Published Release Notes

Support for large reference data in offline mobile apps

A data page in a Pega 7 Platform mobile application with offline capability enabled can now be marked as a large data page. This feature improves performance significantly when you have a large amount of data in which only individual records change.

In this situation, after the initial sync to the mobile app, only the changes in the large data page are synced instead of the entire large data page. The database table is created for such large data pages in the encrypted SQLite database on the device. Changes such as add, delete, or update are reconciled as row-level updates. Furthermore, you can use JavaScript to query against this data. A large referenced data page is supported by list-based components such as repeating dynamic layout, auto-complete, a dropdown list, and radio button.

Support for offline and online cases in a single mobile app

A single offline-enabled application can now support both the creation and processing of online-only and offline-ready cases.

For online-only cases, a list of both the offline and online cases is always available. Case assignment and processing is performed on the server so that a case is available only when the device is connected to the Internet or to data. When a connection is not available for processing an online-only case, an error message is displayed.

For offline-ready cases, a user can open an assignment and perform tasks on that case. There is also an option to explicitly display a harness from a server instead of a client store.

Offline mobility improvements

Several offline mobility improvements have been made in this release. Additional use cases have been added for configuring offline-enabled mobile apps at design time. Read-only grids with limited features are now supported offline. You can configure auto-populated properties, and you can create work with parameters. It is also possible to open work by handle. You can use decision shapes with Boolean expressions (no when rules) in screen flows. Barcode scanning is now available in offline mode.

Mobile user interface updates

Several improvements have been made to the mobile-related user interface of the Pega 7 Platform. The content of the Mobile tab on the Application rule form has been redesigned. The Offline Configuration and Mobile Certificates landing pages are now available. The Signature Capture control has improved. Post-processing can now occur after the signature has been captured. You can auto-submit with the form submit. You can apply the signature to a page instead of applying it as an attachment to the case. The clear action completely removes the signature from the work object, keeping only the latest iteration of the signature. Touch interactions have been significantly improved. Response time is faster and there is better feedback on the touch action.

Attach Content control enhancements

You can now use the Attach Content control in Pega^® Platform to configure compression options that limit the size of files created on a mobile device. For example, you can choose from predefined settings to limit video duration or image size. These settings apply when the user records a new video or takes a new photo, but they do not apply to prerecorded media.

Also, when attaching content to a custom mobile app, users can now select any type of file from any source that is available in the device's native file picker component.

For more information, see Configuring file size options for the Attach content control.

Change passwords from Pega Mobile Client

You can now change your Pega^® Platform password from a mobile device. After your password expires and you try to log in to a custom mobile app, Pega Mobile Client lets you define a new password and verifies it against active password policies.

For more information, see Enabling security policies.

Advance cases from a push notification screen

You can now approve and reject Pega^® Platform cases from your mobile device without opening a custom mobile app. Push notifications that you receive on a mobile device now display buttons that allow you to advance a case.

For more information, see Notifications.

Post Pulse messages to cases from a push notification screen

If your mobile device uses Android 7.0 or later, or iOS 9.0 or later, you can now respond to Pulse messages in Pega^® Platform cases without opening a custom mobile app. Push notifications received on a mobile device now display a Reply button so that you can respond immediately to the notification.

For more information, see Notifications.

Support for optimization of offline packaging during synchronization

You can now optimize offline packaging during full and delta synchronization of an offline-enabled application. Enabling this option for an offline-enabled application means that a case is packaged during delta synchronization only when a new work item for the case is added to the user's worklist and the case was not previously packaged during full or delta synchronization. The case is packaged during full synchronization only when the work item for the case exists in the user's worklist. This feature is useful in field service applications where field service agents usually work on existing assignments and do not need to create new cases.

For more information, see Offline packaging optimization during synchronization.

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.