Published Release Notes

Low-code authoring of case pages

Mobile authoring for Cosmos React applications now supports the configuration of native mobile pages that include case details. Your mobile channel automatically generates these pages for each case type in your application. This enhancement improves the user experience in your app by providing users with native pages that you can adjust to best suit your business process. For example, you can highlight specific views on a page by modifying which tabs appear on the page, or add a floating action button to help your users edit the case.

For more information, see Authoring mobile case pages for Cosmos React applications.

In Pega Platform™ version 8.6, mobile features in Cosmos React applications are available only as a preview, with limited support for various interface elements and features, such as offline mode. The recommended production design system for Pega Mobile in Pega Platform 8.6 is Theme Cosmos.

For more information about the Cosmos React design system, see Cosmos React and UI architecture comparison.

Automatic packaging of cases for offline use

Newly created mobile channels now support automatic packaging of cases for use in offline mode. The packaging process includes case data from all native list pages that you create from offline-enabled case types and add to the navigation of your mobile app. Previously, automatic packaging was limited to assignments in the work list (and their related work items), and cases that were listed in the data page that you manually designated for packaging.

This enhancement improves the user experience for mobile app developers by ensuring that the data that is referenced in list pages for offline-enabled case types is automatically available for the users of your offline app.

Improved user experience for Cosmos React mobile apps

Mobile apps that you build for Cosmos React applications now feature a highly performant and responsive user interface that improves the overall user experience.

Native case pages

Prescriptive mobile case pages are now faster and more reliable. Mobile case pages display views and widgets as cards and group the cards into user-friendly tabs. Users can navigate the tabs by swiping left or right. From the case page, users can also edit case page details by selecting the floating action button, or choose an optional action from the case header drop-down menu. 

To improve collaboration, prescriptive mobile case pages support the Pulse widget, as well as uploading, viewing, and downloading case attachments.

Improved case processing 

The case processing interface on mobile devices is now more reliable and ensures a smooth experience for case workers. After users complete an assignment, Cosmos React apps display the task that is next in the flow that you define for the case type. Optional actions open in an overlay drawer component that users can minimize when they need to multitask while processing cases.

Form validation in real time 

Validation of user input for mobile forms is now highly responsive thanks to real-time validation. To ensure that users enter data correctly, forms support validation expressions that you define in App Studio. Expressions are processed on the client side to further improve app performance.

Native Android and iOS controls

Cosmos React apps use a selection of native Android and iOS controls that make mobile apps faster and more intuitive to use. The native controls include map and location controls, date and time pickers, and controls for adding attachments.

In Pega Platform™ version 8.6, mobile features in Cosmos React applications are available only as a preview, with limited support for various interface elements and features, such as offline mode. The recommended production design system for Pega Mobile in Pega Platform 8.6 is Theme Cosmos.

Support for building apps as Android App Bundles

As of August 2021, Google Play Store requires that you submit new apps in the Android App Bundle publishing format instead of the APK format. You can now build Pega mobile apps in the Android App Bundle format so that they comply with this new requirement.

For more information about generating installation packages for Pega mobile apps, see Generating installation packages. For more information about the Android App Bundle publishing format, see the Android for Developers documentation.

End of active support for Cosmos React version 8.6

As of the release of Pega Platform™ version 8.8 in October 2022, the early adopter Cosmos React (now Constellation) UI is no longer supported. Consequently, Pega support teams no longer accept assignments and incident reports for the 8.6 version of Cosmos React and DX SDK. Upgrade to a later version of Cosmos React or Constellation to maintain support.

More efficient load management strategies for large data pages

The processing of large data pages on the Pega 7 Platform server during the packaging of offline apps is now faster and much more memory-efficient, especially in environments with many concurrent users. Server communication with the data source is now also optimized by reducing the number of data transfers to only what is needed. In addition, all types of refresh strategies are supported for large data pages.

For more information, see Tutorial: How to use large data pages to store large reference data in offline mobile apps.

New Mobile Apps form for defining and building mobile apps

You now create and build mobile apps from the Mobile Apps form instead of from the Mobile tab of the Application rule form. The new console is a control center for mobile apps where you can gather applications, services, components, and settings in one place to fully customize your apps in the Pega 7 Platform. You can create and build one instance of a custom mobile app and define multiple native mobile apps that can use the Pega Mobile SDK. To push notifications to an Android or to an iOS device, you must define an SDK mobile app in the Pega 7 Platform with a certificate set that has push notifications enabled.

For more information, see Configuring a custom mobile app and Configuring push notifications for an SDK app.

Caching of common rules in offline mobile apps

To help start offline-enabled mobile apps more quickly from the time when the server was started, you can now cache common Pega 7 Platform rules, including node scope data pages. Optionally, you can also either cache all node scope data pages, with the exception of the selected ones, or cache only the node scope data pages that are explicitly specified. You set up the offline caching options for your custom mobile app in the Advanced tab of the Access Group rule form.

For more information, see the Offline Configuration section in Access Group form - Completing the Advanced tab.

Testing push notifications service connection and configuration

From the Push Notifications console, you can now quickly test the configuration of and connection to the push notifications services for both the Android and iOS platforms. Testing push notifications helps to eliminate issues that might occur when you are using a firewall or a secure connection (SSL) between the Pega 7 Platform and your mobile app. If any configuration, connection, or service test errors are generated, you can download and examine the contents of a log file to determine the cause of the error.

For more information, see Testing push notifications.

Data transform support in offline-enabled applications

You can now use data transforms in offline-enabled applications to reduce the need to write your own custom JavaScript functions. Data transforms are automatically packaged for offline use when they are configured on flow connectors, as preprocessing or postprocessing data transforms on a flow action, or on refresh actions or data transform actions on controls in a section. You also can run a data transform in offline mode by using a Run Script action or a custom JavaScript function, provided you add the data transform definition to the rule of offline-supported data transforms.

For more information, see Data transform support in offline mode.