Extract rules
Completing the Definition tab

Use the Definition tab to specify properties to extract from any class of an application. You can extract values for properties of many modes, including Single Value, Value List, Value Group; and multiple levels of embedded Pages, Page Lists, and Page Groups. BIX cannot export properties of the Java Object or Java Property modes.

BIX can extract values to an XML file or a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file, or directly into a relational database as database schema.

Note: The output data includes a timestamp and a batch identifier. This information helps when comparing different extracts, or when isolating information from a specific extract.

Selecting an output format

Select an output format for the extract:

• XML — Supports two levels of extraction:
  • Select the Get All Properties check box to extract all properties of a specified class into XML documents.
  • Clear the Get All Properties check box then select the properties to extract in the tree list of properties that displays.
• Comma Separated Values (CSV) — Export instances of classes as comma-separated values in a text file.
  • Typically produces multiple CSV files, depending on the complexity of properties selected.
  • You must explicitly select the set of properties to export from the tree display.
  • CSV files generated by BIX conform to the RFC 4180 standard, which results in field values containing line breaks (CRLF), double quotes, and commas being enclosed in double quotes.
• Database Schema — Export data from the PegaRULES database directly into another relational database.
  • Identify this database on the File Specification tab using a Database Name data instance (Data-Admin-DB-Name class).
  • The table name that you specify must comply with the naming conventions of the target database and cannot include spaces.

  Note: This option is not available when running an Extract rule in the Pega Cloud.

Working with the property tree

The Extract rule separates available properties into nodes that can expand and collapse. The root node is the Applies To class of the Extract rule.

Selecting properties to extract

When using XML output, to extract all the properties in the class, select the Get All Properties check box.

For other output formats, click a node to display a gear icon to the right of the node name. Click the gear icon to display the Select Properties form, and then select the properties that you want to extract.

Filtering the properties list

To filter the properties list, enter a text string in the Property Name Contains field and click Filter.

To show all properties again, clear the field and click Filter again.

Configuring properties

Click any property to display a gear icon and a trash-can icon to the right of the property. Click the gear icon to display a Property Configurations form. In this form:

• When using CSV output, you can map the property to a name in the CSV file.
• When exporting for import into a database, set the attributes for the property: map to a name in the database schema, provide the data type and the field length. The name needs to comply with the naming conventions of the target database and cannot include any spaces.

Embedded properties

How embedded properties are handled depends on which output format is used:

• When extracting to an XML file, all data is extracted to a single file. In the XML file, embedded properties are represented as embedded tags within the XML.
• When extracting to a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file, BIX automatically normalizes the data, creating a file to hold the top-level properties of a class, and separate files (with appropriate foreign keys pointing to the entries in the main file) to hold data for each embedded page list or page group.
• When extracting to a database, BIX automatically normalizes the data, storing the top-level properties of a class in one table and data embedded page lists and page groups in separate tables.

About Extract rules

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