Published Release Notes

Data and integration troubleshooting enhancements

Identify how data is loaded in user interface (UI) elements, discover the data sources used, and navigate to the relevant rules by using the new Live Data tool. Use the Live Data tool to quickly troubleshoot data and integrations by providing data page information or autopopulate properties from the UI without searching through the clipboard.

For more information, see Troubleshooting data in UI elements.

Retrieve a flat list of fields from Pega Digital Experience APIs

You can now use the flatListOfFields parameter to retrieve a list of the fields in a case or flow action. With this parameter, you avoid parsing all the layout information for the Pega Digital Experience API, making it easier for you to see only what you need to build your user interface.

The following Pega Digital Experience APIs support the flatListOfFields parameter:

• GET /casetypes/{ID}
• GET /assignments/{ID}/actions/{actionID}
• GET /cases/{ID}/actions/{actionID}

For more information, see Retrieve a flat list of fields from Pega APIs.

Attachment migration from Pega database storage to a repository

You can now migrate case attachments from Pega database storage to a repository by using a wizard from Pega Platform™. This ability is useful, for example, when you migrate from an on-premises deployment to a Pega Cloud Services environment and you want to reduce the size of your Pega database and manage all your case attachments in a single location.

For more information, see Migrating case attachments to a repository.

Automatic retries for the SAVE operation on records

Batch and real-time data flow runs now automatically retry the SAVE operation on records when an error occurs because of resource unavailability. This functionality ensures that the records are eventually saved if the target data set is only temporarily unavailable, for example, because of load or network issues.

You can configure the default number of retries for the entire system in a dynamic system setting. To adjust the setting to different resource allocations and operating environments, you can update that number for each data flow run.

For more information, see Changing the number of retries for SAVE operations, Creating a batch run for data flows, and Creating a real-time run for data flows.

Specify a queue of user operations in Pega Digital Experience APIs

You can now specify a queue of page instructions for user operations on embedded pages, page lists, and page groups in Pega Digital Experience APIs. The page instructions allow your client application to more accurately model users’ actions.

Pega Digital Experience APIs support the following operations:

• For embedded pages: DELETE, REPLACE, and UPDATE.
• For page lists: DELETE, REPLACE, UPDATE, APPEND, INSERT, and MOVE.
• For page groups: DELETE, REPLACE, UPDATE, and ADD.

For more information, see Page-related operation queuing with page instructions in Pega APIs.

Cassandra 3.11.3 support for Pega Platform

Increase your system's reliability and reduce its memory footprint by upgrading the internal Cassandra database to version 3.11.3.

For on-premises Pega Platform™ users, after you upgrade to Pega 8.3, it is recommended that you manually upgrade to Cassandra 3.11.3. You can upgrade to Cassandra 3.11.3 on all operating systems except IBM AIX. If you do not want to upgrade to Cassandra 3.11.3, you can continue to use Cassandra 2.1.20, which is still supported.

For Pega Cloud Services 2.13 and later versions, Cassandra automatically upgrades to version 3.11.3 after your environment is upgraded to Pega Platform 8.3.

For information on how to manually upgrade to Cassandra 3.11.3, see the Pega Platform 8.3 Upgrade Guide for your server and database at Deploy Pega Platform.

Upgrade impact

After an on-premises Pega Platform upgrade, you still have the older version of Cassandra and must manually upgrade.

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

To upgrade Cassandra, you must create a prconfig setting or a dynamic system setting with the new Cassandra version and then do a rolling restart of all the Decision Data Store nodes to upgrade them to the latest version of Cassandra.

REST API for monitoring DSM services

Decision Strategy Manager (DSM) now provides a REST API that you can use to monitor DSM services without having to access Pega Platform™. By integrating your daily monitoring tools with the management REST API, you can retrieve a list of DSM nodes, check the status of these nodes, and view details of a service from all nodes in the cluster.

For more information, see Getting started with Pega API for Pega Platform.

Create custom criteria for proposition filters by using the condition builder

Proposition filters now use the condition builder to define the criteria that a proposition or group of propositions must match in order to be offered to a customer. The condition builder provides a simple, flexible tool for selecting and grouping the entry criteria.

For more information, see Create custom criteria for Proposition Filter rules with the condition builder (8.3).

Create and view application settings in App Studio

View your application settings on the new Application settings landing page in App Studio. The landing page displays the categories that you specified for your application settings. If you did not specify a category for an application setting, the application setting appears in the Uncategorized category. Additionally, when you create a new data type, the Data type wizard automatically creates an application setting for the base URLs and the authentication profile. On the Environment settings page, you can edit the application setting to specify a new name or category or accept the default values.

For more information, see Viewing application settings in App Studio and Preparing your data for production.

Upgrade impact

After a successful upgrade, you see the new Application Settings option under Settings in App Studio. 

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

1. If the label (Application Settings) conflicts with your existing extension, change the label by overriding the following field value:
   PEGA-EXT- EXPEXPLORER-SETTINGS-APPSETTINGS PYCAPTIONIEXTENSION!LABEL
2. If you need to disable the landing page and prevent it from appearing in App studio, change the following toggle to No:
   PegaRULES: DisableSettingsLandingPage

Fast-track change requests for high-priority business needs

Perform urgent rule updates through fast-track change requests. The new type of change requests supports addressing high-priority business needs and deploying them immediately, without the need to disrupt an ongoing revision.

For more information, see Release urgent business rule updates through fast track change requests (8.3) and Creating application overlays.