Published Release Notes

Case archiving enhancements in Pega Cloud Services

To provide a more complete archiving solution to Pega Cloud clients, we have introduced several enhancements to the archival functionality for your Pega Platform database. This includes support for your data retention policy to expunge (permanently delete) archived data from Pega Cloud File Storage.

Permanently delete case data with data retention policy

In previous versions, Pega Cloud clients could archive resolved cases and associated data from the Pega database to Pega Cloud File Storage after the cases have been resolved for a specified number of days with an archival policy. Now, clients can permanently delete archived data from Pega Cloud File Storage after the cases have been resolved for a specified number of days with a data retention policy. 

Faster adoption with testing mode

Clients can now enable a testing mode and specify archival policies in minutes instead of days. Now you create and resolve cases, then run archiving process immediately to test the functionality within minutes.

Easier adoptions with enhanced monitoring capabilities

With the addition of the Log-ArchivalSummary class and its associated log files, clients can monitor their archival jobs in a single view. We have also improved logging for archival jobs, offering you greater insight into the success of your archival process.

To learn more about archiving and purging your case data in your Pega Cloud environment, see Improving performance by archiving cases.

External data flow rules are removed

In previous versions of Pega Platform™, you could configure data flows to run in an external Hadoop environment. The external data flows functionality was deprecated and hidden from view in Pega Platform 8.5. The functionality has been now removed and is no longer available in Pega Platform 8.6.

For more information, see External data flow rules are deprecated.

Improved indexing of StringList and StringGroup property types

Search and Reporting Service in Pega Platform™ 8.5 may improperly index StringList and StringGroup property types. As a result, the data model does not include the affected properties.

Upgrade impact

After upgrading to Pega Platform version 8.6, the system requires that the classes with the StringList or StringGroup type are reindexed. 

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

On the Search Landing Page, manually reindex all the classes that include properties with the StringList or StringGroup types to ensure that all your data is present in the data model. Alternatively, if finding specific instances of classes is difficult, you can reindex all classes in your application.

For more information, see Indexing class data.

LDAP Authentication Service URL resolution

The latest Pega Cloud infrastructure update includes Java JDK (JDK 89u181), which contains improvements to LDAP support. This Java JDK enhancement can prevent insecure logins by verifying that the hostname specified in the LDAP URL matches the hostname that you specified in the Trust store certificate in the JNDI Binding Parameters section of the Authentication Service rule. An LDAP Authentication Service can no longer resolve using IP addresses.

This is a one-time fix and does not affect Pega Cloud clients with security-compliant LDAP settings and certificates.

Required client workaround

For clients that previously configured LDAP in their applications running in a Pega Cloud environment using IP addresses, after Pega Cloud Services notifies you that the update is complete, you must edit your LDAP Authentication Service rule form Directory field to use the URL value of the domain name or a machine within the domain that matches the URL used by the SSL certificate in the Trust store. 

For example, if your SSL certificate uses the test.abc.com machine name, enter ldaps://test.abc.com:[portNumber] inthe Authentication Service Directory field.

For more information about creating or editing an LDAP Authentication Service, see Creating a custom authentication service.

Naming pattern changed for file data sets

File data sets are used to import from and export data to a file repository. In case of data export, prior to version 8.6.3, the first file exported had the same file name that was provided by the user in the data set, and any subsequent file exported to the repository had a unique identifier appended to it. Starting in Pega Platform version 8.6.3, each file has a unique identifier, automatically generated based on the data flow node, thread ID, and timestamp.

Upgrade impact

If your process to consume output files expects files with a specific name, it may not be able to process the resulting files correctly.

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

If you have configured the process before updating to Pega Platform version 8.6.3, but the exported files are no longer recognized by downstream processing logic after the upgrade, ensure that the downstream tool is configured to recognize the files by a pattern rather than the full name. For example, when referring to files exported to the repository, use the * character to indicate a pattern instead of using the full file name. For example, use Export*.csv to refer to the files.

Facebook and YouTube data sets are deprecated

Pega Platform™ no longer supports the data set types in the Social category:

• Facebook data sets
• YouTube data sets

These features are deprecated and will be removed in future Pega Platform versions. Do not create any data sets using the Facebook or YouTube types.

Decision Management

This release contains a number of fixes that improve the configuration and execution of Batch decisions – specifically, a number of usability improvements and addresses some issues when creating strategies on IE8.  

• Batch Decision functionality has been enhanced in the NBAM environment.
• In NBAM, users can run the strategy execution batch based on the Seed list class instead of the customer class. 
• Interaction data will now work even if Action or Organization  dimensions do not have values set.
• Running a strategy which includes a Data Import of a structured page reference will work in batch mode.
• Security was enhanced on the VBD Planner.
• The Access of Role to Object rules have been enhanced to allow users to create new Dimension Operator records.
• The NBAM Segment On Canvas will now fetch the SegMap data, even when the generated extended segment class has not been added to the Pages and Classes of the strategy.  The SegMap property will (if it exists) be added to a list of properties to fetch, even if the strategy indicates that it is not used.
• When a strategy is defined on a customer class, users may now specify the list of required properties to fetch for the input definition.
• When creating a new strategy, there is now a section to add a Strategy Results class like Business Issue or Group.

Decision Strategy Manager

Fixes were made that improve the configuration and execution of Batch Decisions. In particular,  the capability to use Structured Data has been enhanced. Some notable improvements have also been made to the UI of Visual Business Director.

• The structured data input configuration will now work even though there is no data.
• VBD has been enhanced to work with Version 7.1.
• The structured data input configuration will now work with nested structures.
• Association rules from Version 6.3 will now work with 7.1 structured data.

Flexible inputs in strategies

Decision parameters allow business users to influence the decision through flexible inputs that do not require changing strategies. System architects use extension points to configure the data model and user interface supporting decision parameters. Decision parameters are used in strategies, and changes to the values of decision parameters become immediately available without requiring any changes to the strategy.

The rule pxRunDecisionParameters supports the use of decision parameters through activities.

Enable business users to own parts of an enterprise application

Decision Manager functionality allows business users to own parts of an enterprise application within the boundaries defined by IT. PegaDM includes the Pega-DecisionManager ruleset that supports this functionality.

System architects define the boundaries for business users in the Decision Manager portal using revision management and proposition authorization facilities in Designer Studio. Access control is provided through custom roles, which system architects can create based on granular privileges. The Decision Manager portal provides business users with a controlled environment for the workflow, and the activities necessary to address the objectives of a revision.