Application category — Guardrails landing page
Dashboard, Summary, and All Warnings tabs

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Category	Page
Application	Guardrails

Pegasystems promotes a set of best practices for design and implementation of PRPC applications. This approach includes guardrails — guidelines that guide the development team to the highest project success, including optimal reuse, maintainability, and system performance. When a rule or data form contains aspects that do not conform to the guardrails and that form is saved, the system sets a warning condition for that saved instance. The warning indicates that the rule or data instance is at variance with guardrails and other best practices.

Use the tabs on the Guardrails landing page to ensure that all non-essential warnings are addressed and violations are caught and rectified as early as possible in the course of the project. The tabs present information about the rules in the application that have warning messages, and you can schedule recurring reports to be emailed to project stakeholders. Included in the reported information are rules with warnings in the current application and its built-on applications, the severity of the warnings, and how many are justified warnings. Regularly examine this information as a key element in your governance process.

This landing page has these tabs:

Dashboard
Summary
All Warnings

The scope of the results displayed on a tab depends on your current application, its RuleSets, and the current filters selected on that tab. (To see your application's RuleSets, click the link containing your name at the top of the navigation panel, and review the area titled Application RuleSets.)

By default, this tool does not include warnings on rules imported with the Import Archive tool from other PRPC systems and not resaved, or rules that were last saved in Version 4 systems.

Warnings about performance and data integrity indicate conditions that can degrade system reliability by slowing performance (for instance, a list view that retrieves embedded properties) or by violating data integrity (for example, an activity that uses the Commit method incorrectly). Eliminating such warning conditions before putting the rules into production is strongly recommended.

(In V5-V6.2SP1, the Application Preflight tool was used to report this information.)

Dashboard tab

Use this tab to see at a glance the answers to these executive-level questions about guardrail violations in the application:

How is the development team doing?
Are the team introducing complex or custom code into the current project that put its quality at risk?

You can:

Review the metrics that help to answer those questions
Review problems introduced after a selected time point
Use interactive charts to review warning data.

The fields at the top part of the dashboard indicate criteria used to scope what is included in the charts in the bottom part. The bottom part of the dashboard automatically displays key interactive charts that are used to get a quick overview of the level of warnings for rules that meet the specified criteria.

Field	Description
Application filter Classes filter	These fields at the top of the tab indicate the criteria used to scope what is included in the data reported on this tab. These fields scope the results to those items that fit the selections: Application — Click to specify those applications in the built-on stack for which you want their rules included in the results on this tab. The default selection is the current application (the one currently displayed in the Application menu in the Designer Studio header). Classes — Click to specify those classes for which you want their rules included in the results on this tab. The default is for all classes in the selected applications.
From date	Scopes the displayed data to rules that were last updated since the selected date. The displayed Dashboard data includes those rules that have warnings and which were last updated since the selected calendar date. For example, when selecting `12/17/2011`, the displayed counts and charts include such rules that were last updated since December 17, 2011. When you select a date, the system updates the displayed counts and charts to reflect your selection. By selecting different dates, you can see time points at which the counts are higher or lower than other times, and can investigate the relationships between those time points and the level of rules with warnings in the application. After making a change, click Apply Filter to update the charts according to the new selection.
Justification	Optional. Select justified to include in the charts those rules with justified warnings. Select unjustified to include in the charts those rules that have warnings that are not justified. By default, both choices are selected. See warning for a description of justifying a warning. After making a change, click Apply Filter to update the charts according to the new selections.
Key Guardrail Summary Metrics	The charts in this section answer questions such as: If the application went live today, what high severity warnings exist that would adversely impact production? If the organization needed to go live today, what might stop us from doing so? Is the development team going outside of the model and introducing a testing, maintenance, or upgrade problem that would affect them now or in the future?
Key Warnings Over time	The charts in this section answer questions such as: What is the trend of key unresolved warnings over time from the start of this phase of the project? Is the quality of the application (as measured by the number of warnings) getting better or worse over time?
Rules by Last Update Operator	This chart answers the question: Who is introducing the warnings?
Dashboard charts	Interactive charts graphically display information about the extent of rule warnings. A rule with warnings is included in the data set for a chart when it meets the conditions set by the selected criteria, the nature of its warnings, and the chart's selection criteria. Roll over a portion of a chart to see details about the underlying data for that portion. To see a summary report of a chart's data, click . To see a chart's data represented in 3-D, click (to return to the 2-D view, click ). To see a maximized view of the chart, click . The chart appears in a new, maximized window.

Summary tab

Use this tab to report on the extent and level to which rules in the application have warnings. On this tab, you can:

Get a high-level idea of how many rules (number and percentage of total) have warnings
Filter the results by application, Applies To class, date, severity of the warning, and whether the warnings are justified.
View lists of rules with warnings by rule type.
Schedule the report to run on a recurring basis and have it emailed to users.

Working with the reported results

According to the selected filter criteria, the Summary tab displays colored bars that visually indicate both the number of rules with warnings and the number of warnings by severity as percentages of the number of rules in the application, and of a given rule type. You can hover over the colored area of a bar to see the number of rules as well as the percentage of the total is represented by that colored area.

# Rules with warnings — This column reports the number of rules that have warnings in the application (or the application and its built-on applications). In this column:
- The Total line displays the number of rules with warnings, and a colored bar that visually indicates that number as a percentage of total number of rules included in the report (according to the filter criteria).
- Each line under the Total line reports on the rules with warnings by rule type (for example Declare Expressions). For each rule type, the number of rules with warnings is displayed, and the colored bar visually indicates that number as a percentage of the total number of rules of that rule type.
# Warnings by severity — This column indicates the number of warnings by severity level. In this column:
- The Total line displays the number of warnings, and a colored bar that visually indicates the percentages of warnings of each severity out of the total number of warnings included in the report (according to the filter criteria).
- Each line under the Total line reports on the number of warnings in rules according to rule type (for example Declare Expressions). For each rule type, the number of warnings is displayed, and the colored bar visually indicates the percentages of warnings of each severity out of the total number for that rule type.
Note: High severity (level 1) signifies a warning that is most likely to compromise expected processing behavior.

Expand a rule type's row to see detailed information about the particular rules included in the report for that rule type. You can open a rule directly by clicking on its displayed name.

Filtering results

Use the fields and controls described in the following table to filter the reported results. After specifying a filter criteria (such as From date), click Apply Filter to update the report according to the selected criteria.

Field	Description
Application filter Classes filter	These fields at the top of the tab indicate the criteria used to scope what is included in the data reported on this tab. These fields scope the results to those items that fit the selections: Application — Click to specify those applications in the built-on stack for which you want their rules included in the results on this tab. The default selection is the current application (the one currently displayed in the Application menu in the Designer Studio header). Classes — Click to specify those classes for which you want their rules included in the results on this tab. The default is for all classes in the selected applications.
From date	Optional. Select a date to specify that only rules that were updated after this date are to be included in the report.
To date	Optional. Select a date to specify that only rules that were updated before this date are to be included in the report.
Severity	Optional. Select a severity level to include rules with warnings of that severity level in the report. Three severity levels: severe, moderate, caution are available. By default, all three are selected.
Justification	Optional. Select justified to include in the report those rules with justified warnings. Select unjustified to include in the report those rules that have warnings that are not justified. By default, both choices are selected. See warning for a description of justifying a warning.
Apply Filter	Click to apply the selected filter settings to the report.
Reset Filter	Click to reset the filter settings to the system defaults.

Scheduling recurring reports and have them emailed to users

Click Schedule Report to have the system generate the summary report on a recurring basis, and optionally email it to users. The system uses the filters that are in effect on the Summary tab when you schedule the report. In the Schedule Guardrails Reports window that opens:

Select one of the recurrent time periods (Daily or Weekly).
Optionally specify whether to have the system email notifications of the report by selecting the Send notifications to the following users checkbox.
After selecting the checkbox, specify the users to whom you want notifications sent. Use the autocomplete () to select operators in the system. To add users to the list, click . To remove a user from the list, click .
Click Submit.

The system defines the recurrent report according to the filters that are set on the Summary tab when you click Submit in the Schedule Guardrails Reports window.

Note: The system email notifications are sent using the standard DefaultNotify email account. Ensure this standard email account is configured properly to send outbound emails from your system. See Atlas — Initial Email Accounts and Email landing page.

To unsubscribe a user from receiving report emails, remove the user's operator ID from the list.

All Warnings tab

Use this tab to:

Review the warnings in a table format
Optionally download the list as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for offline analysis
Schedule a report of all of the warnings to run on a recurring basis and have it emailed to users.

The fields at the top of the tab indicate the criteria used to scope what appears in the listing. These fields scope the list to those items that fit the specified criteria:

Application — Click to specify those applications in the built-on stack for which you want their rules included in the displayed results. The default selection is the current application (the one currently displayed in the Application menu in the Designer Studio header).
Classes — Click to specify those classes for which you want their rules included in the displayed results. The default is all classes in the selected applications.

The tab displays the total number of warnings, according to the selected criteria, followed by a table of rows and columns. Each row is a warning. Sort the displayed data by a column's values by clicking that column's heading. You can filter the data according to a column's values by clicking the arrow () next to the column's heading.

Expand a row to see the text of the warning. To directly open the corresponding rule, click its name in the row.

Field	Description
Show rules from	Select current application to include in the report only rules with warnings that are in the current application (the default). Select current application and built on applications to include in the report rules with warnings from the current application and all of the application that it is built on.
Export to Excel	Click to export the data to a Microsoft Excel file and save to your local system for offline analysis.
Schedule Report	Click to have the system generate the All Warnings report on a recurring basis, and optionally email the results to specified system users.

Scheduling recurring reports and have them emailed to users

Click Schedule Report to have the system generate the detailed report (as displayed on the All Warnings tab) on a recurring basis, and optionally email it to users. In the Schedule Guardrails Reports window that opens:

Select one of the recurrent time periods (Daily or Weekly).
Optionally specify whether to have the system email notifications of the report by selecting the Send notifications to the following users checkbox.
After selecting the checkbox, specify the users to whom you want notifications sent. Use the autocomplete () to select operators in the system. To add users to the list, click . To remove a user from the list, click .
Click Submit.

These email notifications are sent using the standard DefaultNotify email account. Ensure this standard email account is configured properly to send outbound emails from your system. See Atlas — Initial Email Accounts and Email landing page.

To unsubscribe a user from receiving report emails, remove the user's operator ID from the list.

Which conditions are marked with warnings

A warning condition does not indicate that a rule is invalid (cannot be saved) or that it does not operate correctly. A warning indicates a variance from design guardrails or best practices. Ideally, you can revise the rule or other rules to remove the variance, which may improve performance, maintainability, user productivity, or usability. You can also add justifications for warnings in rules that you cannot revise to remove the variance.

Here is a partial list of situations in which warnings appear in rules:

Activities that contain a Java step or contain an Obj-Save method with the WriteNow parameter enabled.
Activities that employ the 2002-era compiler API (known as Version 02) rather than the current API (Version 03-02).
Activities with steps that have disabled preconditions or transitions.
Flows that contain more than 15 shapes, or have more than five connector flow actions for one assignment.
Flow actions with the Auto-generated HTML? checkbox cleared.
Sections with the Auto-generated HTML? checkbox cleared.
Decision tables, decision trees, or map values that contain conflicts.
Class rules for concrete classes that — based on current database table instances — are mapped to the pr_other table.
List view or summary view rules that display properties that (based on current database table instances) are not exposed columns.
HTML rules, XML Stream rules, fragments or correspondence rules that have Generate for on the HTML tab set to HTML (to support directives) rather than JSP (to support JavaServer Page tags).
Activities with a Commit method and that have an Applies To key part derived from the Work- base class.
Java code entered directly that uses the == identity operator on String objects.