Published Release Notes

Child case queries performance can be slow

Some customers have reported that performance is slow when they execute queries on child cases. This issue is often indicated by PEGA0005 (query time exceeded limit) alerts that can be correlated to these queries in the logs. To resolve the issue, add a database index to each of your work tables by using a multicolumn index on the pxCoverInsKey, pxObjClass, and pyStatusWork columns.

See Performance improvements for child case queries.

Updates to the Data Page rule form

You can use the enhanced Data Page rule form to specify the name of a source system in the System name field in the Data sources section. This field represents the name of the system that is associated with a data source. For example, if your data source is a REST connector that connects to an external weather service such as Google Weather API, you can enter Google Weather in the System name field for the data source. The system name is used to display the source systems for a data type on the External Data Entities landing page.

For more information, see Viewing external data entities.

Verify ML Readiness error: Upgrades from Pega 7.1.0 through 7.1.8 do not replace nonversioned rules

Upgrading from any Pega 7 Platform version between Pega 7.1 and Pega 7.1.8 to Pega 7.2 does not automatically replace nonversioned rules. If you revalidated and saved a Pega 7.1.x rule after the timestamp on the Pega 7.2 version of the rule, upgrading to Pega 7.2 does not overwrite the saved rule. You might see either of the following behaviors:

• The upgrade fails with the following error message:
  Verify ML Readiness
• The upgrade succeeds, but you might be unable to open changed rule forms.

If the upgrade fails, see the Pega 7 Platform Upgrade Guide to force the upgrade.

This known issue does not affect Pega 7.1.9. After the upgrade has finished, apply Hotfix 27288. For information about obtaining and applying hotfixes, see Hotfix Manager.

Unused agents run in background

The Update PegaRULES database table statistics agent and the Collect PegaRULES database blob size statistics agent have been added to support future development. These agents run in the background, but they do not do anything. You can, but do not need to, disable them from the Edit Agent Schedule landing page.

For more information, see Agent Schedule form - Completing the Schedule tab.

Support for rule rebasing

You can now rebase the rules on your development server with the most recently committed rules from a centralized system of record (SOR). For example, after rules are merged on the SOR, you can rebase your development application to refresh your application with the merged rules. Development teams working in two separate development environments can share their changes, keep their local rulebases synchronized, and reduce the probability of conflicts with other development teams.

For more information, see Rule rebasing.

Support for Apache Cassandra

The Pega^® Platform can now read data from and write data to an Apache Cassandra database. Apache Cassandra is a NoSQL database that you can use when a NoSQL database better meets your scalability and processing requirements.

For a list of supported and unsupported features, see Apache Cassandra support.

Apply logic to data import fields

When importing data from an external system, you can translate data fields into values that can be read by Pega^® Platform. From the Import wizard, you can do the following actions:

• Apply a decision tree or decision table to the data that is imported for a field.
• Use imported data for a field to look up a value in another record. For example, you can look up the key of a record that uses an external identifier to populate a foreign key field.
• Create templates that contain business logic, which eliminates the need to handle data transformations manually during preprocessing.

For more information, see Transforming data during import.

Expose properties in Decision Data Store

You can now expose properties in Cassandra-based Decision Data Store data sets. With this solution, you can update single properties in extended customer analytic records (XCAR) without having to update the full customer record.

For more information, see XCAR in Decision Data Store.

The Scratch Pad tool is no longer available

The Scratch Pad tool is no longer available. To add properties to a report from an end user portal, use the Data Explorer. The Data Explorer provides an efficient way to find a property or calculation to include as a column in a report.

For more information, see Data Explorer.

Add new commands in the Facebook channel preview console

Now you can not only edit existing commands in the preview console for a Facebook channel but also add new command responses and associate them with intents. For example, you can add a new response command in the preview console in a case in which you entered a command and no response was found for the generated intent. This functionality gives you more control over the Facebook channel configuration and makes the preview console easier to use.

For more information, see Simulating a chatbot conversation.