Published Release Notes

Test coverage support for more rule types

Test coverage has been expanded to include the following rule types. Test coverage support for these rule types enables developers to more accurately measure the effectiveness of their tests.

• Collection
• Declare trigger
• Map value
• Navigation 
• Report definition
• Scorecard

For more information about test coverage, see Test coverage.

Upgrade impact

The new rule types may impact the test coverage metrics for your applications. Due to the increased number of supported rules, the reported test coverage percentage will decrease.

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

Run your coverage reports after upgrading to see the latest metrics.

Improved performance for work ID generation

Work IDs are now generated in batches and managed with dynamic system settings. Batch-based ID generation improves performance and scalability, which reduces the time that it takes to migrate data to a Pega Platform™ application.

For more information, see Default dynamic system settings data instances.

Upgrade impact

In a multi-node environment, the new ID generation method can assign IDs that are not as sequential as in the previous method.

For example, in a 2-node cluster, the IDs could come in from each node in batches of 1000, resulting in successive Work objects having IDs that differ by 1000 (such as 1, 1001, 2,1002, 3, 1003). As more Work objects are created the gaps can get filled. However, there might still be gaps left in the generated IDs.  For example, if a node crashes or shuts down, some IDs would be missing, or if a node has given out 600 IDs from a batch of 1000 IDs, then 400 IDs would remain unused. In most situations, this should not be an issue. 

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

If you must have nearly sequential IDs or cannot accept gaps in IDs (and do not need the performance improvement), then you can change the dynamic system setting to disable the new ID generation method. 

The dynamic system setting for this feature is idGenerator/defaultBatchSize. The feature is enabled by default with a defaultBatchSize of 1000. To disable the feature, set the value to 1.

Improved control of case locking and retry mechanisms

The Delay factor, Initial delay in minutes, and Max retry attempts fields have been added to queue processors, and the Timeout to acquire lock field has been added to the Queue-For-Processing method. Using these fields, you can quickly configure background processes that require you to lock cases or retry case processing.

For more information, see Creating a Queue Processor rule.

Upgrade impact

After a successful upgrade, the new fields contain their default values.

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

To customize the functionality of this feature (and the new fields), open the Queue-For-Processing definition and modify the values for the new properties or fields.

Automatic management of run-time context for background processing

Management of system run-time context is now automatic. You no longer need to manually modify the AsyncProcessor requestor type context to make a queue processor or job scheduler work after importing or upgrading an application. Additionally, you do not need to manually modify the AsyncProcessor requestor type context to make new queue processors and job schedulers work.

For more information, see System general landing page and Automating the runtime context management of background processes.

Upgrade impact

After upgrade, you manage the runtime context of your background processing in System Runtime Context instead of in the deprecated AsyncProcessor requestor type.

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

Select the Include in background processing option in the Advanced section of the application rule form for all applications that use background processing (such as Job Schedulers and Queue Processing). When this option is enabled, the system automatically includes the rulesets (for the application and its components) in System Runtime Context used for resolving and running Queue Processors and Job Schedulers. Also, when the option is enabled, the application is placed on the System Runtime Context list during application rule saves (such as during application import and migration).

Add the security checklist to applications created before 7.3.1

The security checklist is now automatically added to applications. You can manually add the security checklist to applications that were created in earlier versions.

You can improve the security of your application by completing the tasks on the checklist.

The following task reflects the procedure on how to manually add the security checklists to Designer Studio prior to 7.3.1:

1. In the header of Designer Studio, click the name of the application, and then click Definition.
2. Click the Documentation tab.
3. In the Application guides section, click Add guide.
4. In the Application guide& field, enter pxApplicationSecurityChecklist.
5. Click the Configure icon in the Available in column and select the portals (App Studio and Dev Studio) that you want to add the security checklist to.
6. Click Save.