Published Release Notes

Unit testing support for more rule types

You can now create unit tests for the following additional rule types. You can also create assertions to validate activity status. The expanded rule types for unit testing enable developers to more thoroughly perform regression testing of their application, thereby improving application quality.

• Collection
• Declare expression
• Map value
• Report definition

For more information about unit testing rules, see Pega unit test cases.

Upgrade impact

With the four new rule types, unit test execution and unit test compliance metrics will change. Reports on automated unit testing of the customer application decrease due to the increased pool of supported rules.

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

After a successful upgrade, create Pega unit test cases for the newly supported rules to see updated and accurate unit test metrics.

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.

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.

View application quality metrics by data type

You can now view application quality metrics by data type on the Application Quality landing page. The new Data Types tab displays metrics for data types grouped by data objects, which enables you to more quickly understand the overall coverage of the application's integrations and interfaces.

For more information about data type metrics, see Application Quality landing page.

Scenario tests are reusable

Existing scenario tests are now reusable in different business scenarios. Before Pega 8.3, you had to create a new test every time a user interface or process flow changed significantly. Now, scenario tests are editable to help you maintain the test stack more effectively.

For more information, see Updating scenario tests.

Improvements for automated scenario testing

Test automation authors can group related scenario tests into suites. The scenario test suites can be run manually from the Scenario Testing landing page as part of purpose-specific tests such as smoke tests, regression tests, and outcome-based tests. Additionally, automation authors or release managers who monitor tests for an application can disable or quarantine unstable scenario tests so that they do not run.

For more information about creating and managing test suites for scenario testing, see Creating test suites for scenario testing.

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

Test coverage support for more rule types

Test coverage has been expanded to include the following rule types. Test coverage support for these rule types enables developers to more accurately measure the effectiveness of their tests.

• Collection
• Declare trigger
• Map value
• Navigation 
• Report definition
• Scorecard

For more information about test coverage, see Test coverage.

Upgrade impact

The new rule types may impact the test coverage metrics for your applications. Due to the increased number of supported rules, the reported test coverage percentage will decrease.

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

Run your coverage reports after upgrading to see the latest metrics.