Enhanced Expression Builder
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
Several enhancements have been made to the Expression Builder. The Expression Builder is displayed in multiple locations and guides you when creating construct arithmetic and logical expressions in your application.
Enhancements to the Expression Builder include:
- An updated text editor
- A navigational pane that displays functions in available libraries and properties within a selected page
- The ability to drag functions and properties into the text editor
- The ability to search for properties and non-internal functions
- The ability to select properties and functions from prompts in the text editor
- Automatic bracket-matching
- Syntax highlighting
Full-screen menus improve mobile navigation
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
A new full-screen menu setting for enhanced mobile functionality provides a smooth and seamless mobile navigation experience. Previously, regular drop-down menus were difficult to navigate on a mobile device. Select Component styles > Menus > Menu Bar > Display "Show Menu" as full screen menu to enable and configure this setting in a Skin form.
Personalize your dashboard with widgets and templates
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
New personalized dashboards can be customized and shared by end users. Select a default template or create your own. Choose from one of several default widgets or design a configurable widget to provide core business metrics to your users. From the new Settings tab, you can select whether a section is a template or widget.
Data page automated unit testing
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
Automated unit testing for data pages now provides a guided way to create and modify automated unit test cases for data pages. Test cases are created by running the data page and converting to a test. Unit tests compare the expected value of a property with the property’s actual value on the data page.
Landing page for data page automated unit test
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
A new landing page lists all test cases that are associated with the data pages in an application. The landing page includes the data page that corresponds to the test, the data type, and the results of the most recent test case run. A new test case can be created and added from the landing page. Existing test cases can also be run either individually or in batches from the landing page.
Updated Rule-Utility-Function resolution
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
Rule-Utility-Function rules are now resolved based on ruleset.
Previously, if you had the same function @xyz() in different libraries in different rulesets, you could not call the function by using @xyz, because that would throw an exception.
The resolution process has since been updated so that rule resolution is now based on the highest ruleset in context. This update makes the function resolution process consistent with how rule resolution is performed for other rule types.
For more information, see Functions in expressions.
Work with delegated records in the new Configuration dashboard
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
Business users can manage and modify delegated items from the new Configuration dashboard on the Case Manager portal. The dashboard allows business users to:
- Create and edit instances (records) of any application data type (including Products and Customers)
- Edit the content of any paragraph rule
- Revise application logic that is defined in basic decision tables
Define function input parameters on the Create or Save As forms
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
When creating or updating a Rule-Utility-Function ruleset in Designer Studio, use the Create or Save As forms to define or change parameters as a part of the form. The Parameters section on either of these forms allows you to set the function's name and Java type before opening the function.
Previously, you updated these fields on the Parameters tab for the function after the form was created. Moving these fields to the Create and Save As forms helps to proactively detect functions with the same signature in the same ruleset before saving the function.
For more information, see Defining function input parameters on the Create or Save As forms.
Support for Oracle TIMESTAMP data types
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
The Oracle TIMESTAMP data type is now fully supported throughout the Pega 7 data layer. The TIMESTAMP columns for data provide greater precision than the previously available DATE columns.
This release does not include any columns that use the TIMESTAMP data type at installation. However, after installation or upgrade:
- Any newly created columns (for example, those created when optimizing a property or defining a new table) use the TIMESTAMP column type.
- Any existing data still uses DATE values.
- Oracle users can manually convert any existing DATE column types to use a TIMESTAMP column type instead.
- Altering the column type for existing values in a column does not provide any greater precision for those values because they still use DATE values and not DATETIME values.
For more information, see DateTime property mapping in Oracle for Pega 7.
Updates to the Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX) product
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.8
The Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX) add-on has been updated with several new features. BIX 7.1.8 fully supports extraction of data from a Pega 7 multi-tenant instance. BIX can also now be run on Pega Cloud instances. Additionally, the new pxExtractDataWithArgs activity can be used by on-premises customers to schedule BIX runs by using Pega Platform agents.
For more information, see the BIX 7.1 User Guide.