Published Release Notes

New property pxCommitDateTime

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.

Report Browser removed from Designer Studio

The Report Browser and Access landing page have been removed from Designer Studio. In Designer Studio, developers can create, edit, and test reports by using the Report Definition rule form.

The Report Browser is still available in the Case Manager portal.

Exporting charts in scheduled reports to a PDF file

When a scheduled report with a chart is exported to a PDF file, the chart is not automatically included in the PDF file. This behavior is different from when you export reports from the Report Viewer. When you export a report with a chart from the Report Viewer, the chart is included in the PDF file.

For scheduled reports, you can use the pyEmbedChartUsingPhantomJS HTML rule and the pyCallPhantomJS activity rule to implement a solution that exports a chart to a PDF file.

For more information, see Exporting a chart in a scheduled report to a PDF file.

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.

Method for specifying custom search properties has changed

The method for specifying a custom set of properties that are stored in the Elasticsearch indexes and that can be referenced later in filter conditions or returned in a set or results has changed. Previously, the pySearchModel Data Transform rule was used to specify a custom search property list within a class. The new method is to specify a Data instance of the Data-CustomProperties-Search class.

After upgrading to Pega 7.2, make these changes:

• Reenter existing pySearchModel Data Transform rules as instances of Data-CustomProperties-Search data instances.
• Enable the indexing/useDataInstances Data Admin system setting by clicking Records > SysAdmin > Dynamic System Settings.

After you change the set of custom search properties for a class, rebuild the Elasticsearch index for that class on the System Settings Search landing 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.

BIX performance improvements for CSV output in the Pega Cloud

BIX performance has been enhanced to download up to 25 GB of data per hour for extracts from a BLOB-less class table for CSV output. This high-throughput option is available only for Pega Cloud instances that use a Postgres database. This option is used automatically for these types of extracts.

When this option is used, the –x and –c command-line options for BIX are not supported, and the checkSum field in the manifest summary is not populated. If you need these options, you can revert to the previous implementation by using a setting in the prconfig.xml file.

For more information, see BIX high-throughput data downloads in the Pega Cloud.