Replacing a simulated data source

To prepare your application for production, replace simulated data with the data from real data sources.

1. Connecting to a new source system
   1. You can use the External Data Entities landing page to add a new source of data for the application. The green circle and yellow triangle icons in the SOURCED BY section denote the status of a source system or data source. The green circle indicates that the source system or data source is active and production-ready. The yellow triangle indicates that the data source is being simulated and needs a replacement before going to production. Existing production applications display green for all source systems. When you build a new application or extend a Pega-supplied application, most of the status icons on the landing page display yellow in the beginning. You can replace the sample systems and data sources with production-ready systems to change the status icons from yellow to green. You can use a data type with a simulated source (a source system that is marked with a yellow triangle) during development because data types in the Pega 7 Platform are virtualized data views. You can continue developing the rest of the application before the integration layer is ready. You can build the integration layer simultaneously and use it when it becomes available. To connect a data type to a new source system, rename the sample source system that the data type is connected to and then replace the simulated data sources with production sources. You can repeat the tasks for each entity on the landing page with a yellow icon and change it to green. After all the source systems are green, the data layer of your application is ready for production.
2. Renaming a sample source system.

   Do the following actions to rename the sample source system to reflect the actual name of the target source system:

   1. On the External Data entities landing page, expand a data type that is connected to a sample source system that needs to be replaced, as shown in the following figure:
   2. Open a data page and find the simulated source in the list
   3. Update the System name field with the name of the source system to use in production
   4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each data source that is connected to the sample source system in the list.
   5. Refresh the External Data Entities landing page. The data type now displays the name of your actual physical source system, as shown in the following figure. The status is still yellow because it is still being simulated for now.
3. Replacing a sample source system

   When the integration layer is ready and the data sources that are required to connect to the source system are built, you can replace the simulated data sources with production sources to change the status icon to green.

   Do the following actions to replace a source system with a new source of data:

   1. Open the data page, and then find the simulated source in the list
   2. Clear the Simulate data source check box.
   3. Select the source type based on the interface that is used to connect to the new source system.
   4. Enter the name of the data source. This rule is specific to the source type that captures the configuration details required to interact with your source system. If this record does not exist yet, create one.
   5. If needed, define additional source and mapping information such as request mapping or response mapping.

      The mapping rules are a critical component for Pega Live Data. These rules facilitate the exchange of data between the logical (virtualized) data layer and the physical source systems.

   6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 for each simulated data source that you want to connect to the new source system.
   7. Refresh the External Data Entities landing page. The source system should now have the green icon next to it.