Published Release Notes

Enhancements for fields in views and data models

Pega Platform™ now provides a unified experience of adding fields to views, the case type data model, and the application data model, by using an intuitive dialog box. For greater clarity, a new field type, data relationship, replaces data references, field groups, and field group lists. As a result, you can conveniently reuse data objects in your application. 

When you upgrade to Pega 8.5, your system automatically converts your field groups, field group lists, and data references to data relationships. The case type data model now displays all the fields by default, including any referenced fields, and provides an application layer that contains each field. Use this functionality to view how the data is organized across your system.

For more information, see Define fields in data objects intuitively (8.5), Adding data relationships to fields and data models.

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.

New branch quality dashboard

Pega Platform™ 8.4 introduces a new branch quality dashboard that shows the following metrics:

• The branch’s guardrail compliance score and the number of guardrail violations
• The percentage and number of unit tests that passed for the branch
• The percentage and number of rules that the tests cover
• Potential merge conflicts that can be addressed directly from the branch quality dashboard

For more information about the new branch quality dashboard, see Viewing branch quality and branch contents.

Identify Pega unit test cases associated with inactive or deleted rules

From the Application: Unit testing landing page, you can view a list of all Pega unit test cases that are associated with inactive or deleted rules in the currently included applications. You cannot use these test cases because they will always fail.

Either remove such test cases, or reactivate the rules that they are associated with.

For more information, see Application: Unit testing landing page.

More quality metrics on the Application Quality dashboard

On the Application Quality dashboard, for each case type you can now view quality metrics such as guardrail score, test coverage percentage, unit test pass rate, list of guardrail of warnings, uncovered rules, and failed Pega unit tests. These metrics are also available for rules that are used in the application but that are not a part of any case type. To access these metrics, on the Application Quality dashboard list of case types, click Find issues.

For more information, see Application Quality landing page.

Nested conditions visible in the condition builder

Condition builder now supports the option to view nested conditions in a read-only mode, so that you can conveniently analyze and understand logic in your application. For example, if you create a condition that uses another When condition rule as a value to compare at run time, you can preview the configuration of that When condition. You can use this feature with When conditions nested at multiple levels, so that you can analyze even complex logic in your application.

For more information, see Defining conditions in the condition builder.

Scenario tests now honor application stack settings

The application stack defined on the Application Quality Settings page of Dev Studio now serves as a foundation for creating, viewing, and running scenario tests. 

Dev Studio will now:

• Display scenario tests based on the application stack settings on the Dev Studio landing page.
• Store scenario tests with the configured stack settings.
• Report metrics in the application quality dashboard with respect to the configured stack settings.  

For more information, see Creating UI-based tests with scenario testing. 

Searching for Pulse messages available in spaces

Pega Platform™ now supports searching for Pulse messages within a space. For greater accuracy of the results, you can search by applying different filters, such as keywords, message authors, and a time range for posting of the messages. The results return private and public posts, comments, and attachments that match the search filters. When the result is a comment, Pulse displays the whole message thread for full context.

For more information, see Search for Pulse messages in spaces (8.5), Searching for Pulse messages in spaces.

Enhanced Case Designer in App Studio

For greater clarity when visualizing your business processes, App Studio now has an improved Case Designer. In Pega Platform™ 8.5, every persona displays a list of associated channels, and every data object lists associated systems, instead of showing multiple entities for different channels or systems. Additionally, for better distinction every channel and system displays a unique icon. To fully convey your business process using just one screen, Case Designer now also supports visualizing attachments required for your microjourney, as well as creating draft associations between personas and channels.

For more information, see Plan your Microjourneys more conveniently in an improved Case Designer (8.5), Creating a Microjourney for customer success.

More detailed configuration of persona access in App Studio

App Studio now supports more precise configuration of access for personas so that you can improve the security and usability of your application. You can now define what actions a given persona can perform on a case, a data object, or a configuration set. You also save time because you define settings for an entire group of users that a persona represents. For example, you can configure a customer service representative (CSR) persona to view only cases that process insurance claims from VIP customers, without the option to modify the cases. As a result, you ensure that users of your application can interact only with relevant data, in a way that best meets your business needs.

For more information, see:

• Manage access for personas more efficiently in App Studio (8.6)
• Configuring access options for a persona