Existing collections are deprecated
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
The original implementation of the Collection form is deprecated. Legacy instances in your application remain functional; however, any new instance you create uses the redesigned Collection form. Use the Decision category in the Records Explorer to view all collections available to you.
For guidance on upgrade limitations, see the Deprecated Collection form.
Achieve traceability through mapped rule type parameters
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
Maintain thorough audit trails of rules processed in your application by mapping one or more function input parameters to key parts of rules called by a collection. Each association you define updates referencing rules by linking the specified rule and the collection that calls your function or an associated function alias.
For instructions on how create these mappings in the Rule Type Parameters section of the Function form, see Function form - Completing the Parameters tab.
Simplified parameter passing with functions and function aliases
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
After you have mapped a rule type on the Function form, you can pass a parameter page to it from a corresponding function alias. This simplifies your implementation by exposing parameter prompting to users anywhere that function aliases are supported, such as collections and when conditions.
For a procedure on how to pass parameter pages to mapped rule types, see How to use parameter pages with a function alias.
ShowWarningOnForm is no longer processed
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
Rule forms now display all warnings, independent of category or type. The standard decision tree Embed-Warning.ShowWarningOnForm is no longer used to determine which warnings are visible.
You can safely remove any specialized versions of this rule in your application.
Use JDBC 4 compliant drivers for better performance
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
For better performance, ensure that you are using JDBC 4-compliant drivers. For more information on supported and non-supported JDBC drivers, please reference the Platform Support Guide.
Use Tomcat 7 for better performance
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
For better performance with a Tomcat web server, use Tomcat 7.
Tomcat 6 has a limitation that causes the server to treat the JDBC driver as if it were a JDBC 3-compliant driver, even if the system is using a JDBC 4-compliant driver. Customers using Tomcat will see better performance if they upgrade to Tomcat 7 and use a JDBC 4-compliant driver.
Engine will not start if the incorrect JDBC driver is used
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
The engine will not start up if the incorrect JDBC driver is used. The following configurations are unsupported:
- Using a Multi-tenant Oracle system with one of the Oracle JDBC drivers with issues (see the chart in the Platform Support Guide)
- Using a Multi-tenant system with a JDBC 3 compliant driver, OR with Tomcat 6 (for more information on using tomcat with Pega 7.1.7, see Use Tomcat 7 for best performance)
- Using Microsoft SQL Server with a JDBC 3 compliant driver, OR with Tomcat 6 (for more information on using tomcat with Pega 7.1.7, see Use Tomcat 7 for best performance)
When any of these unsupported configurations are encountered, Pega 7 will not start. Before this change, the engine would appear to start up properly, but would encounter issues during other parts of the engine startup or during actual use of the system.
Need to run script before updating Multitenant systems
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.5
When updating or upgrading a Multitenant system from Pega 7.1.5 or 7.1.6 to Pega 7.1.7, if that system uses either an Oracle or a PostgreSQL database, you may encounter the error:
“Table must be empty to add column.”
The Multitenant architecture requires an additional column on a number of the PRPC database tables (“pzTenantID”). In Pega 7.1.7, two additional PRPC tables were tenant-qualified: pc_schedule_task and pr_index_schedule_task. The Multitenant column is added to these tables by the update/upgrade process. However, Oracle and PostgreSQL do not allow the addition of a non-null column to an existing table unless the table is empty, so updating or upgrading systems on those databases displays the error detailed above.
To avoid this error, before beginning the update or upgrade, it is necessary to run a script:
- Oracle —
OracleMTupgrade.sql - PostgreSQL —
PostgresMTupgrade.sql
For updates, these scripts are located in the /scripts/ddl directory.
For upgrades, these scripts are located in the /Resourcekit/AdditionalUpgradeScripts directory.
List view and summary view reports might not display in HTML5-compliant browsers
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
List view and summary view reports use framesets to provide a view of drill-down reports. HTML5 does not support framesets, so these reports might not display well, or at all, in versions of browsers that are compliant with HTML5.
To prevent display issues, re-create the custom list view and summary view reports that you need as report definition reports. Standard management reports are already available as report definition reports.
As of Pega 7.2, list view and summary view rules are deprecated. For more information, see Discontinued support for list view and summary view rules.
Messages are rule resolved by class
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
As part of the Message form redesign, a class key part was introduced. While this key part is automatically handled as part of an upgrade or migration, it does change the available options you see in message SmartPrompts and how Rule-Message instances are rule resolved.
See Upgrade considerations for existing messages for more information.