Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA) support for Pega 7 applications
Valid from Pega Version 7.2.2
You can use Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA) to integrate and unify processes that run on a user's desktop to streamline work and free your staff to focus on higher-value, customer-oriented tasks. You can use automations to retrieve information from applications that run on the desktop and send them to your Pega 7 application, and you can also use automations to send information from your application to applications that run on the desktop.
In an example Call Center application, you can use an automation to retrieve information from a legacy application running on a customer service representative's (CSR) desktop and display it in your application. You can also send information that users enter in your application (for example, an address change) to an automation to update the legacy application.
For more information, see:
Data pages can source information from a robotic process automation
Valid from Pega Version 7.4
When you use robotic process automation (RPA), you can now configure data pages to source information from robotic automations so that you can connect your Pega® Platform application to legacy applications in your enterprise. By using automations to retrieve data and save it to a data page, you can use data virtualization to encapsulate your Pega Platform data model from the physical interface of a legacy system against which the automation is running.
For more information, see Obtaining information from robotic automations.
Data pages can source information from a robotic desktop automation
Valid from Pega Version 8.1
You can now configure data pages to source information from robotic desktop automations (RDA). Using an RDA to source a data page allows you to connect your Pega Platform™ application to any application that is accessible from an end-user's desktop. By using automations to retrieve data and load it into a data page, you can use data virtualization to separate your Pega Platform data model from the physical interface of a legacy system against which the automation is running.
For more information, see Obtaining information from robotic automations.
Add Robotic Automation capabilities to your application by using the Connect Robot rule
Valid from Pega Version 8.2
Pega Platform™ supports a new Connect Robot rule that you can use to integrate robotic automation capabilities into your application. You can publish information about automation bundles from Robotic Automation Studio directly to Dev Studio and automatically generate and display new rules. Also, when you source data pages from robotic desktop automations (RDA), Pega Platform displays a list of automations from which you can choose.
For more information, see About Connect Robot rules.
Default value of the threadpoolsize agent affects batch indexing
Valid from Pega Version 8.5.2
After you patch Pega Platform to version 8.5.2 or higher, the system changes the default value of the threadpoolsize agent, which controls the number of concurrent activities (threads) in the system, from 5 to 15. Batch indexing in Pega Platform™ does not require all 15 threads, so you can change the agent value to increase system performance by managing the indexing/distributed/batch/numworkers dynamic system setting.
If your deployment does not support that setting, and batch indexing does not use Queue Processors, the system uses the threadpoolsize value for batch indexing instead.
For more information, see Editing a dynamic system setting.
Upgrading to Hazelcast 4.x requires downtime during upgrades to Pega Infinity 8.6
Valid from Pega Version 8.6
Upgrade impact statement
On-premises upgrades of Pega Infinity release 8.4.2 and later to version 8.5.1 or later on Tomcat and PostgreSQL are completed with near-zero downtime. However, upgrading to Hazelcast 4.x requires that you shut down and restart your application server.
What is required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
Hazelcast 3.x is enabled by default. For near-zero downtime upgrades, you do not need to perform any action.
For instructions about upgrading to Hazelcast 4.x, see one of the following topics:
- For near-zero downtime upgrades from Pega Infinity release 8.4.2 or later on Tomcat and PostgreSQL, see "Optional: upgrading to Pega Platform version 8.6: Upgrading to Hazelcast 4.x" in Near-zero downtime Upgrade Guide for Pega Platform version 8.4.2 and later for Tomcat and PostgreSQL.
- For all other upgrades, see "Optional: upgrading to Hazelcast 4.x" in the appropriate upgrade guide.
Improved indexing of StringList and StringGroup property types
Valid from Pega Version 8.6
Search and Reporting Service in Pega Platform™ 8.5 may improperly index StringList and StringGroup property types. As a result, the data model does not include the affected properties.
Upgrade impact
After upgrading to Pega Platform version 8.6, the system requires that the classes with the StringList or StringGroup type are reindexed.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
On the Search Landing Page, manually reindex all the classes that include properties with the StringList or StringGroup types to ensure that all your data is present in the data model. Alternatively, if finding specific instances of classes is difficult, you can reindex all classes in your application.
For more information, see Indexing class data.