Published Release Notes

Support for building apps as Android App Bundles

As of August 2021, Google Play Store requires that you submit new apps in the Android App Bundle publishing format instead of the APK format. You can now build Pega mobile apps in the Android App Bundle format so that they comply with this new requirement.

For more information about generating installation packages for Pega mobile apps, see Generating installation packages. For more information about the Android App Bundle publishing format, see the Android for Developers documentation.

Naming pattern changed for file data sets

File data sets are used to import from and export data to a file repository. In case of data export, prior to version 8.6.3, the first file exported had the same file name that was provided by the user in the data set, and any subsequent file exported to the repository had a unique identifier appended to it. Starting in Pega Platform version 8.6.3, each file has a unique identifier, automatically generated based on the data flow node, thread ID, and timestamp.

Upgrade impact

If your process to consume output files expects files with a specific name, it may not be able to process the resulting files correctly.

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

If you have configured the process before updating to Pega Platform version 8.6.3, but the exported files are no longer recognized by downstream processing logic after the upgrade, ensure that the downstream tool is configured to recognize the files by a pattern rather than the full name. For example, when referring to files exported to the repository, use the * character to indicate a pattern instead of using the full file name. For example, use Export*.csv to refer to the files.

Compare rule versions in a rule form

You can now compare different versions of rules from the Actions menu when you work within a rule form instead of using the Rule Compare utility. You can inspect changes that were made between versions directly on the rule form, make updates, and save any changes to the rule form.

For more information, see Rule version comparison within a rule form.

Performance improvement to BLOB support in Postgres databases

New tables that contain BLOB columns now use external storage instead of expanded storage for Postgres databases. This improvement applies to tables that are created during installation, upgrade, or during DDL and schema generation. Using external storage improves database performance.

For more information, see BLOB storage in Postgres databases.

View all nodes in a cluster from the Cluster Management landing page

Use the Cluster Management page to view information for all of the available nodes in a cluster. To view the nodes, click Designer Studio > System > Operations > Cluster Management. To access detailed information about a single node, click Actions.

For more information, see System Operations.

Automatically manage nodes in a System Management Application cluster

Instead of manually adding and deleting nodes in a cluster by using the System Management Application (SMA), you can now automatically manage nodes. You can enable Auto Node Discovery and configure it to get information about all the nodes in a cluster, add new nodes, and update the node list.

For more information, see Managing nodes automatically in a System Management Application cluster.

Logic-based assignment routing

You can now define business logic that controls when and by whom an assignment is processed in a case. By routing assignments to a specific user or group of users, you can help ensure that cases are resolved faster.

For more information, see Logic-based assignment routing.

Show multiple views of data in your application

You can now show multiple views of data in your application by adding the record editor (pxRecordsEditor) section to a layout, another section, or a cell in a layout. You can configure the section to customize the display and enable the search, import, and export capabilities of the record editor.

For more information, see Multiple views of data in the record editor section.

Support for additional rule types for PegaUnit test cases

To compare the expected results with the results that are returned by running a rule, you can now create PegaUnit test cases for the following rule types:

• Activities
• Data transforms
• Strategies
• Decision trees
• Decision tables

After you unit test these rules, you can convert them to test cases and configure assertions on the test cases. You can also set up the clipboard with data before tests are run, and clean up the clipboard after tests are run.

For more information, see PegaUnit testing.

Page assertions are supported for PegaUnit test cases

You can now create page assertions for PegaUnit test cases. Because data transforms and activities can create or remove pages, you can configure page assertions to determine whether a page exists after you run PegaUnit test cases.

For more information, see Configuring page assertions.