, no single property in the external class can serve as a unique handle. To support the Obj-Open-by-Handle method with external classes, Process Commander assembles a substitute string from the key columns of the table. Vague, how can I see it?

In certain cases, performance of database insert, delete, and update operations for external classes can be improved through an optional prconfig.xml setting batchUpdates. See Commit method. PROJ-545 CLINB DSILA 3/23/07

System messages sometimes refer to external classes as "Obj-External". (However, Process Commander has no Obj-External method.)

Don't confuse these external Process Commander classes with external Java classes. For the latter, see the Pega Developer Network article PRKB-20931 About the Process Commander class paths.

	class, internal class, Java Transaction API, two-phase commit
	About the Connector and Metadata wizard

Definitions — E