Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX) is an add-on product for PRPC and Pega Platform™. Use BIX to define Extract rules for any classes to extract data from the PRPC or the Pega Platform database either to external files (in XML or comma-separated values format) or to any relational database.

You can run BIX extracts manually in Designer Studio, schedule them to run by using an Extract or Job Scheduler rule. For details, see Extract rules overview. On-premises clients running older versions can also run extractions them outside of PRPC or Pega Platform as an external process. To see the latest BIX documentation, start with BIX extraction overview.

BIX distribution packages

The following table lists the BIX distribution packages and their supported PRPC and older Pega Platform versions. 

​​BIX export types

BIX allows for the extraction of instances of a specific class. BIX uses the Extract rule form to define how extraction is performed for a class. The Extract rule form lets you filter the class instances to extract based on any properties of the class. You can also restrict extraction to those class instances that were created or modified since the last extract.

BIX supports extracting any or all data within a class, including embedded Page lists and Page groups. Properties of the following types and modes can be exported:

• Text
• Identifier
• Integer, Decimal
• Number, Double
• DateTime
• Date
• TrueFalse
• TextEncrypted
• Value Lists and Value Groups
• Page Lists and Page Groups

The Extract rule form displays the properties available for extraction at each level in the class data model. You can extract all properties at the specified level by selecting the Property Name check box. To select only certain properties, leave the check box cleared and instead select the check box next to each property to be extracted. Use the filter function to manage long property lists.

BIX export formats

You can extract data to the following output formats:

• XML
• Comma-separated values (CSV)
• Database

Review the following descriptions to choose the export output format.

XML

The XML output format allows for two modes of extraction for instances of a class:

• Extract all properties of a specific class to the appropriate output format.
  • Enable this mode by selecting the Get All Properties check box.
• Specify the properties to extract.
  • This mode is enabled when the Get All Properties check box is cleared.
  • In this mode, use the extra form to select the set of properties to be exported.

If you select a subset of available properties instead of selecting the Get All Properties check box, an XSD file that describes the XML schema is generated to accompany the XML file.

Comma-separated values (CSV)

The CSV output format allows you to export instances of classes as comma-separated values in one or more text files (multiple files are generated if embedded properties are extracted). After selecting the CSV format, access the properties of a class by double-clicking the class name to display the File Specification form.

The Extract rule form provides a default name for the CSV file that the process creates in the To File field. The default name is derived from the class name (and, if relevant, the name of the embedded Page or List property) that you selected. You can rename the file if necessary to avoid overwriting existing files.

Database

When the database output format is selected, BIX writes the extracted data directly to the specified destination relational database. BIX executes INSERT statements to write this data to the database. BIX normalizes the output data when data is extracted from embedded properties, writing it to multiple tables with appropriate foreign keys that point to the main class table. You can control the names of the tables and columns to which BIX writes the data within the Extract rule, and the data type (which must be compatible with the platform data type) and length.

When you select this output format, the Extract rule generates a data definition language (DDL) file that can be used to generate the required tables in the destination database.