Improved case auditing in App Studio
Valid from Pega Version 8.5
In Cosmos UI, App Studio now supports expandable case steps. This enhancement helps users quickly navigate a case and provides deeper insight into the case flow. In addition, Cosmos UI also introduces an improved history view that helps you better meet your business auditing requirements.
For more information, see Managing Cosmos UI settings in case designer.
Upgrade impact
After an upgrade to Pega Platform 8.5 or later, the history and chevron designs change automatically. However, applications with custom history settings might still display the styling that you defined in the override.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
If your application uses custom settings and you want to use the updated history, remove the overrides from the pyWorkCommonActions rule.
Removal of Pega Mobile Client 7
Valid from Pega Version 8.5
You can now use a single Pega Mobile Client™ that improves app performance, app development, and meets all your mobile needs. With the introduction of new functionalities for mobile apps, Pega Mobile Client 7 is removed in Pega Platform™ 8.5.
Upgrade impact
After an upgrade to Pega 8.5, you can no longer build mobile apps based on Pega Mobile Client 7, and existing apps based on Pega Mobile Client 7 no longer connect to Pega Platform. App developers can now configure mobile apps with Pega Mobile Client.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
Existing clients that upgrade to Pega 8.5 are automatically switched to Pega Mobile Client.
Limits on active data flow runs
Valid from Pega Version 8.5
You can now configure a maximum number of concurrent active data flow runs for a node type. Set limits to ensure that you do not run out of system resources and that you have a reasonable processing throughput. If a limit is reached, the system queues subsequent runs and waits for active runs to stop or finish before queued runs can be initiated, starting with the oldest.
For more information see, Limit the number of active runs in data flow services (8.5).
Upgrade impact
If you have many data flow runs active at the same time, you might notice that some of the runs are queued and waiting to be executed.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
You do not have to take any action. After the active runs stop or finish, the queued runs start automatically. The default limits are intended to protect your system resources, and you should not see a negative impact on the processing of data flows. However, if you want to allow a greater number of active data flow runs to be active at the same time, you can change the limits. For more information, see Limiting active data flow runs.
Failed Robotic Assignments work queue type changed to Standard
Valid from Pega Version 8.5
The default Failed Robotic Assignments work queue type is now Standard. In previous releases, the default type was Robotic. For usage information, see Configuring a work queue for robotic automation.
Upgrade impact
After upgrading to Pega Platform 8.5 and later, you cannot save case types in which you configure the Queue for robot smart shape to route new assignments to the Failed Robotic Assignments work queue. Existing assignments that you routed to the Failed Robotic Assignments work queue are not affected.
How do I update my application to be compatible with this change?
As a best practice, do not use the Failed Robotic Assignments work queue in your custom implementations. Instead, configure the Queue for robot smart shape to route new assignments to a Robotic work queue. When possible, update existing case types to use the robotic work queues that you created in your application.
Web portal reuse removed from the mobile channel
Valid from Pega Version 8.5
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.
New JWT access token format: Authorized Access Token
Valid from Pega Version 8.5
Pega Platform™ is changing from using opaque tokens to using JSON Web (JWT) tokens and the JWT access token format: Authorized Access Token (AAT). An AAT enables a client application to validate the server for user permissions and authorizes a specific application to access specific parts of a user’s data.
The major benefits to using the JWT format are:
- The JWT is a self-contained token that has authentication information, expire time information, and other user-defined claims digitally signed.
- A single token can be used with multiple applications.
- The tokens are short-lived and can minimize damage if transport security is compromised, as the token signature is verified.
- As the token is verified with the signature, there is no need to verify against a database, thus reducing latency (usually important for Web APIs).
For more information, see Understanding authorized access tokens.
External data flow rules are deprecated
Valid from Pega Version 8.5
External data flows are now deprecated and no longer supported. To improve your user experience with Pega Platform™, the user interface elements associated with these rules are hidden from view by default. Identifying unused features allows Pega to focus on developing and supporting the features that you need.
For more information, see Deprecated: External data flows.
Tamper-proof Pega Web Mashup loading
Valid from Pega Version 8.5
To protect your application from hackers, Pega Web Mashup is now loaded in a more secure way. The system generates a channel ID in the mashup code for validation on the server, before passing the mashup request.
For more information, see Creating a mashup.
Upgrade impact
After an upgrade to Pega Platform 8.5, existing mashups, which do not have the channel ID parameter in their code, cannot load and users see the access control warning.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
If you need to maintain full availability of the mashup during the upgrade of the production environment, perform the steps in Migrating existing mashups.
Visual Business Director data is automatically cleaned after a retention period expires
Valid from Pega Version 8.5
To avoid negative impact on system resources, such as memory and disk space, Pega Platform™ automatically cleans out collections data accumulated in Visual Business Director after the time period specified in the vbd/dataRetentionTimeout dynamic system setting.
Upgrade impact
In versions of Pega Platform earlier than 8.5, collections data was not automatically removed. From version 8.5, the data is removed after 465 days (15 months) by default.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
If the default data retention period does not meet your requirements, you can change it by editing the vbd/dataRetentionTimeout setting.
For more information, see "Configuring the data retention period for Visual Business Director" in the Pega Customer Decision Hub 8.5 Upgrade Guide on the Pega Customer Decision Hub product page.
New database tables for email bots
Valid from Pega Version 8.5
Pega Email Bot™ now uses two new database tables that make the system more reliable and improve system performance. The pc_work_triage table stores complete information about email triage cases for the email bot. The pr_index_tracktriageactions table stores information about captured actions in triage cases.
Upgrade impact
During an upgrade to Pega Platform™ 8.5, a dedicated job scheduler automatically migrates resolved and open triage cases to these email bot tables in the background. If you expose additional properties as database columns or expose additional custom columns in the pc_work table, you must prepare your application for this automated migration. For more information, see Migrating triage cases to new tables.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
If the pc_work table in your application has no additional properties or custom columns, there is nothing to do; if it does, prior to an upgrade to Pega Platform 8.5, you must extend the pyPopulateColumnNamesExtension data transform to any exposed additional columns in legacy tables with this information.
For more information, see Database schema for email bot tables.