Published Release Notes

Define and manage features during application development

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.

Create connections to repositories

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

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:

• Following a user (Pega 7.3)
• Following a user (Pega 7.3 express)

Enhancements to the Send Email smart shape

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:

• Sending email from a case (Pega 7.3)
• Sending email from a case (Pega 7.3 express)

Multistatus case dependencies replace custom implementations

You can now quickly define a case dependency that supports variations of a resolved status, such as Resolved-Completed and Resolved-Rejected. Because the definition of a resolved case now includes all status values that start with the word “Resolved,” you can replace custom logic in your application with a Wait shape that you configure in a flow.

For more information about defining a case dependency, see:

• Pega Platform - Pausing a process in a case
• Pega Express - Pausing a process in a case

Cases no longer locked when followed

Work party properties of the type follower are no longer associated with the cases that you follow. Cases are no longer locked when you follow them, so now all users can follow a case. If you upgrade to Pega 7.3, you can run a utility to upgrade the cases that you are following so that they are no longer locked when they are followed.​

For more information, see Upgrading cases and followers.

Associate rules and project management work items with features

You can now link a project management work item with a rule when you create a rule, check in a rule, and save a rule as a new rule, which automatically links the rule with any features that are associated with the project management work item. Associating project management work items, rules, and features maintains traceability and makes it easier for you to extend the application, because you can identify the rules that are associated with each feature. On the Application Overview landing page, you can also link existing rules directly to features in the Associated rules section of a feature.

For more information, see Associating existing rules with a feature.

Send event notifications in Pega Platform

You can configure applications to notify users of case changes or other significant events that occur in an application. Use notifications to engage application users by providing key updates that might be of interest to them.

You can deliver notifications over the default web gadget and email channels or use a custom channel that you created. You can configure multiple web gadgets to display different kinds of notifications. The email channel supports notification frequency of instant, daily, or weekly.

Application users can set their own notification preferences in the run-time portals or override the set preferences for a specific case type instance.

For more information, see Sending event notifications and Management of user notification preferences.

Capture real-time feedback with Agile Workbench

Project stakeholders can use the new Agile Workbench tool to capture real-time feedback directly in an application, which can increase the efficiency of application development. You capture feedback by creating a user story, bug, or feedback item, and these work items can include video recordings of screens, annotated screen captures, file attachments, or URLs. In Designer Studio, you can configure Agile Workbench to integrate with Pega^® Agile Studio so that bugs and user stories are synchronized between the two systems.

For more information, see:

• Pega Express 7.3 – Agile Workbench
• Pega Platform 7.3 – Agile Workbench

Create application guides that direct users through tasks

Use the new Application Guide rule to create a guide that directs users through a set of tasks. A task can provide instructions to the user and include links to a landing page, wizard, URL, rule, or data record. After you add an application guide to a portal, users can open the guide from the Resources menu.

For more information, see Creating an application guide.