Published Release Notes

Legacy Parse XML rule configurations must be upgraded to edit them

If your application has Parse XML rules that use the legacy configuration from Pega Platform™ 5.x, you cannot edit these rules after you upgrade to Pega Platform 8.6 until after you upgrade them to use tree-based parse rule configuration.

You must upgrade a Parse XML rule that you want to edit if it shows the following warning when you open it in Dev Studio.

This type of Parse XML rule is deprecated. An upgrade should be performed.

An option to upgrade also displays below the message.

Upgrade impact

Parse XML rules with the legacy configuration do not map data to the clipboard, and the rule definition is empty. After you upgrade to Pega Platform 8.6, you cannot edit Parse XML rules that you created in Pega Platform 5.x or earlier until you upgrade them to use tree-based parse rule configuration.

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

Update legacy Parse XML rules to use tree-based parse rule configuration before you edit them in Pega Platform 8.6. Using tree-based parse rules is considered a best practice.

1. Open the legacy Parse XML rule.
2. On the Mapping tab, click Upgrade.
   Result: The Allow tree editing? check box is displayed and is automatically selected. You can add attributes and elements to the tree structure, or delete them.
3. Save the upgraded rule configuration.

For more information, see Parse XML rules.

Connect MQ rules configured with alias queue do not work after upgrade

Connect MQ rules that you defined with an alias queue in earlier versions of Pega Platform do not work after an upgrade to Pega Platform 8.6.

Upgrade impact

If you defined an alias queue in Connect MQ rules, after an upgrade to Pega Platform 8.6, those Connect MQ rules do not work.

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

In the Pega-IntegrationEngine ruleset, create the following dynamic system settings and their default values:

• "mq/pmo" = 0
• "mq/gmo" = 0
• "mq/oo_request" = 1040
• "mq/oo_response" = 16

For more information, see Creating a dynamic system setting.

Improved indexing of StringList and StringGroup property types

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.

Apply logic to data import fields

When importing data from an external system, you can translate data fields into values that can be read by Pega^® Platform. From the Import wizard, you can do the following actions:

• Apply a decision tree or decision table to the data that is imported for a field.
• Use imported data for a field to look up a value in another record. For example, you can look up the key of a record that uses an external identifier to populate a foreign key field.
• Create templates that contain business logic, which eliminates the need to handle data transformations manually during preprocessing.

For more information, see Transforming data during import.

Class structure expanded for surveys and questions

You can now create surveys and questions at any class level. Because there is no longer a restriction on which class of flows can use the Survey and Question smart shapes, you can create more contextual surveys that reference embedded properties, or instances of classes, that you define outside the Work- class structure.

For more information about using the Survey or Question smart shapes in a flow, see Integration methods for surveys.

Locatable pages are deprecated

Locatable pages are deprecated. Use a data page instead. Data pages provide improved performance. When you save a rule that has a Locate Page Activity or when you create an activity of type Locate page, a guardrail warning is displayed indicating that this feature has been deprecated.

For information about data pages, see Data pages.

Like and bookmark Pulse messages

You can now like messages that are posted to Pulse and view the number of likes for each message. You can also bookmark the messages that you want to view in your activity feed.

For information about Pulse enhancements, see:

• Pega Express 7.3.1 – Communicating with Pulse
• Pega Platform 7.3.1 – Pulse enhancements for social collaboration

Real-time updates in Pulse

You can now view real-time updates of messages in Pulse. If a user posts a comment on a Pulse conversation while you are viewing the conversation, you receive a notification in real time, which you can click to refresh the conversation and see the comment.

For information about Pulse enhancements, see:

• Pega Express 7.3.1 – Communicating with Pulse
• Pega Platform 7.3.1 – Pulse enhancements for social collaboration

Ability to map JSON to clipboard properties by using a data transform

You can now map the entire JSON file or individual properties to and from the clipboard by using a data transform. Using a data transform makes it faster and easier to connect your Pega^® Platform to your system of record.

For more information, see Data transforms.

Data validation before importing

Data imported into a data type is now validated before it is imported. Validating data before importing it ensures that the data is valid and reduces the amount of time required to manually analyze and validate your data.

For more information about importing data into a data type, see Importing data for a data type.