Published Release Notes

Improved user experience for Cosmos React mobile apps

Mobile apps that you build for Cosmos React applications now feature a highly performant and responsive user interface that improves the overall user experience.

Native case pages

Prescriptive mobile case pages are now faster and more reliable. Mobile case pages display views and widgets as cards and group the cards into user-friendly tabs. Users can navigate the tabs by swiping left or right. From the case page, users can also edit case page details by selecting the floating action button, or choose an optional action from the case header drop-down menu. 

To improve collaboration, prescriptive mobile case pages support the Pulse widget, as well as uploading, viewing, and downloading case attachments.

Improved case processing 

The case processing interface on mobile devices is now more reliable and ensures a smooth experience for case workers. After users complete an assignment, Cosmos React apps display the task that is next in the flow that you define for the case type. Optional actions open in an overlay drawer component that users can minimize when they need to multitask while processing cases.

Form validation in real time 

Validation of user input for mobile forms is now highly responsive thanks to real-time validation. To ensure that users enter data correctly, forms support validation expressions that you define in App Studio. Expressions are processed on the client side to further improve app performance.

Native Android and iOS controls

Cosmos React apps use a selection of native Android and iOS controls that make mobile apps faster and more intuitive to use. The native controls include map and location controls, date and time pickers, and controls for adding attachments.

In Pega Platform™ version 8.6, mobile features in Cosmos React applications are available only as a preview, with limited support for various interface elements and features, such as offline mode. The recommended production design system for Pega Mobile in Pega Platform 8.6 is Theme Cosmos.

Case outcome predictions in case types

Pega Platform™ introduces the use of machine learning and AI in Case Designer. You can now use predictions in case types, both in App Studio and Dev Studio. By using predictions, your application can predict various outcomes, such as the possibility of reaching a positive or negative case resolution, so that you can prioritize work, route cases according to risk, or optimize the case flow in other ways. You can use predictions when you create conditions in the condition builder, for example, when you define a business logic for routing assignments. 

For more information, see:

• Prioritize and route case work by predicting case outcomes 
• Predicting case outcome
• Creating predictions for case management

Virtual questions deprecated in 8.6

Following the improvements in Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA), the creation of virtual questions is now deprecated and planned for removal. To avoid additional effort during updates to future releases, do not use deprecated features. For optimal application performance and efficient development of conversation processes, you now collect information from users by using the Ask a question smart shape.

For more information, see Adding a case type conversation process for a conversational channel and Asking a question in a case.

External data flow rules are removed

In previous versions of Pega Platform™, you could configure data flows to run in an external Hadoop environment. The external data flows functionality was deprecated and hidden from view in Pega Platform 8.5. The functionality has been now removed and is no longer available in Pega Platform 8.6.

For more information, see External data flow rules are deprecated.

Legacy Parse XML rule configurations must be upgraded to edit them

If your application has Parse XML rules that use the legacy configuration from Pega Platform™ 5.x, you cannot edit these rules after you upgrade to Pega Platform 8.6 until after you upgrade them to use tree-based parse rule configuration.

You must upgrade a Parse XML rule that you want to edit if it shows the following warning when you open it in Dev Studio.

This type of Parse XML rule is deprecated. An upgrade should be performed.

An option to upgrade also displays below the message.

Upgrade impact

Parse XML rules with the legacy configuration do not map data to the clipboard, and the rule definition is empty. After you upgrade to Pega Platform 8.6, you cannot edit Parse XML rules that you created in Pega Platform 5.x or earlier until you upgrade them to use tree-based parse rule configuration.

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

Update legacy Parse XML rules to use tree-based parse rule configuration before you edit them in Pega Platform 8.6. Using tree-based parse rules is considered a best practice.

1. Open the legacy Parse XML rule.
2. On the Mapping tab, click Upgrade.
   Result: The Allow tree editing? check box is displayed and is automatically selected. You can add attributes and elements to the tree structure, or delete them.
3. Save the upgraded rule configuration.

For more information, see Parse XML rules.

Insights from 8.5 require additional configuration after upgrade

Upgrade impact

After you upgrade Pega Platform™ version 8.5 to 8.6, the Explore Data landing page might not include insights that come from the earlier version of the product.

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

Run the pxUpgrade85Insights activity to make all insights from version 8.5 accessible for you in 8.6. By running this activity, you upgrade insights with new metadata that is required in version 8.6. For example, the pxUpgrade85Insights activity provides you with the option to set the visibility of insights to private, public or shared.

For more information about insights, see Visualizing data with insights.

Connect MQ rules configured with alias queue do not work after upgrade

Connect MQ rules that you defined with an alias queue in earlier versions of Pega Platform do not work after an upgrade to Pega Platform 8.6.

Upgrade impact

If you defined an alias queue in Connect MQ rules, after an upgrade to Pega Platform 8.6, those Connect MQ rules do not work.

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

In the Pega-IntegrationEngine ruleset, create the following dynamic system settings and their default values:

• "mq/pmo" = 0
• "mq/gmo" = 0
• "mq/oo_request" = 1040
• "mq/oo_response" = 16

For more information, see Creating a dynamic system setting.

Data model inheritance does not depend on ruleset context

Search and Reporting Service (SRS) in Pega Platform™ 8.6 now provides an improved method of synchronizing data model by distinct users. In applications built on earlier versions of Pega Platform, some users might encounter difficulties in indexing data. Now, the data model that the system sends to SRS does not depend on access privileges. With this enhancement, each user of your application is eligible to synchronize data.

Improved indexing of StringList and StringGroup property types

Search and Reporting Service in Pega Platform™ 8.5 may improperly index StringList and StringGroup property types. As a result, the data model does not include the affected properties.

Upgrade impact

After upgrading to Pega Platform version 8.6, the system requires that the classes with the StringList or StringGroup type are reindexed. 

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

On the Search Landing Page, manually reindex all the classes that include properties with the StringList or StringGroup types to ensure that all your data is present in the data model. Alternatively, if finding specific instances of classes is difficult, you can reindex all classes in your application.

For more information, see Indexing class data.

Embedded properties in DX API v2 requests are no longer removed

In Pega Platform version 8.5, when you use the POST and PATCH v2 DX API methods with an embedded page property included in the content element of the request, the system removes all properties in the embedded page that are included in the case but are not a part of the request. Now, the merge logic has been modified to update embedded page fields sent up in the request, and keep other fields unchanged.

This feature simplifies client code and prevents data corruption.