Published Release Notes

Edit icons and titles for messages in the activity feed

You can now edit the icons and titles of messages that are displayed in the activity feed for Pulse by customizing the pxFeed Pulse gadget. For example, to inform other users of an application about important Twitter updates that are related to the organization, you can create a message that displays a Twitter icon and a title of Twitter updates.

For more information, see Pulse enhancements for social collaboration.

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.

Support for the WebChat conversational user channel

You can now embed standard chat capability on any website by creating the WebChat channel interface as the Pega^® Intelligent Virtual Assistant. Users can communicate with a Pega Platform application, for example, to open a case to report a problem or to display a menu of commands to ask for assistance. The WebChat channel does not require any additional accounts or third-party installations, and you have full control over the end-to-end communication.

For more information, see Configuring the WebChat channel.

Label changes for text analytic models

The classification analysis label has changed to topic detection and the entity extraction label has changed to text extraction. Also, the sentiment analysis, topic detection, and intent detection labels are now located under Text Categorization in the Analytics Center. These name changes reflect industry standards and provide a clearer distinction between different types of text analytics models in Pega^® Platform.

For more information, see Text analytics models.

Database storage used for passivation in High Availability mode

When an application is running in High Availability mode, the value attribute for initialization/​persistrequestor/storage in the prconfig.xml file or the Dynamic System Settings​ now defaults to "database."

Previously, applications running in High Availability mode required shared passivation, where either initialization/​persistrequestor/storage was set to “OnTimeout” or a custom passivation mechanism was used. The change to using database by default provides persistent storage for passivation, and provides control for the landing page for High Availability.

For more information, see Understanding passivation and requestor timeouts and the High Availability Administration Guide.

CRM core data types included in Pega Platform

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) core data types are now included with Pega^® Platform, making it easier to bring your data into your Pega application. You can either import your data into the data tables for the CRM data types or use integration to communicate with your own system of record. The database tables for these data types are non-Pega formatted, which gives you better performance and more control over your data.

For information about the database tables, see CRM data types in Pega 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.

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.

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.

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.