Published Release Notes

Protect a custom mobile app with a device lock

Custom mobile applications that use an external identity provider (IdP) that is compatible with OpenID Connect or SAML for login are now protected with the device's personal identification number (PIN) or biometric lock. The app user does not have to set up an additional application-specific password and can unlock the app quickly and easily. You can configure the behavior of the locking method and implement custom locking methods by using a custom native module implementation.

For more information, see Protecting your custom mobile app with a device lock.

Ability to search case attachments in Pega Cloud Services

File repositories in Pega Cloud Services are now indexed. Indexing allows your application users to search case attachments from end user portals based on content and metadata.

Add and manage landing pages in App Studio application menus

When working in App Studio, you can now create landing pages that are not directly associated with a case flow to make your application more informative. The landing pages are a good place to display the resources that are related to a case, images as well as text. Configure them to provide an overview of the work, workers, teams, reports, or any information that is available.

For more information, see Creating a landing page. 

Mobile apps now use custom-generated skeletons for page transitions

Mobile harnesses are now configured with custom-generated skeletons. Used during page transitions, skeletons render a temporary placeholder UI that closely matches the actual UI while data is being loaded from the data store. The use of skeletons enhances the user experience by providing a smooth transition while data is being loaded.

Skeleton transitions work with both dynamic and Ajax containers on the mobile client but work only with the Ajax container on tablets and desktops.

For more information, see Transition effects on actions.
 

Enabling access to upgraded help

After upgrading to Pega Platform ™ 8.1, the default URL to the upgraded help files might be incorrect. To enable access to the latest help files, reset the URL:

1. In the header of Dev Studio, click Configure > System > Settings > URLs.
2. Enter the Online Help URL:

   https://community.pega.com/sites/default/files/help_v81/

3. Click Save.
4. Log out and log back into Pega Platform.

For Microsoft SQL Server deployments, change settings to create data types in Integration Designer

For on-premises deployments that use Microsoft SQL Server, set the Pega-Reporting/reporting/useMergeHintForRRquery dynamic system setting to true. If you do not configure this setting, you might not be able to create a new data type in Integration Designer that uses Pega as the system of record. Configure the setting as follows:

• Owning ruleset: Pega-Reporting
• Setting purpose: reporting/useMergeHintForRRquery
• Value: true

For more information about configuring dynamic system settings, see Creating a dynamic system setting.

Translation support added to application guides

You can now localize the content in your application guides. By referencing paragraphs instead of rich text in your chapters and tasks, you can provide guidance to users in their native language.

For more information about application guides, see Creating a guide for end users.

Data entered in a new harness is lost after a sync operation

If you create a case in an offline-enabled application and enter data in a new harness, this data is lost after you click Submit and the sync operation takes place. For more information, see Offline capability and Enabling offline support for cases.

Fetch quality metrics for Pega unit tests by using the REST API

You can use the REST API to fetch quality metrics for the Pega unit tests of your application, such as unit test compliance, unit test execution results, test coverage, and guardrail compliance.

You can use the metrics returned by the service for gating purposes in a release pipeline.

For more information about the Pega API, see Pega API for Pega Platform.

WSDL generation error prevents invocation of SOAP services

Status

A Known Issue was introduced in the 8.4.2 Pega Platform patch release, which impacts both upgrades and new installations of that version.

Description

Due to changes introduced in the SOAP functionality for the case-mismatch error in SR-D98509/INC-119725, the WSDL is being generated for SOAP services with an incorrectly-capitalized element, which prevents the service from being invoked.  The element should be “name” instead of “Name”.

Workaround

Clients must perform the following workaround after they define a new SOAP connector in Pega Platform:

1. To download the WSDL from Pega Platform:
   1. After using the SOAP Wizard (Dev Studio > Configure > Integration > Services > Service Wizard) the WSDL URL is shown at the bottom right of the Dev Studio screen.
   2. Click the URL to display the XML.
   3. Save the WSDL file to your local system.
2. In the text editor of your choice, modify "Name" to "name" in every <element “name” = … > tag in the WDSL.
3. Save your changes to the local file.
4. To reload the WSDL into Pega Platform:
   1. In Dev Studio, open the Configure menu.
   2. Select Integration > Connectors > Create SOAP Integration.
   3. In the New SOAP integration wizard, select Upload WSDL from File.
   4. Complete the upload using the wizard prompts.

This is a design-time issue, not a run-time issue; therefore, clients only have to perform this workaround process once. Existing SOAP services should not be impacted; however, if clients modify an existing SOAP service definition by re-running the wizard, clients must reapply the workaround for Pega Platform to recognize the SOAP definition changes.  

Resolution

This issue will be addressed in the Pega Platform Patch Release 8.4.3.  Clients who upgrade to that version or later should not see this issue.