Published Release Notes

Savable data pages support loading pages individually from a page list

You can now load individual pages in a page list from single object data pages to your case and data types. This functionality allows you to save autopopulated properties with the Load each page individually option using a flow action, save data page smart shape, or the activity method.

For more information, see Saving data in a data page as part of a flow.

Consistent search experience in App Studio

Pega Platform™ now supports a unified search mechanism in App Studio. Instead of manually locating a single item, such as a case type, a channel, or a data object, you can simply use the Search option in the navigation pane. You can also use Search in case types and personas landing pages, to conveniently access the information that you need, for example channels and case types associated with a persona.  

For more information, see Plan your Microjourneys more conveniently in an improved Case Designer (8.5), Creating a Microjourney for customer success.

Improved experience when building an IVA and Email Bot in App Studio

Build your Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant™ (IVA) and Pega Email Bot™ while working only in App Studio. This approach makes the design process easier and more intuitive, and saves you time. You can now modify the advanced text analyzer configuration while working in App Studio. In addition, if you have access to Dev Studio, you can edit the text analyzer rule from App Studio for your chatbot or email bot by clicking a link to open the settings in Dev Studio.

For more information, see Adding a text analyzer for an email bot and Adding a text analyzer for an IVA.

New Mobile Apps form for defining and building mobile apps

You now create and build mobile apps in Pega Express from the Mobile Apps form. The new console is a control center for mobile apps where you can gather applications, services, components, and settings in one place to fully customize your apps. You can create and build one instance of a custom mobile app and define multiple native mobile apps that can use the Pega Mobile SDK. To push notifications to an Android or to an iOS device, you must define an SDK mobile app in Pega Express with a certificate set that has push notifications enabled.

For more information, see Configuring a custom mobile app and Configuring push notifications for an SDK app.

Push real-time notifications to your clients

You can now set up a real-time notification system based on the publish/subscribe (pub/sub) messaging pattern where a node in the cluster can push notifications to your browser clients. Nodes publish notifications to a channel that can broadcast to all the subscribed browser clients.

You can create a notification channel from the Notification channels landing page and subscribe to the channel by selecting the On Load action, which is available under action sets.

For more information, see Real-time applications and push notifications in the Pega 7 Platform.

Section preview added for templated sections in Designer Studio

When you create a templated section, a preview displays on the Design tab of the Section form, showing how the section will look at run time. The section preview immediately shows the results of each design change that you make as you add, move, or delete elements, resize the section, or modify the application skin. By helping you visualize the section's runtime appearance, section preview reduces rework and saves you development time.

For more information, see Section preview shows changes in real time for templated sections.

New Mobile Apps form for defining and building mobile apps

You now create and build mobile apps from the Mobile Apps form instead of from the Mobile tab of the Application rule form. The new console is a control center for mobile apps where you can gather applications, services, components, and settings in one place to fully customize your apps in the Pega 7 Platform. You can create and build one instance of a custom mobile app and define multiple native mobile apps that can use the Pega Mobile SDK. To push notifications to an Android or to an iOS device, you must define an SDK mobile app in the Pega 7 Platform with a certificate set that has push notifications enabled.

For more information, see Configuring a custom mobile app and Configuring push notifications for an SDK app.

Applications not working as expected when using fast processing for Connect REST and Service REST integration

In Pega^® Platform 7.3.1, the Use fast processing option on Connect REST and Service REST rule forms did not work. The functionality has been fixed for Pega 7.4; however, some data model guidelines must be followed. If you use this option in Pega 7.3.1, and you did not follow the guidelines, your application might not work as expected after upgrading. Use the following data model guidelines when using fast processing:

• The JSON property names and the clipboard property names must match.
• The JSON tree structure and the clipboard tree structure must be similar.
• The scalar arrays in JSON must be mapped to the clipboard as page lists.
• Multi-dimensional arrays must be mapped into page lists of page lists with the same embedded property names.

In addition, page groups, value groups, and Java objects are not supported by fast processing.

Enhanced refresh token strategy

You now have more precise control over your refresh token expiration strategy. When a refresh token is enabled, you can choose to set its initial expiration based on the value provided by the IDP. The refresh token expiry can be derived from IDP’s session timeout when SSO is used with external IDP for user authentication in the authorization code grant flow. You can also specify a separate refresh token expiration strategy based on your use-case. 

These can be configured in the OAuth2 Client registration rule form.

For more information, see Enhanced refresh token strategy.

Aggregating and browsing Visual Business Director data set

Visual Business Director (VBD) data set has been enhanced to support the Aggregate and Browse operations. Aggregating aids testing your data in Pega^® Visual Business Director. Browsing the content of the Visual Business Director data set provides transparency and helps to troubleshoot issues that are related to Pega Visual Business Director. You can use the new operations from the DataSet-Execute method or by clicking Actions > Run in the Visual Business Director data set form.

For more information see Creating a Visual Business Director data set record and Configuring the DataSet-Execute method for Visual Business Director.