Published Release Notes

Enhancements to exporting report results to Excel

When you export report results to Excel, the .xlsx file that the export process generates is smaller, opens faster, and no longer displays a security warning when you open it. Excel handles more of the formatting, and DateTime, Date, TimeOfDay, and Numeric properties are exported in a format that Excel recognizes. In addition, columns have sorting and filtering enabled by default.

These enhancements are enabled by default and provide improvements to performance and memory usage, especially with large data sets. You can disable this new default behavior by modifying the pyEnableExportToAdvancedExcelFormat when rule. For more information, see Disabling the default functionality for exporting reports to Excel.

Improve cluster security by limiting concurrent operator sessions

You can increase the security of a Pega^® Platform cluster by limiting the number of concurrent sessions allowed for each operator. Because operators typically do not require multiple concurrent sessions for performing their work, limiting the number of sessions reduces the chance that an unknown or untrusted person could access systems in the cluster. Use the new setting Number of concurrent sessions allowed for each operator on the Production tab of the System Data Instance form to configure the number of concurrent sessions for operators. You must restart your system when you change this setting. You can also create a list of operators by using the presence/maxsessions/operators/whitelist Dynamic System Setting, to which the maximum number of concurrent sessions setting will not apply.

For more information, see System form - Completing the Production tab.

Logging service now uses Apache Log4j 2

The Pega^® Platform now uses the Apache Log4j 2 logging service. Apache Log4j 2 improves performance and provides support for all log file appender types. As a result of this upgrade, the prlogging.xml file has been renamed to prlog4j2.xml and the format of the file has changed considerably.

For details about the new file format see Pega Platform logging with the Log4j 2 logging service.

For new installations or for upgrades to systems that were using the default logging configuration, no changes are needed. For information about updating custom log files after upgrading, see Customizations to the prlogging.xml file must be manually ported after upgrade. For information about updating your socket server if you use remote logging, see Socket server has changed for remote logging. For information about updated the web.xml file after upgrading, see Log file description in web.xml incorrect after upgrade to Apache Log4j2.

Customizations to the prlogging.xml file must be manually ported after upgrade

As a result of the upgrade from the Apache Log4j 1 logging service to the Apache Log4j 2 logging service, the name of the logging configuration file has changed from prlogging.xml to prlog4j2.xml and the format of the file has changed considerably. If you customized your prlogging.xml file, port the customizations to the new prlog4j2.xml file. If you do not port the changes, the Pega^® Platform uses the default prlog4j2.xml file and disregards your customized prlogging.xml file.

For more information about customizing your log files, see the Apache Log4j 2 documentation.

Socket server has changed for remote logging

As a result of the upgrade from the Apache Log4j 1 logging service to the Apache Log4j 2 logging service, the socket server that is used for remote logging has changed from the Log4j remote logging package with the LogFactor5 log analysis tool to TcpSocketServer. If you use remote logging, update your socket server to TcpSocketServer. For more information, see Installing and using remote logging.

Create connections to repositories

Pega^® Platform can communicate with common repository technologies. Whenever an action creates a RAP, Pega Platform can browse, publish, or fetch artifacts: for example, when exporting an application, product, branch, or component. Repositories are instances of the Data-Repository class which holds all necessary connection information.

Pega Platform includes tools to connect with the following repository types:

• JFrog Artifactory
• Amazon S3

For more information, see Creating a JFrog Artifactory or Amazon S3 repository connection.

Delegation experience in revision management

Revision managers can now control rule authoring by assigning a delegation experience to any rule that is part of a revision management change request. Delegation experience types offer different rule authoring capabilities, so the revision manager can select the appropriate delegation experience for the task and the strategy designer’s experience.

Monitor standard and custom security events

From the new Security Event Configuration landing page, you can select the standard and custom security events that you want the Pega 7 Platform to log automatically for every user session. The security events are grouped into the following types:

• Authentication
• Data access
• Security administration
• Custom

The API logCustomEvent() is provided so that you can create custom security events that are specific to your applications and that can be monitored by the Pega 7 Platform. For more information, see Security Event Configuration.

File data set

You can now create a File data set that reads data from a file that is in CSV or JSON format. You can use this type of data set to test data flows and strategies.

For more information, see Creating a File data set record.

Execute Tests service now supports flows, case types, and PegaUnit test suites

The Execute Tests service now supports running flows, case types, PegaUnit test suites. Use the Execute Tests service to validate the quality of your builds after every build run.

For more information, see Running PegaUnit test cases and test suites with the Execute Tests service.