Published Release Notes

Updated default dynamic system setting for requestor pools

Clients can now enable or disable requestor pools for processing service requests using a new dynamic system setting called EnableRequestorPools with Pega-IntegrationEngine as the owning rulest. Previously, all deployments utilized requestor pools to improve service processing response efficiency; requestor pools eliminated overhead by automatically returning a requestor to the pool after it fulfills a service request. Starting in Pega Platform 8.4, requestor pools are disabled in Client-managed cloud deployments, since these deployments use autoscaling to handle service request traffic. Enabling requestor pools in Kubernetes environments is not recommended, because they can inhibit the default autoscaling settings in the environment.

Requestor pools remain enabled by default in Pega Cloud and on-premises environments.

To help clients navigate this change, Pega has updated its best practice guidance for configuring requestor pools. For an overview, see Requestor pooling for services. For guidance on the use of requestor pools in your application, see the EnableRequestorPools entry in Dynamic system settings data instances.

Upgrade impact

Requestor pools are disabled by default in Pega Platform 8.4 in client-managed cloud deployments. Clients who deployed previous versions of Pega Platform on a Kubernetes environment and who upgrade to Pega Platform 8.4 could see that their services behave differently.

What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?

If clients that are deployed in a Client-managed cloud environment need to configure their services to use requestor pools and they understand how to configure requestor pools for their optimized use, these clients can re-enable requestor pools. Clients should review the best practice for configuring requestor pools before they re-enable requestor pools. To re-enable requestor pools, you modify the EnableRequestorPools setting in the Pega-IntegrationEngine Owning ruleset from “disabled” to Enabled [no value]. For details, see Editing a dynamic system setting.

Condition builder enhancements

To enhance the precision of condition builder in both App Studio and Dev Studio, the new instances include comparator helps you specify the number of field group and field group list instances to which a when rule applies. In addition, a search option that returns results on keypress helps you easily look for existing values.

For more information, see Create conditions in an enhanced condition builder (8.5), Defining conditions in the condition builder.

Support for nested Declare Trigger rules

Pega Platform™ now supports nested Declare Trigger rules so that you can conveniently create correlations between actions in your case types. Declare Triggers rules invoke an action when a specified event takes place in a case type. You can now design more complex scenarios faster by nesting more Declare Trigger rules that work in the context of running another Declare Trigger rule. For example, when a case participant changes a postal code in their personal details, a Declare Trigger rule runs and a respective customer service representative (CSR) receives an email. After the CSR receives the email, a nested Declare Trigger rule runs and your application creates a document with the updated personal details and attaches it to the case.

For more information, see Develop applications faster with nested Declare Trigger rules (8.5), Declare Trigger rules.

Optimized data schema upgrade

Several improvements have been made to optimize the speed of the data schema upgrade to help you experience minimal downtime during upgrade to Pega Platform 8.5™. The data schema upgrade process optimizations include the following improvements:

• Optimized database index creation during upgrade
• Optimized synchronization process to detect duplicate rules during the application import process
• A new upgrade setting for Pega Cloud® Services operators that reduces the time to upgrade clients that run large Pega applications, such as the CRM Suite

For more information, see Limit upgrade downtime with data schema upgrade improvements (8.5).

Support for validations in Declare Expression rules

Pega Platform™ now correctly evaluates validations on target properties in Declare Expression rules. As a result, any validations defined on properties that have Declare Expression rules in previous releases, now work correctly. 

Upgrade impact

Any unintended validations on properties that have configured Declare Expression rules, both default and user-defined, might cause issues in an application upon saving work objects and data objects that refer to Declare Expression rules.

What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change? 

If you experience issues when saving objects, debug your application by setting the declareexp/target/validation/disable dynamic system setting to true. If your application works correctly after the change, it means that validations on Declare Expressions cause the issues. For your application to work correctly, analyze the log files and remove any unintended validations.

For more information, see Declare Expression rules.

Upgraded selected third-party JAR files to support Pega Platform functionalities

Pega Platform™ 8.6 now provides upgraded versions of the JAR files that support various functionalities within the Platform, such as generating documents or PPTX files.

Upgrade impact

If you have custom implementations and use any classes from the upgraded JAR files directly in your code or through JAR APIs, after your upgrade to Pega Platform 8.6, your application might experience unexpected run-time behavior if the upgraded JAR version lacks any elements from the previous version. For example, custom implementations can typically include activities, functions, or non-autogenerated sections. Unexpected run-time behavior might also occur when you use a third-party library that has dependencies on the upgraded JAR files. If you use only default Pega Platform functionalities without any customizations, the JAR files continue to work correctly without any additional actions.

What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?

If you have any JAR customizations, ensure that you test the upgraded JAR files for compatibility and upgrade impact. The following table lists the upgraded JAR files that might impact your application:

For more information, refer to the documentation of  your JAR provider.

Enhanced Pulse gadget for Cosmos React

Together with the DX API, the Cosmos React component now provides an overlay in which users can quickly view and select the feed sources from which to view Pulse messages. Users can also add attachments to their messages, and remove the messages that they post. These enhancements improve collaboration and speed up case resolution. For example, a case worker can view only posts from particular cases, to quickly find a request for additional information about a case, and then provide necessary details by attaching a relevant document.

For more information, see Configuring Pulse feed sources for Cosmos React and Posting a message in Pulse.

Case archiving enhancements in Pega Cloud Services

To provide a more complete archiving solution to Pega Cloud clients, we have introduced several enhancements to the archival functionality for your Pega Platform database. This includes support for your data retention policy to expunge (permanently delete) archived data from Pega Cloud File Storage.

Permanently delete case data with data retention policy

In previous versions, Pega Cloud clients could archive resolved cases and associated data from the Pega database to Pega Cloud File Storage after the cases have been resolved for a specified number of days with an archival policy. Now, clients can permanently delete archived data from Pega Cloud File Storage after the cases have been resolved for a specified number of days with a data retention policy. 

Faster adoption with testing mode

Clients can now enable a testing mode and specify archival policies in minutes instead of days. Now you create and resolve cases, then run archiving process immediately to test the functionality within minutes.

Easier adoptions with enhanced monitoring capabilities

With the addition of the Log-ArchivalSummary class and its associated log files, clients can monitor their archival jobs in a single view. We have also improved logging for archival jobs, offering you greater insight into the success of your archival process.

To learn more about archiving and purging your case data in your Pega Cloud environment, see Improving performance by archiving cases.

LDAP Authentication Service URL resolution

The latest Pega Cloud infrastructure update includes Java JDK (JDK 89u181), which contains improvements to LDAP support. This Java JDK enhancement can prevent insecure logins by verifying that the hostname specified in the LDAP URL matches the hostname that you specified in the Trust store certificate in the JNDI Binding Parameters section of the Authentication Service rule. An LDAP Authentication Service can no longer resolve using IP addresses.

This is a one-time fix and does not affect Pega Cloud clients with security-compliant LDAP settings and certificates.

Required client workaround

For clients that previously configured LDAP in their applications running in a Pega Cloud environment using IP addresses, after Pega Cloud Services notifies you that the update is complete, you must edit your LDAP Authentication Service rule form Directory field to use the URL value of the domain name or a machine within the domain that matches the URL used by the SSL certificate in the Trust store. 

For example, if your SSL certificate uses the test.abc.com machine name, enter ldaps://test.abc.com:[portNumber] inthe Authentication Service Directory field.

For more information about creating or editing an LDAP Authentication Service, see Creating a custom authentication service.