Published Release Notes

Custom mobile app assets file validation at upload

When you build a custom mobile app, and upload branding assets or custom modules within a compressed file, Pega^® Platform validates the file that you upload and displays confirmation and warning messages. For more information, see Uploading branding assets and custom modules.

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.

Ability to delete the Mobile channel interface

When you build a Pega^® Platform application, you can create a mobile app for your users. When you no longer need the mobile app, you can now delete an existing Mobile channel interface, just like any other channel that is available from the Channels and interfaces landing page.

For more information, see Channels and interfaces.

Native synchronization indicators for offline-enabled mobile apps

Offline-enabled mobile apps now include a set of native synchronization indicators. Indicators keep users informed about the data synchronization status, for example, the Syncing indicator appears when an app regains network connectivity and starts receiving responses from the server. You can customize the indicators to better suit the look and feel of your mobile app. For more information, see Customizing synchronization indicators.

Upgrade impact

After upgrading Pega Platform™ to version 8.5, your app does not include native synchronization indicators until you update your application to use UI-Kit 15.

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

Update the UI Kit in your application to version 15. For more information, see Updating the UI Kit in your application.

Web portal reuse removed from the mobile channel

The reuse of web portals for creating mobile apps with a single web view is no longer supported. You can conveniently update your existing channels that reuse web portals to take advantage of the multiple-views experience and native mobile capabilities, such as native mobile list views or floating action buttons.

Upgrade impact

The Reuse web portal option is removed from Pega Platform 8.5 and later.

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

App developers need to use the migration tool available on the mobile channel to move their apps to the recommended new navigation designer. When users open existing mobile channel with the Reuse web portal option configured, they are prompted to run through the wizard to upgrade the mobile channel to the latest Pega Mobile Client based configuration. When this is done, app developers should rebuild the app.

Configuring geolocation tracking at the case level

You can now enable geolocation tracking at a case level to track users of an offline-enabled custom mobile app. By tracking users who are working on a case, you can monitor or supervise them while they are using the custom mobile app and when the app is running in the background. You can also track users when the device is not connected to the server. Recorded locations are synchronized with the server and stored in a database that is available through a data page. When Pega Platform™ receives location data, the new Map control can display multiple user tracks and markers that represent other data, for example, job locations that are assigned to users.

For more information, see Tracking mobile end users with the Map control and Adding the map control.

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.

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.

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.

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.