Published Release Notes

End of support for form-based rule forms in Pega 7.1.9

Rule forms that are configured to render as forms are no longer supported in Designer Studio or end-user applications. Form-based configurations are found on custom rule types that were created in earlier versions of Pega 7 and are characterized by pop-up windows that are rendered externally from Designer Studio.

Reconfigure Pega 7 applications that use such rule forms by using standard harnesses and sections.

1. Open the class form.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Select Harness from the Rule formmenu.
4. Create a new harness and new sections that implement the logic of the custom rule, using standard user interface layouts and controls.

Migrating custom rule forms to harnesses and sections offers the following benefits:

• User interfaces become HTML5 WC3 compatible and responsive to different screen sizes.
• User interfaces become cross-browser compatible, rendered consistently in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• Rendering performance on modern browsers is dramatically improved.
• User interface pop-up behavior is eliminated; all windows are rendered inside Designer Studio and end-user applications.

End of support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and quirks mode applications in Pega 7.1.9

In accordance with Microsoft’s announcement to discontinue support for Internet Explorer 8 in January 2016, Pega 7.1.9 does not support Internet Explorer 8, nor does it support non-HTML5 standard user interfaces.

You must upgrade to Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 or later or use Google Chrome, Apple Safari, or Mozilla Firefox. If you are using Internet Explorer 9 or later, you must turn off compatibility mode by accessing the Compatibility View settings.

Note the following:

• Pega 7.1.9 does not support user interface rules that are not based on HTML5 standards (rules in quirks mode).
• If you use applications that are rendered in quirks mode, which enables Pega 7 to correctly display and render non-HTML5 standard user interfaces, you must update them to standards-based HTML5 user interfaces when you upgrade to Pega 7.1.9 or later. Pega 7 provides automated tools to help you migrate your applications.
• Pegasystems Global Customer Support will not investigate or fix any Pega 7.1.9 bugs or support requests that are exclusive to Internet Explorer 8 or quirks mode user interfaces.

You can quickly identify which components of your application user interface are not HTML5 standards-based by clicking Designer Studio > User Interface > HTML5 Application Readiness.

Upgrading to Pega 7.1.9 and a newer browser offers the following benefits:

• These browsers are HTML5 and CSS3 compliant.
• New features are supported and existing features work as intended.
• The Pega 7 Platform user interface is displayed and rendered as intended.
• Browser security is enhanced.

If you have additional questions about browser support, see the Platform Support Guide or contact Pegasystems Global Customer Support.

Updated default system pulse processing settings

The default settings for system pulse processing have been updated in this release.

Upgrades to Pega 7.1.9 from a previous version of the Pega 7 Platform use database pulse by default. Database pulse synchronizes rule changes at a periodic interval across all nodes in a system.

New installations of Pega 7.1.9 use cluster-based pulse by default. Cluster-based pulse immediately updates rule changes across all nodes in a system after the changes are saved.

You can change the database pulse setting to the cluster-based pulse setting by updating the value attribute for initialization/pulse/transport to "cluster" in the prconfig.xml file or in the Dynamic System Settings. Changing from database pulse to cluster-based pulse requires a full cluster restart after the changes are made.

For more information, see Pega-RULES agents.

Search field type is deprecated

The search field type in Form Builder is deprecated. Use a data reference or user reference instead, both of which prompt users with an autocomplete field at run time.

For the full list of supported field types in Form Builder, see Supported display modes by field type.

PegaDISTRIBUTION Manager (PDM) is no longer available

The PegaDISTRIBUTION Manager (PDM) is no longer available in the Pega 7 Platform. The related PDN articles and help topics have been archived.

Existing operator IDs during upgrades and updates

Upgrades and updates are always performed in secured mode to help prevent unauthorized access to your system. In secured mode, the [email protected] operator ID is always overwritten, but other existing standard operator IDs are not modified. New operator IDs are inserted in secured mode. For more information, see the Deployment Guide for your environment.

BIX -I command-line option fails for unexposed properties

Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX) command-line extractions fail when the extract has a filter that uses unexposed property references that are passed in by the input file that you specified in the -I command-line option. Previously, the BIX extraction ignored the filter and the extraction did not fail.

Upgrade utility for Get Next Work performance

You can run a utility to upgrade Get Next Work processing to more quickly process assignments that were created in versions of the Pega 7 Platform earlier than 7.2.2. Performance is automatically improved on new installations.

For more information, see Upgrading Get Next Work performance.

Pega File Listener process changes

Beginning with Pega 7.2.2, File Listener processes files in a different way:

• File movement in directories – Previously, files were processed from the Work directory. In Pega 7.2.2, files are processed from the source location. Files move to the Work directory only if the initial processing fails and Recovery is disabled.
• New file processing – Previously, File Listener would process all files in the source location, even if the files were added during the processing. In Pega 7.2.2, files added to the source location during processing are read the next time the File Listener starts.

For more information, see File Listener data instances.

Remove obsolete versions of the PredictiveAnalytics-UI and PredictiveAnalaytics-IntSvcs rulesets

After you upgrade the Pega 7 Platform to version 7.2.2, remove the PredictiveAnalytics-UI and PredictiveAnalytics-IntSvcs rulesets from your application as their versions are obsolete. Beginning with Pega 7.2.2, use the Pega-DecisionScience ruleset that contains the latest versions of the PredictiveAnalytics-UI and PredictiveAnalytics-IntSvcs rulesets.

For more information, see About ruleset versions.