Creating a Real-Time Container

Creating a Real-Time Container

Description	Creating a Real-Time Container in in Pega Customer Decision Hub
Version as of	8.5
Application	Pega Customer Decision Hub
Capability/Industry Area	Next Best Action

Real-time container introduction

A real-time container is a service that manages communication between Pega Customer Decision Hub and external channels.

Any real-time external channel (for example, websites, mobile applications, call center) that displays one or more actions determined by Pega Customer Decision Hub needs to invoke a real-time container.

Use case examples

A real-time container provides an easy low-code/no-code way to integrate an external channel with Pega Customer Decision Hub. The container eliminates the need to create service rules in Pega Customer Decision Hub, making it easier for the system architects, decision architects or even marketers to create and manage content displayed on channels.

Creating Real-Time Containers

1. In the Pega Customer Decision Hub left navigation pane, go to Content > Real-Time Artifacts:
   

   Pega Customer Decision Hub Real-Time Artifacts creation
2. On the Real-Time Artifacts landing page, click Create > Container:
   

   Option to create a Real-Time Container
3. In the Real-Time Container Record Configuration form provide the required information:
   • a short description or title for this record - identifies the purpose of this container
   • context - choose the correct application context
   • add to ruleset - select the appropriate ruleset and version
4. Click Create and open.
   

   Real-Time Container Record Configuration
5. In the Edit Real-Time Container form, fill in the About this container form as shown below.
   • Is this container currently active?
     • No, this Container will not respond to requests at this time – select this option if this container is not yet supposed to respond to external channels with Actions.
     • Yes, this Container will respond to requests – select this option if this container is supposed to respond to external channels with Actions.
   • Impression capture
     • Captured on retrieval – select this option if impression records are to be captured in Interaction History table. Take into consideration the volume and traffic before selecting this option, as Interaction History table can grow very fast, which can affect the performance of the application.
     • Captured by Channel – select this option if the external system is capturing the impression records.
   • Click through behavior
     • Capture click through and initiate offer flow – select this option if the container is supposed to initiate an offer flow as well. This option is normally not selected for Inbound implementations.
     • Capture click through only – select this option, if the container only capture click trough statistics.
       

       About this Real-Time Container options

Adding real-time container as a trigger

Adding a real-time container as a trigger enables it to be called by an external channel.

To add a real-time container as trigger:

1. In the Pega Customer Decision Hub left navigation pane, go to Next-Best Action > Designer.
   

   Adding a Real-Time Container as trigger in Pega Customer Decision Hub
2. On the Next-Best-Action Designer landing page, click Channels, and then Edit.
   

   Editing Channels in Next-Best Action Designer
3. In the Triggers section, click on the gear icon on the the Real-time containers settings:
   

   Editing the Real-Time Containers under Triggers
4. In the Configure real-time containers pop-up window, select the real-time container that needs to be added as trigger and click Add and then Apply:
   

   Adding a real-time container trigger
5. In the Triggers section, associate the real-time container with relevant Issues/Groups:

Associating the real-time container with relevant Issues/Groups

Note: Before adding real-time containers as triggers, work with your system architect(s) to make sure your access group’s design time configuration is pointing to highest (and only) unlocked artifacts ruleset version.

Use Cases

Real time containers are used by any external channel that wants to integrate with Pega CDH to display actions returned by it.

Examples:

• A banking website wants to promote its new credit card on its website.
• A mobile app wants to present logged in user with a new subscription plan

Tips and Tricks

Data flow generation

• Whenever a real-time container is added as a trigger, a data flow is created.

• The name of the data flow is system-managed.

A data flow created when a real-time container is added as a trigger.

• Pega Customer Decision Hub uses the ExtendedContainerProperties Data Transform to configure the data flow regarding which properties are returned in Next-Best Action response.

Output properties in decision strategy configuration

• The duration for which Make Decision results are stored in pxDecisionResults is controlled by ADMShortTimeoutForDelayedLearning DSS value.

Configuring the data storage duration for Make Decision strategy

Caution: It is not recommended to customize this data flow, as every time the trigger is updated, the data flow will be re-created, and all customization will be lost.

Underlying Data Pages

• Pega Customer Decision Hub uses the D_ContainerConfig data page to read the container configuration.
• The D_ContainerConfig data page is cleared every time the trigger is updated. Hence, after making changes to the container configuration, it is important to either re-add it back as trigger or clear the D_ContainerConfig data page.

Packaging Container rules for deployment

• While creating the RAP for marketing application, it is important to include the instances of Index-PegaMKT-ContainerReference for properly migrating the container from one environment to other.
  

  PegaMKT-ContainerReference class included for correct migration

References and Further Readings

• Real Time Containers documentation on Pega Documentation

• Real-Time Containers topic on Pega Academy

A business solution that automates workflows in your organization. Multiple, unrelated applications can be hosted in the same system. You create an application by running the New Application wizard.

The basic building blocks of an application, rules define the behavior of an application. There are many types of rules, each defining a different type of behavior. For example, rules define the display of a form, the fields that are used in your application, and the flows that define the process of completing work.

The system can reuse rules throughout your application. For example, in an application for ordering replacements parts, you can define a user interface to capture an address, and reuse the same rule for the UI to capture both the mailing address and the billing address for the order.

You define rules in an application to create a business solution for your organization and customers. Rules provide flexibility during the development process and help you design applications more efficiently, so that they can be implemented again in future projects.

A single source of information that presents categorized content, such as tabs or tools. You can access information on a landing page with focus on a single category that you want to select. A number of landing pages can be accessed right at the launch of your application. For example, on the Application Quality landing page, you can view the health of your current application and identify improvements to make before you deploy an application.

A view of your data that displays information or collects input from users as they create, update, and resolve cases in your application. Open your case type from the Application Explorer to access the options for configuring a form.

A business solution that automates workflows in your organization. Multiple, unrelated applications can be hosted in the same system. You create an application by running the New Application wizard.

A digital medium through which users access your application. Depending on your business needs, you can set up various channels for the same application. For example, customers can access an application for booking flights through a browser-based web channel, or through a mobile channel that relies on a mobile app. In addition, you can also build a Facebook chatbot for customers who want to ask questions about their booking. At the same time, you can set up a second, more utilitarian web channel to accommodate professional users, such as travel agents. By making an application accessible over several channels, you can reach a wide variety of audiences, and provide each user group with the most appropriate content and user experience.

A graphical representation that models a business process in your application by using graphical shapes and connectors to define a sequence of events. You can edit a flow in the life cycle of a case or by using the Flow form.

The event or method that starts the processing of a specified action in response to another event or method.

A digital medium through which users access your application. Depending on your business needs, you can set up various channels for the same application. For example, customers can access an application for booking flights through a browser-based web channel, or through a mobile channel that relies on a mobile app. In addition, you can also build a Facebook chatbot for customers who want to ask questions about their booking. At the same time, you can set up a second, more utilitarian web channel to accommodate professional users, such as travel agents. By making an application accessible over several channels, you can reach a wide variety of audiences, and provide each user group with the most appropriate content and user experience.

The building blocks of your user interface, sections can use design templates for their structure and contain such interactive UI elements as fields, buttons, lists, and so on. A section creates a functional chunk of a user interface, and can be reused throughout your application for improved consistency and efficient development.

For example, your application may need to display user data as a list of ID cards. You can create a section for the contents of a card, and then reuse that section so that the design of every card is consistent.

The role assigned to a person who designs and builds components of Pega applications. A system architect (SA) is typically a person with some programming skills, but more importantly, is someone who loves to build – to move quickly and not be tied down to building lines of code. SAs also have different levels: Senior, Lead and Principle.

A set of users who receive access to application or network resources through their membership in the group. When a user is added to an access group, that user receives the permissions that are associated with the group. If a user belongs to more than one access group, that user acquires the set of access permissions that are associated with each group. You can create multiple access groups within an application to convey different levels of access based on user roles.

The ruleset version characterizes the evolution and development of a rule instance, and the application it belongs with. The version number, in the format NN-NN-NN, defines the major version (first two digits), minor version (middle digits), and patch version (last digits). Rules in versions below the major version are not visible to rule resolution.

Subscriptions are a way of notifying developers and users of actions that are related to an application, a report, or an event. Notifications are sent to subscribers by using an RSS feed, an email, or a notice on a dashboard.

An entity that you use to cache data on demand to a clipboard page for use by one or more applications. A data page rule defines the source, scope, refresh strategy, editability, and structure of the cached data. Data pages were previously known as declare pages.