Published Release Notes

Post files and links with pxPostMessage API

The pxPostMessageAPI now supports text messages, file attachments, and hyperlinks. You can programmatically update Pulse streams using this API from activities or SLA rules.

Case Management

This release has continued to focus on improving the functionality of the design environment with improvements to the Case Designer and stage configuration. Additional end user capabilities were also added to allow for processing a wider variety of cases, for those with and without stages and improved bulk processing handling.

• Flow action processing now uses the primary page instead of the interest page when using case/stage local actions, so that embedded flows are properly populated.
• Case-wide local actions rely on pzInternalStageFlow when there are no active, non-hidden assignments on the case. These case-wide local actions will now appear on a stage-less flow with no assignments.
• If a (valid) error is displayed in the outline view, saving or clicking around will not delete the error - the error will remain as a reminder to the developer to solve whatever problem is being flagged.
• May now add Cascading Approval validation and edit the parameters from the Case Designer Stage and Step page.
• Page labelling ("Page 1 of X") appears in the history list presented in the audit tab.
• The bulk processing feature has been enhanced.
• The Outline View functionality was changed so that the visible page will no longer refresh each time a flow is edited.
• The Post value was added to the instructions text field, so data isn't lost between nodes in the outline View.
• When Assign to Operator or workbasket is included as a filter, the bulk processing gadget is supposed to get a list of assignments. The UI for the results was enhanced for assignments to include a column for instructions so that the different assignments on the same work item can be distinguished.
• When designing a case type’s stages, it is no longer possible to skip the last stage (by using the "skip stage when" setting). When creating or editing the last stage, developers may no longer set a skip when rule; if tried, the system will display a warning and prevent that. If a Skip When rule is set up for a stage, and then all the intervening stages are deleted so that this stage becomes the last stage, the warning will display, and the Skip When rule will not be visible. If another stage is then added after that, the Skip When rule becomes visible again.
• When one or more locked work objects are processed using the Process Selected Items button, the action will be performed on the selected work objects. If the action is successful, a green tick appears on the work object. If it is not successful, a red cross will appear.
• When the topmost RuleSet in the RuleSet Stack is locked, customers may now open up Outline View by clicking "Configure Process Details" and make exploratory changes to experiment. Because the RuleSet is locked, these changes may not be saved, but the experiment can be tried.

Quickly create ad-hoc cases

The My Cases work area on the Case Manager portal introduces a Quick Create feature that lets users create cases and assign tasks that are not included in the processing of business cases (instances of case types defined in the Cases Explorer).  For example, a manager can create a case and a task to set up a phone conference with her staff, or a reminder to enroll in an online seminar. Users can also set up a series of tasks to represent all they work they need to do to accomplish a specific goal.

Additional upgrade scripts for new columns

In Version 6.2, additional columns (Major, Minor, and Patch) containing ruleset Version information were added to 15 tables in the PRPC database. When upgrading from a pre-Pega 7 release, scripts must be manually run after the upgrade to populate these columns.

These scripts are located in the Resource Kit, under Additional Upgrade Scripts.

• If upgrading to a single schema, run both scripts.
• If upgrading to a split schema, run the _data script against the data schema and run the _rules script against the rules schema.

Choose the scripts for your database type:

• db2zos_rulesetversion_columns_data.sql
• db2zos_rulesetversion_columns_rules.sql

• mssql_rulesetversion_columns_data.sql
• mssql_rulesetversion_columns_rules.sql

• oracle_rulesetversion_columns_data.sql
• oracle_rulesetversion_columns_rules.sql

• postgres_rulesetversion_columns_data.sql
• postgres_rulesetversion_columns_rules.sql

• udb_rulesetversion_columns_data.sql
• udb_rulesetversion_columns_rules.sql

Database

Improvements to data handling were made for search indexing, agent processing, and filtering.  Scripts were provided for proper population of the database tables.

• Importing data from shared obj-external tables is now supported.
• A validation warning will now display when an unexposed property is used in filter or join conditions.
• A Global Search index may now be created across two databases.
• Agent processing on multiple nodes has been improved.
• Improvements were made to controls in Report Definition pages which are used in a dynamic grid.
• Filtering functionality involving special characters has been enhanced.
• Scripts have been provided to populate the RuleSetVersion Major, Minor, and Patch columns.

Decision Management

This release contains a number of fixes that improve the configuration and execution of Batch decisions – specifically, a number of usability improvements and addresses some issues when creating strategies on IE8.  

• Batch Decision functionality has been enhanced in the NBAM environment.
• In NBAM, users can run the strategy execution batch based on the Seed list class instead of the customer class. 
• Interaction data will now work even if Action or Organization  dimensions do not have values set.
• Running a strategy which includes a Data Import of a structured page reference will work in batch mode.
• Security was enhanced on the VBD Planner.
• The Access of Role to Object rules have been enhanced to allow users to create new Dimension Operator records.
• The NBAM Segment On Canvas will now fetch the SegMap data, even when the generated extended segment class has not been added to the Pages and Classes of the strategy.  The SegMap property will (if it exists) be added to a list of properties to fetch, even if the strategy indicates that it is not used.
• When a strategy is defined on a customer class, users may now specify the list of required properties to fetch for the input definition.
• When creating a new strategy, there is now a section to add a Strategy Results class like Business Issue or Group.

System Management

Refinements were made to out-of-place upgrade documentation and processes, as well as for how handling is performed for all of the database vendor specific nuances related to a deploying into a split schema environment.

• A script was created to run the data schema upgrade for z/OS systems.
• In a split-schema configuration, indexing has been enhanced.
• The product installer has been enhanced.
• The stand-alone Static Assembly Utility does not require a password for its process.
• The UpdateManager tool has been improved.

Performance improvement to BLOB support in Postgres databases

New tables that contain BLOB columns now use external storage instead of expanded storage for Postgres databases. This improvement applies to tables that are created during installation, upgrade, or during DDL and schema generation. Using external storage improves database performance.

For more information, see BLOB storage in Postgres databases.

Automatically manage nodes in a System Management Application cluster

Instead of manually adding and deleting nodes in a cluster by using the System Management Application (SMA), you can now automatically manage nodes. You can enable Auto Node Discovery and configure it to get information about all the nodes in a cluster, add new nodes, and update the node list.

For more information, see Managing nodes automatically in a System Management Application cluster.

Logic-based assignment routing

You can now define business logic that controls when and by whom an assignment is processed in a case. By routing assignments to a specific user or group of users, you can help ensure that cases are resolved faster.

For more information, see Logic-based assignment routing.