Published Release Notes

Improved UI accessibility

Pega Platform™ now supports W3C Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines more fully, which creates a better user experience for people who rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers.

The user interface now features the following enhancements:

• Improved keyboard navigation and updated ARIA attributes for layouts, including dynamic, repeating, and table layouts.
• Updated navigation for AJAX and dynamic containers.
• More precise keyboard navigation and focus control for pop-up components, such as SmartTips.
• Fixed accessibility gaps in out-of-the-box actionable controls and form components, such as buttons and text fields.
• More accessible error messages with improved color schemes and focus control. To meet the WCAG ARIA guidelines, the Show next Error bar has been retired and substituted with more accessible error symbols.
• Accessibility code included in the Pega Platform ruleset by default, without the need for additional configuration.

For more information, see Supported keyboard navigation.

Add custom controls to section palettes

You can add custom controls to the Basic or Advanced palettes in sections. With this enhancement, Pega^® Platform developers have easy access to custom controls. The Show in authoring menus check box is available in the HTML tab of the custom control rule. You can add a custom icon to display in the menu with the custom control.

For more information see Adding custom controls to the section palette in Designer Studio.

Actions available for custom controls

All standard actions that are available for autogenerated controls are available on non-autogenerated custom controls as well. You can configure actions on custom controls by using the legacy actions options or the standard options that are available to custom and autogenerated controls. By using the standard options, developers can now configure multiple action sets for different types of events on a single custom control.

For more information, see Actions tab.

Improved access to Cosmos UI settings

The Settings tab in the App Studio case designer now includes tools for configuring Cosmos UI. With this enhancement, you can adjust design system settings without the need to specialize individual When rules in Dev Studio, which simplifies UI creation and saves development time.

For more information, see Managing Cosmos UI settings in case designer.

Enhanced autocomplete control with combo box functionality

You can now add combo box functionality to an autocomplete control. You enable this functionality on the Presentation tab of the control. In the combo box, search results that match the search criteria are displayed in a list that you can scroll through by clicking the down arrow.

For more information about how to configure an autocomplete control as a combo box, see Autocomplete Properties — Presentation tab.

Tour IDs and Test IDs in UI controls

Many UI controls now support the Test ID and Tour ID fields in the General tab of the layout properties. The Test ID setting generates a data-test-id attribute to provide a fixed reference to a UI control for automated testing. You can use Tour IDs to create a guided tour of your user interface for users. For more information, see Test ID and Tour ID for unique identification of UI elements.

Test IDs and Tour IDs have been extended to the following UI controls.

Both Test IDs and Tour IDs are supported in the following types of controls:

• Autocomplete
• Button
• Check box
• Date time
• Drop-down
• Formatted text
• Icon
• Label
• Link
• Radio button
• Text area
• Text input

Test IDs are supported in the following controls:

• Grid
• Hidden text
• Tree
• Tree grid

Tour IDs are supported in:

• Dynamic layouts

Custom DX API attributes for auto-generated controls

Auto-generated controls now include the option to add custom attributes for use with the Pega Digital Experience (DX) API. The attributes are part of the DX API response to the front end and you can use them to modify the run-time behavior of the UI elements in your application. For example, you can add an attribute to a field that displays a tooltip text for that field at run time. This enhancement introduces significant flexibility to application development and gives you greater control over UI components.

For more information, see Adding custom attributes for version 1 DX API to auto-generated controls.

Enhanced run-time behavior of the currency and number controls

The currency and number controls now display separators at run time, even as the user types the values. When the user enters more than three digits, a locale-dependent separator immediately groups the digits into thousands in real time. For example, when a user who is based in the U.S. types 100000, the input field displays the number as 100,000. The currency control additionally displays currency symbols at all times, whether the input field is in focus or not.

This enhancement improves clarity and the user experience because the user no longer needs to move away from the field to see the formatting of the input, and typing long strings of numbers is now more convenient.

For more information, see Controls.

PegaWAI ruleset deprecated in 8.5

Accessibility functions that were contained in the PegaWAI ruleset are now integrated into the main Pega Platform™. Consequently, the user interface in your applications now features accessibility functions out of the box, so you no longer need to use the PegaWAI ruleset to ensure accessible behavior in your application.

For more information, see Building an accessible UI.

Style radio buttons as segmented buttons

You can configure radio buttons to be displayed as segmented buttons. Segmented buttons display multiple button options in a compact format. Segmented buttons do not support vertical orientation. On the Presentation tab of the properties panel, set Control format to Other and select Segmented.

For more information, see Radio Buttons control properties – Presentation tab.