Published Release Notes

Edit sections in Pega Express at run time

You can enable editing of sections that were created by a template. Run-time editing allows Pega Express business users to identify and edit sections that contain content. You mark sections as editable by selecting the Allow section to be edited at runtime check box on the Settings tab of the section. For more information, see Run-time editing of sections in Pega Express.

Data encryption across search nodes

You can now encrypt communication among search nodes. Encryption secures the data that is transferred across nodes so that it cannot be accessed by unauthorized hosts. Encryption is enabled by default for new installations and upgrades from Pega^® 7.1.6 or earlier to Pega 7.3. Encryption is not enabled by default for upgrades from Pega 7.1.7 or later to Pega 7.3. You can enable and disable search encryption from the Search landing page or by using the indexing/distributed/enable_inter_node_encryption Dynamic System Setting.

For more information, see Enabling and disabling encryption for communication among search nodes.

Record Editor and data import enhancements

The Record Editor and Import wizard for data types have been enhanced to make the import process faster and easier to use. You can now perform the following tasks.

• Configure the Record Editor to use full-text search, which makes searching faster.
• Configure the location of the data import error file. For example, you can set the location to a shared location so that users can access the file from any node in a multinode system.
• Pass the keys of the records that were added, updated, or matched directly to custom postprocessing without additional database I/O.
• Search and filter records and export only the results instead of all records.
• Stop an import that is in progress.

External keystore support in Pega Platform

Pega^® Platform now provides the ability to source certificates and encryption keys from external keystores. You use the Keystore rule to specify alternatives to the platform's database to source certificates and keys. You can choose to use a data page, a URL, or an external file in one of the following standard formats: JKS, JWK, PKCS12, KEYTAB, or KEY. Keystore information is stored in cache memory only. It is not stored on the clipboard nor is it directly accessible to the application logic.

For more information, see Creating a Keystore data instance.

Decision Analytics portal replaces Predictive Analytics Director portal

The Decision Analytics portal replaces the Predictive Analytics Director (PAD) portal, the Text Analytics landing page, and the Adaptive Models Reporting landing page. In this new work area for predictive analytics and text analytics, the business scientist can control the full model life cycle by building predictive models, importing PMML models, building sentiment analysis and text classification models, creating and monitoring adaptive models, and updating any existing models.

For more information, see Overview of the Decision Analytics work area.

Create application guides that direct users through tasks

Use the new Application Guide rule to create a guide that directs users through a set of tasks. A task can provide instructions to the user and include links to a landing page, wizard, URL, rule, or data record. After you add an application guide to a portal, users can open the guide from the Resources menu.

For more information, see Creating an application guide.

Enhancements to branches

Several enhancements to branches make it possible for you to now do the following tasks.

• You can see all branches in your application and built-on applications by clicking App > Branches.
• You can view all the rules in a branch in addition to quality statistics, such as the number of merge conflicts and guardrail warnings.
• You can run PegaUnit tests that are configured on rules in a branch.
• You can import branches from and push branches to a repository.
• You can create reviews of branch contents.

For more information, see Enhanced features for branches.

Improved diagnostics and logging for Decision Data Store nodes

On the Decision Data Store tab, you can view additional metrics from the Decision Data Store nodes that help with diagnosing Cassandra database problems. You can also set the logging level to control interactions from and to Decision Data Store nodes.

For more information, see Decision Data Service node status information and Configuring the Decision Data Store service.

Tracing Cassandra queries in a Decision Data Store data set

You can now enable the Trace option for every operation in the Decision Data Store data set to collect information about how the Decision Data Store queries are executed in Cassandra. You can view this information in the clipboard and use it to troubleshoot and optimize performance of the Decision Data Store data sets and Decision Data Store nodes. All the queries and related events are collected on the DDSTraces page on the same Pega thread.

For more information, see Tracing Decision Data Store operations.

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.