Published Release Notes

Support for rich user interface controls in IVA for Web Chatbot

You can now use rich user interface controls in Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant™ (IVA) for Web Chatbot because Pega Platform™ includes a framework for advanced user interface controls. You can use a date picker control and add file attachments while chatting with the chatbot. These features provide a richer and more robust user experience and they help the user accomplish tasks more quickly without the need for complex validation messages.

For more information, see Use rich user interface controls in Web Chatbot.

Support for rich HTML text in IVA for Email

Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant™ (IVA) for Email now supports rich HTML text in email conversations, which enhances the overall user experience. You can enable this option in the Email channel configuration in IVA for Email to display rich text in email conversations for case triaging. Natural language processing (NLP) analysis works flawlessly in scenarios for all email content that contains rich HTML text.

For more information, see Enabling rich HTML text in emails.

Multiple actions triggering during intelligent email routing

Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant™ (IVA) for Email now supports triggering of multiple actions during the intelligent routing of incoming emails, which improves the artificial intelligence capability of IVA for Email so that it is more responsive to user input. For example, you can set up intelligent routing for an Email channel to trigger multiple actions, such as creating a case and automatically replying to an email for the content that you receive.

For more information, see Intelligent email routing, Configuring routing conditions for automatic email handling, and Setting up intelligent routing in Intelligent Virtual Assistant for Email.

Deprecated support for passing symbolic index as strings to value lists and page lists

Starting with the next release after Pega Platform™ 8.2, passing symbolic indexes as strings in parameters, properties, and string literals to both value lists and page lists will no longer be supported. The following examples show the syntax that still works in Pega 8.2, that will not work in the next release:

myPageList("<LAST>")

and

param.str = "<LAST>"
myPageList(param.str)

The following example shows syntax that currently is not supported and gives a validation error. This syntax will also not work in future releases.

param.str = <LAST>
myPageList(param.str)

To avoid issues after upgrading to Pega 8.3, refactor all occurrences of this syntax in your code. For instructions on how to find occurrences of this syntax in your code, see Refactoring unsupported symbolic index syntax for value lists and page lists.

For more information about the correct use of symbolic indexes, see Symbolic indexes – APPEND, CURRENT, INSERT, LAST, and PREPEND.

Improved rich user interface controls in IVA for Web Chatbot

In Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant™ (IVA) for Web Chatbot, you can use additional rich user interface controls, such as the time and date picker or a simple form, to help users accomplish tasks more quickly and to limit errors. IVA for Web Chat can now also display a welcome message in the chat window, for example, to inform the user about the person with whom they are chatting.

For more information, see Streamline conversations in IVA for Web Chatbot with rich user interface controls.

Upgrade impact

The new Ul controls for Web Chatbot are enabled by default upon upgrade. If you do not want the controls enabled, you must disable them.

Also, if you have changed the styles for the welcome message, you may need to make changes to the welcome message to incorporate the new areas in the bot conversation area (such as quick replies).

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

Existing channels will behave as they did previously, so you should determine whether you want to use the new UI controls. If you want to use the new Ul controls, configure the new design-time options.

If you have changed the default styles for the welcome message, review the new settings to ensure that the welcome message is configured properly. 

Automatically generate OpenAPI Specification documentation for application REST APIs

You can now access a clear, standard view of all the REST APIs in your application by using autogenerated OpenAPI Specification (OAS) documentation. In App Studio, you can view the OAS documentation generated for application-specific REST APIs by using the new Application tab in the API channel. Additionally, service package rules now include an OpenAPI tab where you can view the automatically generated OAS documentation for all the REST services included in the service package. With these enhancements, you can easily find, visualize, and test the REST APIs in your application.

For more information, see Generating OpenAPI Specification documentation for application-specific REST APIs.

Data migration enhancements

Ensure a successful data migration by using a configuration template for setting up your environment before you migrate data into your application. From the new Migration settings landing page, configure dynamic system settings for migration and turn off database indexes and processes that might affect data migration performance. After you have finished migrating data, you can revert your system to its normal working state.

For more information, see Creating a migration configuration template.

Ability to import and export Intelligent Virtual Assistant or Email Bot training data

You can now copy Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant™ (IVA) or Pega Email Bot™ training data between Pega Platform™ application environments by performing an export and import action. Importing and exporting training data between Pega Platform application environments results in greater accuracy of entity detection. Entities are detected by the system in a chat conversation, including attachments, to help respond to the user correctly, and consist of proper nouns that fall into a commonly understood category such as a person, organization, or a ZIP code. The ability to copy training data also makes it easier to maintain IVA or Email Bot, and build its artificial intelligence.

For more information, see Copying training data to another environment and Copy training data and model to another IVA or Email Bot environment.

Visual Data Model enhancements

View your application's full data model, see how its entities are related, edit and delete fields, and add fields to the model without exiting the Visual Data Model. In addition, you can now search the entire data model for fields and select a case or data type class to see its fields and relationships.

For more information, see Exploring the data model.

Use a JSON file to create a data type

You can now use a sample JSON response to create a data type in the Data Type wizard in Integration Designer. Using a sample JSON response reduces development time by providing the response schema when your REST endpoint is not available.

For more information, see Use a JSON file to create a data type.