Published Release Notes

Editable list of build-on application features

Pega Platform™ now provides you with an option to edit the list of features in your application stack. Now you can define the order of the features to generate application documentation that lists the features by their priorities instead of the time of creation. For example, you can reorder the features when you want to communicate to your stakeholders which elements are top priorities.

For more information, see Learning about feature order.

Add subspaces within spaces

You can now create subspaces within spaces. By adding a subspace, you can collaborate on a subtopic that is related to the topic of the parent space. For example, you can create an Annual Day subspace within the Events space.

For more information, see Creating a subspace.

Improve clipboard performance for Service REST

Improve clipboard performance in Service REST processing by using the new Lightweight clipboard mode option. This mode does not support all clipboard features.

For a list of supported and unsupported features, see Service REST form - Completing the Service tab.

Support for large binary data item storage in Pega Client for Windows

Pega Client for Windows can now store and synchronize large binary data items and their corresponding actions from the action queue. As a result, offline-enabled application users can view, attach, and delete data files from within a case view, whether the Windows-based device is online or offline. To use this feature, enable offline case attachment support, which allows offline-enabled applications to synchronize case attachments between Pega Platform™ and the device.

For more information, see Attach content support in offline mode and Enabling offline case attachments support.

Visualize application layers for case processes and sections

In App Studio, you can now easily visualize the application layers for case processes and sections, including work areas and views. When you click the Discover gadget for a case process or section, you are shown a visual representation of the application layers. You can open a layer in Dev Studio to see the rulesets and other attributes of an application.

For more information, see Discover gadget.

Date range configuration added to DateTime control

The DateTime (calendar) control now includes an option to specify a custom date range. The users will be able to quickly select valid start and end days of a period by choosing dates in an interactive calendar in an overlay.

For more information, see Configuring the basic settings for a DateTime control - date range

Enhanced SLA settings in App Studio

You can now reuse existing service-level agreements for assignments and approvals in App Studio without switching to Dev Studio. For example, you can select an action that the system performs when a task goal or deadline is past due, such as reassigning the task to a different user.

For more information, see Setting goals and deadlines for task completion and Defining an escalation action for an incomplete task.

Anypicker control in a condition builder

The condition builder now uses the Anypicker control to categorize the entities, such as fields or when conditions, that your application compares at run time. As a result, you can create conditions in a simplified and accelerated way. You can also select fields that are up to four levels deep within field groups.

For more information, see Create conditions faster with an Anypicker control (8.4), Adding an Anypicker control, Defining conditions in the condition builder.

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.