Published Release Notes

Data Flow rule enhancements

The enhancements to the Data Flow rule facilitate decision execution in real time, batch, and Pega 7 Platform applications. The DataFlow-Execute method in activities can be used to execute and monitor batch runs and real time data flows. In addition, you can configure pre- and post-activities that are executed before and after data flow execution.

For more information, see the following Pega 7 Platform help topics:

• About data flow rules
• DataFlow-Execute method
• Pre- and post-processing of data flows

Strategy canvas enhancements

The Strategy canvas in Decision Management has been enhanced to let you to create, edit, and display your strategy more easily. You can keep your strategy in order using the Smart Mini Map, improved selection capability, and the new Align and Distribute options. Additionally, you can perform the most common operations using keyboard shortcuts and accelerators.

For more information, see Strategy rule enhancements.

Processes run by default when a stage is restarted

The Run on re-entry check box in Case Designer has been removed. As a result of this change, processes run by default each time that a stage is restarted. Users who previously had this check box cleared can use the Start when option in Case Designer instead to define the criteria for skipping a process.

For more information, see Adding a process to a stage.

Create and associate specifications in Case Designer

You can now create and associate specifications with steps and user forms when you design a case in Case Designer. You can reuse the specifications in the current case and other case types. By defining specifications, you can generate a more meaningful application profile document.

For more information, see Associating a specification with a step, Associating a specification with a user form and Enhancements to the Direct Capture of Objectives.

Conversion of single-step assignments is no longer required

You no longer need to create a single-step assignment in a case type and then convert it to another supported step type. Instead, you can use the + Add step option in Case Designer to add any step type directly to a process in a stage. This change delivers a more consistent experience to users who are working in Case Designer and Process Modeler.

The following table lists the step labels in Case Designer that were updated to support this change.

For more information, see Adding a step to a process in a stage.

Team management

As a case manager or manager of a team, you can manage all your teams and direct reports on the My Teams page in Case Manager. You can create teams or delete existing ones, as well as update team membership and work queues assigned to the team. You can also update and manage workload, time off, and skills information for individual team members. Social collaboration through Pulse is also available for both teams and individual users.

For more information, see Managing team information and work queues.

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.

Cassandra 3.11.3 support for Pega Platform

Increase your system's reliability and reduce its memory footprint by upgrading the internal Cassandra database to version 3.11.3.

For on-premises Pega Platform™ users, after you upgrade to Pega 8.3, it is recommended that you manually upgrade to Cassandra 3.11.3. You can upgrade to Cassandra 3.11.3 on all operating systems except IBM AIX. If you do not want to upgrade to Cassandra 3.11.3, you can continue to use Cassandra 2.1.20, which is still supported.

For Pega Cloud Services 2.13 and later versions, Cassandra automatically upgrades to version 3.11.3 after your environment is upgraded to Pega Platform 8.3.

For information on how to manually upgrade to Cassandra 3.11.3, see the Pega Platform 8.3 Upgrade Guide for your server and database at Deploy Pega Platform.

Upgrade impact

After an on-premises Pega Platform upgrade, you still have the older version of Cassandra and must manually upgrade.

What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?

To upgrade Cassandra, you must create a prconfig setting or a dynamic system setting with the new Cassandra version and then do a rolling restart of all the Decision Data Store nodes to upgrade them to the latest version of Cassandra.

Java injection vulnerability check

Pega Platform™ now notifies you of Java injection vulnerabilities in activities, functions, and stream rules at design time and at run time.  You can customize Pega Platform to check for additional vulnerabilities to ensure that your application runs without problems.

For more information, see Configuring the Java injection check.

Usability improvements to Admin Studio

Admin Studio offers a variety of usability enhancements, including:

• New access groups to differentiate between full and read-only access to Admin Studio
• A Java class lookup utility
• A requestor list for the logged-on operator
• The ability to display system node type in the logs

Also, if your environment uses Predictive Diagnostic Cloud (PDC), the Admin Studio overview page now includes a link to PDC.

For more information, see Managing requestors.