Published Release Notes

Predictive models can drive predictions

You can use predictive models as the basis of your predictions. As a data scientist, you can now use Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) to replace models in your system. You can replace a model in a prediction with a PMML, H2O MOJO, or Pega OXL predictive model, as well as a scorecard or field, and then approve the update for deployment to a production environment. You can respond to a Prediction Studio notification that an active model does not generate enough lift and decide to replace the low-performing model with a high-accuracy model. You can also update a prediction on a regular basis, for example, whenever you develop a new churn model in an external environment.

For more information, see Replace models in predictions and migrate changes to production with MLOps.

Improved UI accessibility

Pega Platform™ now supports W3C Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines more fully, which creates a better user experience for people who rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers.

The user interface now features the following enhancements:

• Improved keyboard navigation and updated ARIA attributes for layouts, including dynamic, repeating, and table layouts.
• Updated navigation for AJAX and dynamic containers.
• More precise keyboard navigation and focus control for pop-up components, such as SmartTips.
• Fixed accessibility gaps in out-of-the-box actionable controls and form components, such as buttons and text fields.
• More accessible error messages with improved color schemes and focus control. To meet the WCAG ARIA guidelines, the Show next Error bar has been retired and substituted with more accessible error symbols.
• Accessibility code included in the Pega Platform ruleset by default, without the need for additional configuration.

For more information, see Supported keyboard navigation.

Enhanced mapping of personas and users in App Studio

App Studio now provides a consistent and transparent experience when mapping personas to users. When you invite users to your application, you can associate each user with a run-time persona or developer role by selecting an option from a clearly organized list. For example, you can associate run-time users with a customer service representative persona, and then invite a person to help develop your application and assig them a developer role. For greater clarity, personas now replace references to roles in App Studio.

For more information, see Inviting collaborators to your application.

Improved scroll functionality in vertical tabs

When you scroll content in an application that uses the Cosmos theme, the UI now remembers the scroll position even if you switch between vertical tabs, for example, in the case details section. Previously, the application reset the page to the topmost position every time you switched tabs. This update improves the user experience by reducing context switching.

Tracer support for Cosmos React

The Tracer tool is now available for stateless applications, so that you can trace and debug applications that you build on Cosmos React. Because in a stateless application multiple requests can run simultaneously, to provide clarity, Tracer shows the events by request ID instead of grouping the events by the time of occurrence. For greater convenience, debugging Cosmos React applications is also available in an offline Tracer tool. As a result, you speed up the development process and deliver top-quality applications that are free of bugs.

For more information, see:

• Debug your Cosmos React applications faster with Tracer (8.6)
• Application debugging by using the Tracer tool
• Pega Digital Experience (DX) API
• Cosmos React

Loading cues in Pega Platform

Pega Platform™ applications that rely on the Cosmos React framework now feature a visual placeholder for the page that is being loaded. The system displays an indicator when loading portals, cases, simple pages, and list pages. This update provides users with a visual cue that their request is being processed, which improves the user experience.

Enhancing the performance of your Next-Best-Action strategy with globally optimized strategies

Starting in version 8.6, Pega Platform™ combines the versatility of Next-Best-Action Designer with strategy performance enhancements provided by using globally optimized strategies (GOS). Decrease the run time and memory usage of executing the Next-Best-Action strategy in batch or real-time scenarios by using the globally optimized strategies generated by Next Best Action Designer.

GOS is supported by Pega Platform's standard business change management process. GOS rules are automatically included in relevant revision packages.

For more information, see Enhance the performance of your Next-Best-Action strategy with globally optimized strategies (8.6).

Improved processing of correspondence details

When you send correspondence, the system now does not update the pxSendDateTime property on the pxCorrSummary work page that belongs to pyWorkPage. In previous versions of Pega Platform™, after sending correspondence, the update of the pxSendDateTime property could cause errors when working with an application at run time. To prevent such issues, Pega Platform now includes a pyEnableCorrSummary when rule that, by default, is set to false. If your business scenario requires updating the pxCorrSummary work page, set the when rule value to true.

For more information, see:

• Notifying participants about events
• Approval by email
• Sending automatic emails from cases

Support for picklists with parameterized data pages in App Studio in Cosmos React UI

You can now use data pages with parameters to populate a property of the picklist type with filtered results in App Studio. For example, in a survey case type, you can use a parameterized data page to configure cascading drop-down controls in which the values in a secondary drop-down list are based on the value that the user selects in the primary drop-down list. With dynamically-sourced picklists, you get greater flexibility in configuring picklists, and users see more accurate values.

For more information, see link Dropdown control Properties — General tab.

Enhanced performance and usability of Cosmos React tables