More about Declare Index rules
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During execution of a Declare Index rule, the page on which the rule
operates becomes the primary page. The page keyword PRIMARY
and the results of the tools.getPrimaryPage() PublicAPI
method reflect this change. When the Declare Index rule execution
completes, the primary page of the calling activity resumes as primary.
ERSNG 10/30/07
When you save a rule form, Operator ID
form, or other form defined through the FormBuilder tool and saved as
instances of the Rule-File-Form class, Declare Index rules
for that class are not activated. (However, property changes made
to such instances through activities do cause Declare Index rules to
execute.)
As a best practice, use Declare Trigger rules, not Declare Index rules, to monitor property changes in classes that have a FormBuilder form defined. GENTJ 3/6/06 corrected APAPF 10/4/06.
No other rules explicitly reference Declare Index rules. After you save a Declare Index rule, Process Commander immediately runs it when and as needed.
You can use an index to improve access to a property that is not an exposed column in the database table supporting the source class, or to access embedded values that may appear more than once in the instances of the source class.
After you define an index through this rule, the system maintains index data automatically using forward chaining.
Index processing occurs at every database commit operation. Index processing automatically deletes old indexes that are no longer accurate, updates existing indexes, and adds new index instances, as required, to match current values of the source instance. When a data object is deleted (typically by an Obj-Delete method followed by a Commit method) the system examines all associated indexes and deletes them as appropriate.
Normally, the system updates indexes automatically during the Commit method that completes an earlier Obj-Save or Obj-Delete method. Index processing occurs only if any of the Source Class Property values (entered on the Index tab) have changed from their previous values.
The pyIndexCount value, a system-derived integer value, is included in as part of the key of every Index- instance, and makes the key unique. NOT A USE COUNT GENTJ 8/22/08but BUG-1158 B-21243
Do not use Property-Set or Obj-Save methods on
instances in a class derived from the Index- base class. Use
only Declare Index rules to change these properties and instances.
When a work object or other instance is committed, multiple Declare Index rules may automatically run to create and delete index instances. If such processing causes more than 100 indexes to be created, an alert is added to the Alert log, to draw attention to a possible design or performance issue. See How to detect when the number of declare indexes exceed the specified threshold.
For an example, see 
Pega Developer Network
article PRKB-25678 Understanding the PEGA0034 Alert.
After you implement a declarative index, reports
can use the indexed property value as a selection criteria. For example,
if an array of embedded Universal Product Code (UPC) codes in a work
object is indexed, you can report on all work objects containing a
specific UPC code. Reference the index class on the Contents and Join tabs of the
List View form or Summary View form.
To produce detailed output from the inference
engine, use the Set Logging Level tool the set logging for the following
class to DEBUG: B-24370
com.pega.pegarules.engine.database.Indexer
Through planning and coordination with a database administrator, application developers can define indexes that greatly aid in user productivity. However, indexing introduces redundant data and extra processing. Be careful to avoid defining indexes that are not truly needed or that negatively affect performance.
Indexing can improve performance by allowing quick lookup of certain properties based on a property value that is not exposed in database table supporting the original instance, or that has multiple values (and so cannot be exposed).
For example, using appropriately defined indexes, you can quickly identify all work objects that contain a customer who resides in a specified Zip code.
R-5143 If the index instances in your system are incomplete, or become corrupted or suspect, you can recreate them:
System administrators can recompute Index- instances for some or all instances of the underlying class using the expose option of the prpcUtils scripts: prpcUtils.bat for Windows or prpcUtils.sh for UNIX systems. You can set the expose.reindex property even when no database columns need to be populated. See Working with the PegaRULES database — Using the Column Populator utility. V5.5 DSILA GRP-209 REALLY?
You can force re-indexing to occur upon
commit even if no tracked properties are changed. To do this, add the
property @baseclass.pzReindex with a value of
"true" to the page containing the object before saving and
committing the object. This property causes the system to skip change
tracking and recompute indexes for this object from scratch. Because of
added overhead, use this technique only in testing, debugging, or
low-volume situations. GENTJ 5/28/08 SharePoint
