Pega Clipboard tool

The Clipboard is where Pega keeps everything it knows about the current session while the application runs. If a screen shows the wrong value, a decision goes the wrong way or a data page will not load, the Clipboard is the first place a developer looks.

What the Clipboard holds

It is an in-memory tree of pages. Each page contains properties, and some properties are themselves pages or page lists. It is created per requestor session and disappears when the session ends.

Page groupWhat is insideExample
User pagesPages created by the application while it runspyWorkPage, the case being worked
Data pagesCached reference data, named with a D_ prefixD_CustomerList
System pagesInformation Pega maintains about the sessionRequestor and session details

What you can do with it

  • Open a page and read every property value, its type and its mode (single value, list, group or page).
  • Check whether a data page has loaded, and when it was last refreshed.
  • Confirm that a data transform or activity really set the property you expected.
  • Refresh the view after each step to watch values change.
  • Edit a value in a development environment to test a scenario without rerunning the whole flow.

Open it from the developer tools menu in Dev Studio. Menu labels differ slightly between Pega versions.

A worked example

A bank's loan form shows Monthly Payment as 0. You open the Clipboard, expand pyWorkPage and look at .LoanAmount, .InterestRate and .TermMonths. .InterestRate is empty. The data transform that copies the rate from the product data page ran before the page had loaded. You fix the order, run the case again, and the Clipboard now shows .MonthlyPayment as 1,247.50.

Screenshots

These screenshots show the Clipboard tool in use:

Pega Clipboard tool screenshot 1
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Tips

  • Use the Clipboard together with the Tracer. The Tracer shows what ran, the Clipboard shows the result.
  • Never rely on editing clipboard values in production. Fix the rule instead.
  • Large pages can slow the session down, so watch for lists that keep growing.

Related: Clipboard interview questions and the Clipboard label.

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