Chart drilldown capabilities extended to dashboard widgets
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
When the chart for a report is displayed in a dashboard widget, you now can click any part of the chart to drill down and view the subset of data for that part. This enhancement provides you with an accurate view of the data that determines the report results. Previously, this capability was provided only in the Report Viewer.
Define and manage features during application development
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
You can now define and manage the features and child features that you want to implement in your application. A feature represents any capability in your application that you want to promote to stakeholders during the application development process. When you develop an application and design case types, you can link each case type to top-level features in Designer Studio. In addition, you can associate existing rules with features, which maintains traceability and makes it easier for you to extend the application because you can identify the rules that are associated with each feature.
For more information, see Features.
Enhancements to exporting report results to Excel
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
When you export report results to Excel, the .xlsx file that the export process generates is smaller, opens faster, and no longer displays a security warning when you open it. Excel handles more of the formatting, and DateTime, Date, TimeOfDay, and Numeric properties are exported in a format that Excel recognizes. In addition, columns have sorting and filtering enabled by default.
These enhancements are enabled by default and provide improvements to performance and memory usage, especially with large data sets. You can disable this new default behavior by modifying the pyEnableExportToAdvancedExcelFormat when rule. For more information, see Disabling the default functionality for exporting reports to Excel.
Logging service now uses Apache Log4j 2
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
The Pega® Platform now uses the Apache Log4j 2 logging service. Apache Log4j 2 improves performance and provides support for all log file appender types. As a result of this upgrade, the prlogging.xml file has been renamed to prlog4j2.xml and the format of the file has changed considerably.
For details about the new file format see Pega Platform logging with the Log4j 2 logging service.
For new installations or for upgrades to systems that were using the default logging configuration, no changes are needed. For information about updating custom log files after upgrading, see Customizations to the prlogging.xml file must be manually ported after upgrade. For information about updating your socket server if you use remote logging, see Socket server has changed for remote logging. For information about updated the web.xml file after upgrading, see Log file description in web.xml incorrect after upgrade to Apache Log4j2.
Customizations to the prlogging.xml file must be manually ported after upgrade
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
As a result of the upgrade from the Apache Log4j 1 logging service to the Apache Log4j 2 logging service, the name of the logging configuration file has changed from prlogging.xml to prlog4j2.xml and the format of the file has changed considerably. If you customized your prlogging.xml file, port the customizations to the new prlog4j2.xml file. If you do not port the changes, the Pega® Platform uses the default prlog4j2.xml file and disregards your customized prlogging.xml file.
For more information about customizing your log files, see the Apache Log4j 2 documentation.
Socket server has changed for remote logging
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
As a result of the upgrade from the Apache Log4j 1 logging service to the Apache Log4j 2 logging service, the socket server that is used for remote logging has changed from the Log4j remote logging package with the LogFactor5 log analysis tool to TcpSocketServer. If you use remote logging, update your socket server to TcpSocketServer. For more information, see Installing and using remote logging.
Create connections to repositories
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
Pega® Platform can communicate with common repository technologies. Whenever an action creates a RAP, Pega Platform can browse, publish, or fetch artifacts: for example, when exporting an application, product, branch, or component. Repositories are instances of the Data-Repository class which holds all necessary connection information.
Pega Platform includes tools to connect with the following repository types:
- JFrog Artifactory
- Amazon S3
For more information, see Creating a JFrog Artifactory or Amazon S3 repository connection.
Improved data security for BIX extracts for Pega Cloud customers
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
Data security is improved for BIX extracts in the Pega Cloud. BIX extracts are now processed through the use of a HIPAA-compliant system. As a result of this improvement, the method for obtaining BIX extracts has changed. For more information, see Process for obtaining BIX extracts has changed for Pega Cloud customers.
New process for Pega Cloud customers to obtain BIX extract files
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
The process for obtaining Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX) extract and manifest files for Pega® Cloud customers has changed as a result of data security enhancements for HIPAA compliance. By default, after upgrading to Pega 7.3, you must obtain the BIX extract and manifest files from the Pega SFTP server. From within Designer Studio, you can configure the BIX extract and manifest files to be sent to a remote SFTP server by a file listener. For Pega Cloud customers who have purchased a Pega Cloud SFTP Server subscription, you can configure BIX to send the BIX extract and manifest files to the SFTP server's folders for remote SFTP client download.
For more information about obtaining files from the Pega SFTP server, see Obtaining BIX extract files from the Pega SFTP server.
For more information about having files sent to your SFTP server, see Defining SFTP-related data instances.
Automatically process cases with SharePoint
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
You can now use Microsoft SharePoint Online to store and source case and Pulse attachments and to store and source attachments during automated case processing. Users only have to provide authentication and authorization details the first time they access SharePoint Online or when the trust has expired. The authentication profile must be OAuth 2.0 with a grant type of authorization code. The SharePoint Online component can be downloaded from Pega Exchange. For more information, see Downloading and configuring pluggable content management components.