Published Release Notes

The most current version of the engine code is used by default

Beginning in Pega 7.1.7, the "com.pega.pegarules.bootstrap.codeset.version.Pega-EngineCode" setting is removed from the prbootstrap.properties file. By default, Pega 7.1.7 uses the most current version of the code present in the system.

Improved cross-browser support

All rule forms are now harness-based and open in the work area of Designer Studio. This means that you can develop in the browser of your choice, free from pop-up distractions and incompatibility messages. Many rule forms have been upgraded to use the latest layouts, styles, and design best practices, giving you a consistent development experience.

Viewing a Word Template in Pega 7.1.7 compared with Pega 7.1.6

Previous restrictions still apply to any deprecated or custom rule forms in your application that remain form-based. Refer to the Deprecated features list for guidance on how to upgrade these forms and recommended alternatives.

Changes to archive.info in Pega 7.1.7

In Pega 7.1.7, the contents of the archive.info file have changed.

• In versions Pega 7.1.6 and earlier, the archive.info file displays the build number of the Pega installation.
• As of Pega 7.1.7, the build number no longer appears in the archive.info file.

In Pega 7.1.7, the archive.info file only displays a status message indicating whether or not the system is running, and the build number no longer appears. Instead, if the system is operational, the message “status=Running” displays in the archive.info file.

If there are any automated tests, scripts, or applications that rely on the archive.info file displaying the build number, those may fail and produce an error. It is recommended that any automation that relies on the build number displaying in the archive.info file be changed to look for the “status=Running” message.

Quickly see what's new in Pega 7.1.7

A new home page panel gives you centralized access to Help and the PDN, eliminating the need to leave Designer Studio. Use the buttons in this panel to learn about new features quickly and stay connected to product announcements.

What’s new panel as it appears on the Designer Studio home page

After you are finished reviewing new features and enhancements, you can dismiss the What’s new panel. This hides the panel from your operator in future sessions without impacting the home page for other application users.

Clear and actionable guardrails help you mitigate risk sooner

The Application Guardrails landing page has been restructured to give you an executive-level view into your application health. Use the available metrics and tools on each tab to understand the scope of warnings in your application, the operators responsible for introducing this risk, and ways to improve your compliance score before your development goes into production.

Include this landing page in your governance process to:

• Understand your application compliance score and how it has changed over time:

  • A score of 90 or greater indicates your application is in good standing.

  • A score of 80-89 indicates your application needs review for improvement.

  • A score below 80 requires immediate action.

• Investigate the factors contributing to your score, such as warning age or severity, and the rules and operators associated with each warning.
• Review a comprehensive list of warnings and the recommended path to resolve them.
• Communicate all of these details to project stakeholders through email or exported documents.

​

Available metrics on the Compliance Details tab of the Application Guardrails landing page

The Charts tab in this landing page has been superseded by the Compliance Details tab, which provides more options and an enhanced presentation.

For more information about the available features on all tabs in this landing page, see Application Guardrails landing page.

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.