Define and manage features during application development
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
You can now define and manage the features and child features that you want to implement in your application. A feature represents any capability in your application that you want to promote to stakeholders during the application development process. When you develop an application and design case types, you can link each case type to top-level features in Designer Studio. In addition, you can associate existing rules with features, which maintains traceability and makes it easier for you to extend the application because you can identify the rules that are associated with each feature.
For more information, see Features.
Logging service now uses Apache Log4j 2
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
The Pega® Platform now uses the Apache Log4j 2 logging service. Apache Log4j 2 improves performance and provides support for all log file appender types. As a result of this upgrade, the prlogging.xml file has been renamed to prlog4j2.xml and the format of the file has changed considerably.
For details about the new file format see Pega Platform logging with the Log4j 2 logging service.
For new installations or for upgrades to systems that were using the default logging configuration, no changes are needed. For information about updating custom log files after upgrading, see Customizations to the prlogging.xml file must be manually ported after upgrade. For information about updating your socket server if you use remote logging, see Socket server has changed for remote logging. For information about updated the web.xml file after upgrading, see Log file description in web.xml incorrect after upgrade to Apache Log4j2.
Customizations to the prlogging.xml file must be manually ported after upgrade
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
As a result of the upgrade from the Apache Log4j 1 logging service to the Apache Log4j 2 logging service, the name of the logging configuration file has changed from prlogging.xml to prlog4j2.xml and the format of the file has changed considerably. If you customized your prlogging.xml file, port the customizations to the new prlog4j2.xml file. If you do not port the changes, the Pega® Platform uses the default prlog4j2.xml file and disregards your customized prlogging.xml file.
For more information about customizing your log files, see the Apache Log4j 2 documentation.
Socket server has changed for remote logging
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
As a result of the upgrade from the Apache Log4j 1 logging service to the Apache Log4j 2 logging service, the socket server that is used for remote logging has changed from the Log4j remote logging package with the LogFactor5 log analysis tool to TcpSocketServer. If you use remote logging, update your socket server to TcpSocketServer. For more information, see Installing and using remote logging.
Create connections to repositories
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
Pega® Platform can communicate with common repository technologies. Whenever an action creates a RAP, Pega Platform can browse, publish, or fetch artifacts: for example, when exporting an application, product, branch, or component. Repositories are instances of the Data-Repository class which holds all necessary connection information.
Pega Platform includes tools to connect with the following repository types:
- JFrog Artifactory
- Amazon S3
For more information, see Creating a JFrog Artifactory or Amazon S3 repository connection.
Support for following users in the Pega Express and Case Manager portals
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
You can now follow users in both the Pega Express and Case Manager portals. Posts that are made by users whom you are following are displayed in your Pulse activity feed in your dashboard. In addition, an icon indicates whether followed users are online.
For more information, see the following help topics:
Enhancements to the Send Email smart shape
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
The following enhancements have been made to the Send Email smart shape:
- You can now configure the Send Email smart shape in Pega Express.
- You can use templates, such as a rejection template, in your email.
- You can use property values, which allow you to insert the value of a field in your case type, such as First Name, within the email.
- You can insert a link to the case ID in your email.
- You can more quickly configure your recipient list by using two options, instead of one, to send messages to either a list of email addresses or to fields.
- You can choose to send either all case attachments in an email, or you can send attachments of a specified attachment category or an attachment type field. You can specify multiple attachment categories and attachment type fields.
For more information, see the following help topics:
Automatically process cases with SharePoint
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
You can now use Microsoft SharePoint Online to store and source case and Pulse attachments and to store and source attachments during automated case processing. Users only have to provide authentication and authorization details the first time they access SharePoint Online or when the trust has expired. The authentication profile must be OAuth 2.0 with a grant type of authorization code. The SharePoint Online component can be downloaded from Pega Exchange. For more information, see Downloading and configuring pluggable content management components.
Ability to set default values when importing data
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
You can now set default values for data that you import for a data type from a .csv file. By setting defaults, you can ensure that even when the .csv file data is incomplete, all of the data is imported. In addition, you can set default values for custom fields that do not have a matching source column in the .csv file. This feature is available for the Add and update and Add only import options. For mapped fields, the default value is used for new records if the source field is blank, and for existing records if both the source and target fields are blank. For custom fields, the default value is used for new records if a default value is provided, and for existing records only if the target field is blank.
For more information, see Importing data for a data type.
Ability to persist request data for synchronous REST Service failures
Valid from Pega Version 7.3
Request data can now be persisted when synchronous REST Service processing fails. To ensure that data is not lost and can be reprocessed, set the Execution Mode on the rule form to Execute synchronously (queue on error).
For more information see Service REST form - Completing the Service tab.