Published Release Notes

MBeans deprecated in favor of Pega API

The use of MBeans for cluster management has been deprecated, although MBeans will continue to function for legacy deployments. The recommended best practice for automating system management is to use the Pega API. For more information, see Pega API.

Upgrading to the secure threading mechanism for email bots

In Pega Platform™ version 8.6, Pega Email Bot™ includes a more secure threading mechanism to help track emails from customers and other stakeholders in separate threads for an email triage case.

Upgrade impact

If you upgrade from Pega Platform version 8.5 or earlier, in which you configured an Email channel, perform the following steps to ensure that your system uses the new secure threading mechanism:

• Update the service email rule that the system uses to send an email reply as the initial acknowledgment.
• Update the email reply template in the data transform rule that the system uses when a customer service representative (CSR) sends the reply.

For more information about creating an initial acknowledgment email and email reply template, see Creating outbound email templates. For more information about the secure threading mechanism, see Use a secure threading mechanism in emails.

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

For the initial acknowledgment email used by your email bot, update the service method for your email listener rule. On the Response tab for this service email rule, expand the Message contents section. In the Message data section, you specify the rule that defines the structure of the content of the email body. In Pega Platform version 8.6, you use for this purpose the pyEmailAcknowledgement correspondence rule that takes into account the selected built-in template. This template includes the security code tag that the system uses for the secure threading mechanism. If your application uses a different rule in the Message data section, update this definition to match one of the built-in correspondence template rules, for example, EmailAckTemplate_Clear.

The pySetEmailBotReplyTemplate data transform rule sets the name of the email correspondence rule that the system uses as the email reply template. If you do not want to use the default approach using the Classic, Cobalt, or Clear outbound email template themes, override this data transform rule to set the email correspondence rule name for the Param.ReplyTemplate target in the Source column field.

For more information about how to update the service email rule and the data transform rule to ensure that your system uses the secure threading mechanism, see Upgrading to the threading mechanism available in the 8.6 version.

Support for encrypted traffic in a cluster

The Pega 7 Platform includes the Ignite platform, which supports encryption for intra-cluster communications. You can now configure encryption for intra-cluster traffic for compliance with regulatory or organizational security requirements.

For more information, see Enabling encrypted traffic between nodes.

Deploy revisions directly in target environments

As a revision manager, you can now directly deploy or migrate completed revisions to multiple Pega 7 Platform environments that were configured as targets by the system architect. The revision management process is faster because you do not need to package a revision as a JAR file, and then manually import that file to the Pega 7 Platform. Additionally, this solution gives business users more control over application rulesets and enables them to act more independently.

For more information, see Direct deployment of revisions.

Batch database processing improvements

Batch database processing has been enhanced to ensure that a constraint violation does not occur when you save transactions to a table with a foreign key dependency. Because batch processing changes the order of save operations, it is disabled for transactions with foreign key dependencies. Disabling batch processing ensures that a record with a foreign key dependency on another record will not be written before the record on which it is dependent.

For more information about how batch database processing works and how to enable and disable it, see Batch processing during database write operations.

Operator presence record tracks disconnected status of operators

The state attribute in the operator presence record now tracks the operator connection status of DISCONNECTED, in addition to tracking the operator connection status of ACTIVE, AWAY, or OFFLINE. Operators are disconnected if their browser crashes, if they close a browser session without logging out of the system, or if the network connection is down. The DISCONNECTED status helps prevent work from being routed to operators who are not online or not available.

When the operator restores the browser session or the network connection is restored, the Pega^® Platform updates the operator connection status to ACTIVE.

For more information, see Tracking the online presence of operators.

Chart drilldown capabilities extended to dashboard widgets

When the chart for a report is displayed in a dashboard widget, you now can click any part of the chart to drill down and view the subset of data for that part. This enhancement provides you with an accurate view of the data that determines the report results. Previously, this capability was provided only in the Report Viewer.

Designer Studio keyboard navigation

Keyboard navigation adds speed and convenience to Designer Studio. To open the command palette and search within or select from a list of Designer Studio menu options, press Ctrl+Shift+P (Command+Shift+P on a Mac). For more information, see Navigate Designer Studio menus with the keyboard.

Define and manage features during application development

You can now define and manage the features and child features that you want to implement in your application. A feature represents any capability in your application that you want to promote to stakeholders during the application development process. When you develop an application and design case types, you can link each case type to top-level features in Designer Studio. In addition, you can associate existing rules with features, which maintains traceability and makes it easier for you to extend the application because you can identify the rules that are associated with each feature.

For more information, see Features.

Enhanced autocomplete control with combo box functionality

You can now add combo box functionality to an autocomplete control. You enable this functionality on the Presentation tab of the control. In the combo box, search results that match the search criteria are displayed in a list that you can scroll through by clicking the down arrow.

For more information about how to configure an autocomplete control as a combo box, see Autocomplete Properties — Presentation tab.