Published Release Notes

Ability to restrict access to the Import wizard

You can now restrict access to the Import wizard so that users implement an automated pipeline to deploy changes between environments such as staging and production. Deployment Manager is one method by which to create pipelines. By using pipelines to propagate changes, users can apply a standardized and automated deployment process for migrating their applications.

For more information, see:

• Ensuring that users migrate applications with a pipeline by restricting the Import wizard
• Understanding model-driven DevOps with Deployment Manager

Improved control of case locking and retry mechanisms

The Delay factor, Initial delay in minutes, and Max retry attempts fields have been added to queue processors, and the Timeout to acquire lock field has been added to the Queue-For-Processing method. Using these fields, you can quickly configure background processes that require you to lock cases or retry case processing.

For more information, see Creating a Queue Processor rule.

Upgrade impact

After a successful upgrade, the new fields contain their default values.

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

To customize the functionality of this feature (and the new fields), open the Queue-For-Processing definition and modify the values for the new properties or fields.

Requestor pools management in Designer Studio

On the new Requestor Pools landing page, you can view and manage requestor pools across the cluster, including on the current node and remote nodes. By using this landing page, you can tune the requestor pools to improve the performance of services. You can clear the requestor pool for a service package and view the requestor pool basic metrics and configured thresholds.

For more information, see Requestor pools management, Clearing a requestor pool, Viewing details for a requestor pool, Tuning a requestor pool configuration.

Search and Reporting does not index large items

When using the Search and Reporting (SRS) microservice in Pega Platform™ 8.5, you might encounter problems with indexing large out-of-the-box rules. The issue is not visible in Queue Processors, but you can access logs to verify which items the system does not index.

Automatic management of run-time context for background processing

Management of system run-time context is now automatic. You no longer need to manually modify the AsyncProcessor requestor type context to make a queue processor or job scheduler work after importing or upgrading an application. Additionally, you do not need to manually modify the AsyncProcessor requestor type context to make new queue processors and job schedulers work.

For more information, see System general landing page and Automating the runtime context management of background processes.

Upgrade impact

After upgrade, you manage the runtime context of your background processing in System Runtime Context instead of in the deprecated AsyncProcessor requestor type.

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

Select the Include in background processing option in the Advanced section of the application rule form for all applications that use background processing (such as Job Schedulers and Queue Processing). When this option is enabled, the system automatically includes the rulesets (for the application and its components) in System Runtime Context used for resolving and running Queue Processors and Job Schedulers. Also, when the option is enabled, the application is placed on the System Runtime Context list during application rule saves (such as during application import and migration).

Improved Clipboard performance

Clipboard performance has been enhanced to use high-speed, read-only data pages, making processing faster. For some high throughput use cases, performance might be degraded. If performance is degraded, you can use a restricted feature set for a specific read-only data page by selecting Restricted feature set for high throughput on the Load management tab of the data page rule.

For information about unsupported features when using a restricted feature set, see High-speed data page support.

Define a default reporting database

You can now easily define a reporting database for all classes that are assigned to a primary database. You can also assign this reporting database as the default reporting database. This provides support for reporting against Amazon Aurora read replicas. AWS Aurora increases the performance and stability of your database management system.

For more information about reporting, see Report Definition data access tab.

Change tracking tab removed from declare expressions

To simplify the configuration of a declare expression, the Change tracking tab has been removed from the declare expression rule form. To use the Change tracking tab, on the declare expression rule form, click Actions > Use legacy expression.

For more information, see Supported and unsupported configurations in simplified declare expressions.

Upgrade impact

The declare expression rules have been moved from the pr4_rule table to the new pr4_rule_declare_expression table.

The upgrade can fail if you customize the pr4_rule table, such as increasing the length of an existing column.

After a successful upgrade, the declare expression rule form is simplified and lightweight pages support declare expressions.

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

Read-only data pages by default are lightweight. You could also enable lightweight pages for:

• Editable data pages by selecting the Enable option in the editable data page rule form.
• For all pages in a REST service by using the Lightweight clipboard mode in the Service REST form in the Rest API service.

Only simplified declare expressions are supported in lightweight pages. In simplified declare expressions, context-bound rules are not supported. However, a page context could be specified on the New or Save As form of declare expressions. For more information, see Declare Expression rules - Completing the New or Save As form.

Improved management of batch indexing

You can now cancel and check the status of a batch index process directly from the Search landing page in Dev Studio. The landing page now refreshes automatically every 10 seconds so that you can easily see the most recent status of the batch index process. Additionally, the reindex operation is now 20% faster than in previous versions. These features provide greater visibility into batch indexing and improve your ability to fix issues with a batch indexing process.

For more information about batch indexing, see Rebuilding search indexes from the user interface.

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