Published Release Notes

Locatable pages are deprecated

Locatable pages are deprecated. Use a data page instead. Data pages provide improved performance. When you save a rule that has a Locate Page Activity or when you create an activity of type Locate page, a guardrail warning is displayed indicating that this feature has been deprecated.

For information about data pages, see Data pages.

Rules Assembly cache is deprecated

Rules Assembly (RA) cache and custom settings for its corresponding fua/assemblyCacheModeprconfig.xml file setting are deprecated because they are obsolete. A warning is logged at startup if a custom (non-default) value is specified for fua/assemblyCacheMode in the prconfig.xml file. The functional behavior of the system is not affected.

Use of the @java function in expressions is deprecated

Use of the @java function in expressions is deprecated. Use a utility function or other product feature instead.

For more information about expressions, see Building expressions with the Expression Builder.

Interactions in flows are no longer supported by the Run Interaction shape

The Run Interaction shape in flows has been replaced by the Run Data Flow shape, which supports running a single case data flow with a strategy. Flows that include the Run Interaction shape continue to work; however, you must now use the Utility shape to reference any new interactions that you create.

For more information, see Running a decision strategy from a flow and About Interaction rules.

Use of PegaRULES_Extract_Marker.txt to delete cache is deprecated

The PegaRULES_Extract_Marker.txt file is deprecated. The system uses the presence or absence of the PegaRULES_Extract_Market.txt file to determine at startup whether to delete the static content, service export, and lookup list file system-based caches. In the rare situation that you need to delete these caches manually, use the System Management Application (SMA) ETier Static Content Management page. Using SMA does not require restarting the node.

Behavior changes when reporting on descendant classes

Report Definitions that use the Report on descendant class instances option with the Include all descendant classes option apply only to the Applies to Class. Join classes are not included as they were in previous Pega^® Platform versions. The following example shows what happens for each possible scenario for Report on descendant class instances when the report is defined on ClassA with a class join with Work-.

• If Report on descendant class instances is disabled, the report runs against ClassA and the join happens with Work-. The behavior is the same in Pega 7.3.1 as it is in previous Pega Platform versions.
• If Report on descendant class instances is enabled, and Include single implementation class is selected, the report runs against ClassA and the join happens with the MySampleClass implementation class. The behavior is the same in Pega 7.3.1 as it is in previous Pega Platform versions.
• If Report on descendant class instances is enabled, and Include all descendant classes is selected, the report runs against ClassA and its descendants and the join happens with Work-. In previous Pega Platform versions, the join happened with the MySampleClass implementation class.

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.

Naming pattern changed for file data sets

File data sets are used to import from and export data to a file repository. In case of data export, prior to version 8.6.3, the first file exported had the same file name that was provided by the user in the data set, and any subsequent file exported to the repository had a unique identifier appended to it. Starting in Pega Platform version 8.6.3, each file has a unique identifier, automatically generated based on the data flow node, thread ID, and timestamp.

Upgrade impact

If your process to consume output files expects files with a specific name, it may not be able to process the resulting files correctly.

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

If you have configured the process before updating to Pega Platform version 8.6.3, but the exported files are no longer recognized by downstream processing logic after the upgrade, ensure that the downstream tool is configured to recognize the files by a pattern rather than the full name. For example, when referring to files exported to the repository, use the * character to indicate a pattern instead of using the full file name. For example, use Export*.csv to refer to the files.