Report Viewer provides simplified user experience
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
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
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
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
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
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
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
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
New property pxCommitDateTime
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
A new property, pxCommitDateTime, records the time when a record or updated rule was committed to the database. This property also allows for incremental extracts when running BIX.
New property pxSaveDateTime
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
A new property, pxSaveDateTime, records the date and the time that an instance was saved with business changes to the database. This property is always used when an instance is saved, whether you are creating an instance or updating an existing instance. This property is not updated when an instance is moved from one system to another, and it is not updated during certain system management operations that do not change the content of the instance, such as column exposure.
Insights from 8.5 require additional configuration after upgrade
Valid from Pega Version 8.6
Upgrade impact
After you upgrade Pega Platform™ version 8.5 to 8.6, the Explore Data landing page might not include insights that come from the earlier version of the product.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
Run the pxUpgrade85Insights activity to make all insights from version 8.5 accessible for you in 8.6. By running this activity, you upgrade insights with new metadata that is required in version 8.6. For example, the pxUpgrade85Insights activity provides you with the option to set the visibility of insights to private, public or shared.
For more information about insights, see Visualizing data with insights.