Published Release Notes

Use "alternate database" as report source

You can opt to use the the "alternate database" identified in the Reports Database field of the Data-Admin-DB-Table instance that supports the Applies To class of a report as the source for the report. This reduces the load on the database that serves your application when you run the report.

Flexible inputs in strategies

Decision parameters allow business users to influence the decision through flexible inputs that do not require changing strategies. System architects use extension points to configure the data model and user interface supporting decision parameters. Decision parameters are used in strategies, and changes to the values of decision parameters become immediately available without requiring any changes to the strategy.

The rule pxRunDecisionParameters supports the use of decision parameters through activities.

Enable business users to own parts of an enterprise application

Decision Manager functionality allows business users to own parts of an enterprise application within the boundaries defined by IT. PegaDM includes the Pega-DecisionManager ruleset that supports this functionality.

System architects define the boundaries for business users in the Decision Manager portal using revision management and proposition authorization facilities in Designer Studio. Access control is provided through custom roles, which system architects can create based on granular privileges. The Decision Manager portal provides business users with a controlled environment for the workflow, and the activities necessary to address the objectives of a revision.

Predefined inputs when designing and testing strategies

External input settings allow for propagating results to other strategies, providing strategy designers with a mechanism to reuse strategies and test strategies with predefined inputs.

Design segmentation trees in strategies

You can include the traditional segmentation tree pattern in your strategies using the following features:

• Exclusion components to conditionally stop the propagation of decision results.
• Split components to branch the decision results according to the percentage of cases covered by the result.
• The Otherwise label for component connections where one of the outgoing connections has a defined label.

Simplified Adaptive Decision Manager Deployment

The Adaptive Decision Manager (ADM) server relies on automatic detection of the database dialect. This simplifies the number of deployable archives used to set up the ADM service.

Cumulative calculation in strategies

Iteration components provide strategies with a mechanism to perform cumulative calculations.

User interface distortions in the Decision Manager portal

By default, the New Application wizard in Pega 7.1.6 configures new applications to include UI-Kit-7 in the list of application rulesets. This ruleset causes user interface distortions in the Decision Manager portal. Both applications created in previous maintenance level updates and applications created in Pega 7.1.6 that do not include the UI-Kit-7 dependency are not impacted by this known issue.

Workaround:

1. Open the application record.
2. In Application Rulesets, remove UI-Kit-7.
3. Save the application record.

User interface distortions in the Predictive Analytics Director portal

By default, the New Application wizard configures new applications to include UI-Kit-7 in the list of application rulesets. This ruleset causes user interface distortions in the Predictive Analytics Director portal. Applications created in maintenance level updates previous to Pega 7.1.6, and applications that do not include the UI-Kit-7 dependency, are not impacted by this known issue.

Workaround:

1. Open the application record.
2. In Application Rulesets, remove UI-Kit-7.
3. Save the application record.

Automatic retries for the SAVE operation on records

Batch and real-time data flow runs now automatically retry the SAVE operation on records when an error occurs because of resource unavailability. This functionality ensures that the records are eventually saved if the target data set is only temporarily unavailable, for example, because of load or network issues.

You can configure the default number of retries for the entire system in a dynamic system setting. To adjust the setting to different resource allocations and operating environments, you can update that number for each data flow run.

For more information, see Changing the number of retries for SAVE operations, Creating a batch run for data flows, and Creating a real-time run for data flows.