Published Release Notes

Report Viewer provides simplified user experience

In the Report Viewer, improvements simplify the user experience when working with reports. Column headers display initial sort order and type, and you can hover over a column header to display and use its context menu, which includes options for ad-hoc sorting and filtering. Developers can specify various pagination modes and set an option to keep the header in view while users scroll through the report.

For more information, see Report Viewer.

Enhanced BIX file naming

To help clarify file names, BIX extract output files and manifest files can now contain parameters. Parameters can include the rule name, the extract's run time and date, and a unique run sequence number. Special characters such as spaces, hyphens, or number signs (#) in the output or manifest file name are converted to underscores. In addition, the pxExtractIdentifier and pxExtractDateTime columns have been added to the .csv output file.

For more information, see Extracting data with BIX and Extract rules - completing the File Specification tab.

List view and summary view reports might not display in HTML5-compliant browsers

List view and summary view reports use framesets to provide a view of drill-down reports. HTML5 does not support framesets, so these reports might not display well, or at all, in versions of browsers that are compliant with HTML5.

To prevent display issues, re-create the custom list view and summary view reports that you need as report definition reports. Standard management reports are already available as report definition reports.

As of Pega 7.2, list view and summary view rules are deprecated. For more information, see Discontinued support for list view and summary view rules.

Enhanced chart control improves displaying data as a chart

The renewed chart control has an improved properties panel and provides HTML5-compliant pie, column, bar, area, line, and gauge charts. The chart source can be a report definition, a clipboard page, or a data page. You can customize basic and threshold colors, borders, line widths, labels, and other chart elements. A preview on the property panel instantly displays the effects on the chart of property changes you make.

For more information, see Harness and section forms - Adding a chart.

HTML5-compliant chart types

Descendant class instances now included in reports

The Report on descendant class instances option on the Data Access tab of the Report Definition rule has a new option to now include data from all descendant classes of the report's primary class. If descendant classes are mapped to multiple class tables, the generated SQL query performs UNIONs to include this data. Previously, only a single class was included in the report.

You can select a subset of descendant classes to include or exclude by adding a filter condition on pxObjClass.

Existing reports retain the older behavior for this option after an upgrade or update. To use the new option, you must set it for each existing report. New reports created in Designer Studio and out-of-the-box Pega 7 Platform template reports from which new reports are created in the Report Browser (pyDefaultReport and pyDefaultSummaryReport) default to the new option. If you have created custom template reports for some application classes, you must change them to enable the new option in reports that are created in the Report Browser for these classes.

See Reporting on data in multiple class tables.

Report Definition query filters can search embedded properties

Filter conditions on Report Definition rules that query the Elasticsearch indexes can now reference embedded properties. Previously, filter conditions could reference only the top-level properties of a class. To reference an embedded property within a filter condition, specify indexes for embedded page lists and page groups, for example, Customers(1).Addresses(1).City = Boston OR Customers(1).Addresses(1).State = MA.

These indexes are ignored in the generated query, and so can potentially match any value in a page list or group. However, filter conditions that reference multiple embedded properties in the same page list or page group, as displayed above, might not be satisfied on the same page.

BIX extracts can be scheduled and run from the Pega 7 Platform by using agents

You can create an agent that periodically invokes the new pxExtractDataWithArgs activity to run a BIX Extract rule. The activity takes the class and extract rule name, as well as an additional input string with a list of BIX command-line parameters, as input parameters to use for the run.

Discontinued support for list view and summary view rules

The list view rule and the summary view rule are deprecated, and support for these rules has been discontinued. Existing list view and summary view reports will continue to work on supported browsers. However, the last version of Internet Explorer that list view and summary view rules support is Internet Explorer 11.

You cannot create new list view or summary view reports. Instead, create list reports and summarized reports by using the report definition rule. To prevent display issues, re-create the custom list view and summary view reports that you need as report definition reports.

Report Definitions can query tables in multiple schemas

You can create a Report Definition that queries class tables in multiple schemas in the same database. Previously, queries on tables that were mapped to PegaRULES and PegaDATA schemas could not include tables that were mapped to other schemas, because other schemas were assumed to be in a different database. The schemas to which queried class tables belong are no longer validated when you save the Report Definition, so you can now query tables in schemas other than PegaRULES and PegaDATA. However, Report Definitions that query tables that are in more than one database fail when run.