Published Release Notes

End of support for form-based rule forms in Pega 7.1.9

Rule forms that are configured to render as forms are no longer supported in Designer Studio or end-user applications. Form-based configurations are found on custom rule types that were created in earlier versions of Pega 7 and are characterized by pop-up windows that are rendered externally from Designer Studio.

Reconfigure Pega 7 applications that use such rule forms by using standard harnesses and sections.

1. Open the class form.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Select Harness from the Rule formmenu.
4. Create a new harness and new sections that implement the logic of the custom rule, using standard user interface layouts and controls.

Migrating custom rule forms to harnesses and sections offers the following benefits:

• User interfaces become HTML5 WC3 compatible and responsive to different screen sizes.
• User interfaces become cross-browser compatible, rendered consistently in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• Rendering performance on modern browsers is dramatically improved.
• User interface pop-up behavior is eliminated; all windows are rendered inside Designer Studio and end-user applications.

Pega 7 Express is available on-premises

You can now experience Pega 7 Express by switching your enterprise application from Designer Studio to express mode. By default, users with access to the Developer portal can switch between these two development environments. You can also create an express application to work in express mode exclusively.

Trial versions of Pega 7 Express continue to be available on the cloud. To view the documentation for both the cloud and on-premises environments, see Getting started with Pega 7 Express.

Access to Pega 7 Express from within Designer Studio is not supported on mobile devices.

Context-specific documentation is not available in express mode

Help topics that are opened from express mode display content that is specific to Designer Studio.

If your system is dedicated to applications that are developed in express mode exclusively, and you do not need Designer Studio help topics, you can set the Online Help URL field on the System Settings landing page to: https://pdn.pega.com/sites/default/files/help_p7e/procomhelpmain.htm. Alternatively, you can view the contextual help system for Pega 7 Express in a separate browser tab.

Design-time limitations in express mode

Some limitations apply when you develop an enterprise application in express mode. At design time, some features are disabled or have limited options when you configure them in Designer Studio and switch to express mode. The use of these features does not restrict the run-time behavior of your application; however, you cannot change the configuration of these features unless you switch from express mode to Designer Studio.

For more information about each limitation and the recommended action to take, see the following information:

• Pega 7.2.2 Design-time limitations in express mode
• Pega 7.2.1 Design-time limitations in express mode
• Pega 7.2 Design-time limitations in express mode
• Pega 7.1.9 Design-time limitations in express mode

Unit testing support for more rule types

You can now create unit tests for the following additional rule types. You can also create assertions to validate activity status. The expanded rule types for unit testing enable developers to more thoroughly perform regression testing of their application, thereby improving application quality.

• Collection
• Declare expression
• Map value
• Report definition

For more information about unit testing rules, see Pega unit test cases.

Upgrade impact

With the four new rule types, unit test execution and unit test compliance metrics will change. Reports on automated unit testing of the customer application decrease due to the increased pool of supported rules.

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

After a successful upgrade, create Pega unit test cases for the newly supported rules to see updated and accurate unit test metrics.

Customized application overview documents in App Studio

Keep stakeholders notified of the status of an application by customizing and generating an application overview document in App Studio. The overview may include information such as case types, roles, features in your application, and more. Select the chapters that you want to include in the overview, and then highlight the most relevant information by ordering the chapters. In addition to the application overview document, you can generate a detailed data model, either in Microsoft Word or Excel format.

For more information, see Creating project documents for stakeholders in App Studio, Exporting a data model into a document.

New send email automations and enhancements

You can now configure cases, flows, and activities to compose and send guardrail-compliant emails that conform to the MIME standard by using email automations. Use the new Call-Automation method to call an automation from an activity without writing Java.

You can also now categorize error messages in automations to quickly understand the type of error that occurred. In addition, page list data types are now supported for inputs and outputs in automations.

For more information, see Calling an automation from an activity and Viewing automations.

View application quality metrics by data type

You can now view application quality metrics by data type on the Application Quality landing page. The new Data Types tab displays metrics for data types grouped by data objects, which enables you to more quickly understand the overall coverage of the application's integrations and interfaces.

For more information about data type metrics, see Application Quality landing page.

Scenario tests are reusable

Existing scenario tests are now reusable in different business scenarios. Before Pega 8.3, you had to create a new test every time a user interface or process flow changed significantly. Now, scenario tests are editable to help you maintain the test stack more effectively.

For more information, see Updating scenario tests.

Improvements for automated scenario testing

Test automation authors can group related scenario tests into suites. The scenario test suites can be run manually from the Scenario Testing landing page as part of purpose-specific tests such as smoke tests, regression tests, and outcome-based tests. Additionally, automation authors or release managers who monitor tests for an application can disable or quarantine unstable scenario tests so that they do not run.

For more information about creating and managing test suites for scenario testing, see Creating test suites for scenario testing.