Published Release Notes

New field types in Form Builder

You can create forms in Form Builder that include the following field types:

• Data reference – Prompts users with a list of data records or instances of a specific data type.
• User reference – Prompts users to select or search for an existing user in the application.

For more information, see Data references in Form Builder and User references in Form Builder.

Reusable components in Form Builder

You can reuse an existing form or data reference when creating a form. By referencing the existing fields in your application, you save time and build forms that are easier to maintain. Refer to the Reuse fields panel in Form Builder to view all of the fields, forms, and data references in your application.

For more information, see Reuse fields panel in Form Builder.

Search field type is deprecated

The search field type in Form Builder is deprecated. Use a data reference or user reference instead, both of which prompt users with an autocomplete field at run time.

For the full list of supported field types in Form Builder, see Supported display modes by field type.

Support for enterprise and express applications

When you run the New Application wizard, you can create two types of applications:

• Enterprise – A full-scale application that has access to all the capabilities in the Pega 7 Platform.
  
  By default, enterprise applications are developed in Designer Studio, but users have access to express mode.
• Express – A small-scale application that has access to a subset of the capabilities in the Pega 7 Platform.
  
  Express applications are developed in express mode, and are ideal for new users or for quickly testing functionality.

For more information, see Express applications.

Improved processing of correspondence details

When you send correspondence, the system now does not update the pxSendDateTime property on the pxCorrSummary work page that belongs to pyWorkPage. In previous versions of Pega Platform™, after sending correspondence, the update of the pxSendDateTime property could cause errors when working with an application at run time. To prevent such issues, Pega Platform now includes a pyEnableCorrSummary when rule that, by default, is set to false. If your business scenario requires updating the pxCorrSummary work page, set the when rule value to true.

For more information, see:

• Notifying participants about events
• Approval by email
• Sending automatic emails from cases

Support for picklists with parameterized data pages in App Studio in Cosmos React UI

You can now use data pages with parameters to populate a property of the picklist type with filtered results in App Studio. For example, in a survey case type, you can use a parameterized data page to configure cascading drop-down controls in which the values in a secondary drop-down list are based on the value that the user selects in the primary drop-down list. With dynamically-sourced picklists, you get greater flexibility in configuring picklists, and users see more accurate values.

For more information, see link Dropdown control Properties — General tab.

Questionnaires available in App Studio

App Studio now supports authoring questionnaires, which in previous releases of Pega Platform™ were known as surveys. You can create questionnaires, add question pages, and populate the pages with questions of different types so that you can collect the exact data that your business processes require. For more efficient data management and reuse, data objects from a data model now store answers to questions, instead of autogenerated properties. For example, when a customer provides a date of birth in a questionnaire, and your application stores the date as a data object, you can conveniently reuse that data object in related cases. For greater flexibility, both standard Pega Platform and Cosmos React applications support questionnaires, however, some question types are unavailable in Cosmos React.

For more information, see:

• Create questionnaires in a low-code way in App Studio (8.6)
• Creating a questionnaire

Remote case types in App Studio

App Studio now supports remote case types for applications that you build on Cosmos React. With remote case types, you can create a case type inside one application, and then work on cases based on this case type in another, remote application. As a result, users can perform work from multiple applications on one screen without the need to switch between applications, which results in increased efficiency and faster case resolution.

For more information, see:

• Increase efficiency by sharing remote case types between applications (8.6)
• Remote case types  

Support for calling a data transform from a case life cycle in App Studio and initializing data at case creation

You can now call a data transform from a case life cycle in a low-code way in App Studio. For example, when a customer wants to order the same product again, your application can reuse the shipping information from their previous order. Additionally, by configuring data initialization for a case type, you can prepopulate fields at case creation. For example, an application for a delivery service can apply the customer's preferred delivery options when a new case starts. These enhancements save time for developers because the system can initialize data and prepopulate fields in a case by reusing existing logic, and for customers, who do not need to manually enter their details every time.

For more information, see Calling a data transform from a case and Initializing data at case creation.

Data propagation for questionnaires in case types

Pega Platform™ now provides a tool to prepopulate answers in a questionnaire that runs in a case by propagating data from a parent case. At run time, specified questions in a questionnaire that users complete as part of case processing, can display answers by using information that users already provided in the parent case. As a result, you speed up the development of your application and help users process cases and complete questionnaires faster.

For more information, see:

• Deliver user-friendly questionnaires by prepopulating answers (8.6)
• Running a questionnaire in a case