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

Support for additional health metrics on the Application Quality landing page

On the Application Quality landing page, you can monitor the health of your current application to identify areas that need improvement before deployment. The landing page provides application metrics such as the number of executable rules, the guardrail score, the number of guardrail warnings, the test coverage percentage, and the pass rate of PegaUnit tests. From this landing page, you can also view data for the entire application, for each of its cases, and for rules that are not part of any case type.

For more information, see Application Quality landing page.

View the configuration settings for Pega Platform nodes in Designer Studio

On the new Configuration Settings landing page, you can view a list of the configuration settings for a specific node, current or remote, or for an entire cluster. From this landing page you can diagnose settings issues, determine whether settings are loaded correctly, and review the settings' purposes. You can also download the prconfig.xml file for any node in a cluster to modify the settings. The ability to view settings for all nodes in the Cluster from a single landing page makes diagnosing configuration issues across the cluster simpler and easier than logging on to each node individually to view its system settings. For example, if a started agent does not run, you can check if agents are enabled on your system; or if some of your caches are too big, you can check the setting for the cache size. You can also determine if settings are loaded correctly, and identify discrepancies in the settings across the nodes.

For more information, see Viewing the current configuration settings of a node or the whole cluster, Downloading and viewing the prconfig.xml file for a specific node, REST APIs for viewing the configuration settings for Pega Platform.

Support for templated auto responses during email triaging of interaction cases

When you triage an interaction case by email, you can now select a predefined email response to provide feedback to a customer more quickly. The category that is associated with this email determines the type of responses that you can select. You can create an email response template or use an existing template.

For more information, see Defining suggested replies for the Email channel.

Submit application changes made in Pega Express to a continuous integration and delivery pipeline

After you make changes to your application in Pega^® Express, you can submit these changes into a continuous integration and delivery pipeline that is configured in Deployment Manager. By using Pega Express to submit your application changes into staging, preproduction, and production systems, you can quickly start builds without involvement from IT.

For more information, see Starting a continuous delivery build.

Ability to run report definitions against an Elasticsearch index

To improve report generation performance, you can now run report definitions against Elasticsearch indexes instead of using SQL queries directly against the database. This feature is disabled by default and does not apply to reports that have features that are not supported by Elasticsearch. If a report query cannot be run against Elasticsearch indexes, Pega^® Platform automatically uses an SQL query.

For information about enabling and using this feature, see Configuring a report definition to run against an Elasticsearch index.

Search index fields can retain the original property type

You can now configure fields in the search index to retain the property type of the original property. By default, properties in an indexed class are converted to a string before they are placed in fields in the search index, referred to as a typeless index. Type-aware search indexes let you run report queries with filters, date calculations, and aggregations directly in the query. To configure a class to have type-aware properties, use a dedicated index.

For more information, refer to Custom search properties.