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.

Support for Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) push notifications in Android custom mobile apps

You can now create Android custom mobile apps that use push notifications with the Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) services. The push notifications for Android custom mobile apps based on legacy Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) are deprecated, as GCM services will be officially removed from use on April 11, 2019. To continue to use push notifications, you must migrate your custom mobile apps to FCM services. Before building your custom mobile app, you must register your Android app for push notifications in the Firebase console, obtain the FCM server key and Google Services JSON file, and use the key and file in the Android certificate set to build the custom mobile app.

For more information, see Migrating Android custom mobile apps that use push notifications to Firebase Cloud Messaging, Push notifications in Android mobile app, and Android certificate set.

PEGA0107 alert enables performance monitoring of offline-enabled apps

You can now monitor the performance of offline-enabled apps by analyzing PEGA0107 alerts from Pega Predictive Diagnostic Cloud™. PEGA0107 alerts are equivalent to PEGA0069 alerts in the context of offline-enabled applications, but PEGA0069 alerts are not generated for offline-enabled applications.

For more information, see PEGA0107 alert: Client page load time for offline-enabled applications and Pega Predictive Diagnostic Cloud Improvement Plan overview.

Mashup code preview in App Studio

When you create a mashup channel for your application, you can now eliminate issues with the code and create better looking applications, by using the portal preview in App Studio. You can preview a channel to verify that different types of devices correctly display the mashup code. The preview functionality uses a default wrapper that functions as a portal for displaying a frame with the mashup code. You can modify the appearance of the default wrapper, and adapt the mashup user interface in design mode to meet your requirements.

For more information, see Configuring the Mashup channel and Previewing an application.

Default support for the OAuth 2.0 framework in custom mobile apps

You can now build custom mobile apps by using Pega Infinity Mobile Client or Pega Mobile Client 7 with the OAuth 2.0 authorization code grant flow that is enabled by default. This industry-standard authorization framework increases the security of custom mobile apps. Set up your application to either redirect to a login screen of a specific identity provider, or display a selection of available identity providers upon login. Settings for authentication services are now applied automatically when you build your app. You can ensure that a custom mobile app is secure by using a protection schema, such as a biometric sensor or a custom pin.

For more information, see Build secure custom mobile apps with the OAuth 2.0 framework.

Mobile channel enhancements

The Mobile channel now supports several enhancements to Pega Infinity Mobile Client™ and provides custom mobile app options that are arranged in a more intuitive, consistent, and convenient layout. By default, custom mobile apps that you configure within the Mobile channel are generated with Pega Infinity Mobile Client. You can choose between a single webview web portal or a multi webview application layout, and configure such options as: bottom bar navigation rule, the bottom bar style, and the full screen search widget. You can also build a custom mobile app with Pega Mobile Client 7, or select a specific version of the client application.

For more information, see Configuring a custom mobile app.

Enhanced Pega Infinity Mobile Client

With the new Pega Infinity Mobile Client™ you now can build online apps that launch quickly, provide instantaneous navigation, and immediately react to user input. Pega Infinity Mobile Client uses native components for faster navigation between the screens of your custom mobile app; every tab opens in a separate webview, which accelerates switching between the tabs. Pega Infinity Mobile Client protects your sensitive information through safe and convenient single sign-on authentication and additional locking mechanisms.

For more information, see Pega Mobility and mobile clients.