Published Release Notes

Unicode-enabled database for international language support

The Pega 7 Platform database has been enhanced to natively support Unicode multibyte character set encoding when using Postgres on Pega Cloud. This enhancement allows you to store data in languages such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.

Improvements to the Document Application tool

Application profile documents and application documents generated by the Document Application tool have been improved to present information in a more logical order based on how the application was built (for example, by case life-cycle management). Also, these types of documents now include all specifications linked with an implementation rule, presented in logical order under the implementation rule.

In addition, to help you more efficiently drive decisions by stakeholders, you can specify whether to include related built-on application layer assets in application profile documents and application documents. For specification documents, you can specify whether to include specifications from the built-on application layer.

For more information, see Document Application tool.

Support for error handling API in offline mobile apps

During the processing of cases in offline-enabled mobile apps, you can use several JavaScript API methods to perform error handling. You can now determine whether an error condition results from the post-processing of a flow or a subflow. You can also set, clear, or obtain the number of error messages on a property or a page while working in offline mode, similar to when you are running a Pega 7 Platform desktop application. When you run a custom mobile app in offline mode, you can submit a form, but you cannot move the flow forward until all the errors on a page and in the page's properties are resolved.

For more information, see Error handling in offline mode and Error handling API in offline mode.

Add custom HTTP response headers in your application

The Pega 7 Platform supports the addition of custom security HTTP headers that are supported by your browser. For example, you can now create custom X-Frame-Options, X-XSS-Protection, and Strict-Transport-Security headers. These headers improve the security of your application against client-based attacks.

For more information, see Creating a custom application header. 

Immediate drain available for the quiesce process when using high availability

The quiesce process, which is used to take a server out of service for maintenance in a highly available system, can now be modified to use the immediate drain method. When using the default slow drain method for quiesce, users are placed in a passivation queue. When using the immediate drain method, users can continue to access the node being quiesced until it is removed from the load balancer.

Organizations should determine which quiesce method to use based on the overall needs of their users. However, for applications that have implemented long poll requests, it is recommended to use the slow drain method.

For more information, see the Pega 7.2.1 High Availability Administration Guide.

Change the type of an existing field

You can now change the type of an existing field on the Data model tab of a case type or data type, resulting in a more efficient development process at design time. If there are any validation issues when changing a type, an error message is displayed, and the type cannot be modified by using this method.

For more information, see:

• Modifying the type of a field
• Troubleshooting validation errors when changing the type of an existing field

Application administrators can send push notifications

From the Push Console application, administrators can send push notifications to custom mobile app users. Notifications sent from the Push Console can contain application-wide messages, for example, when an update is available for manual download.

For more information, see Push Console landing page.

Device preview includes a configurable list of common mobile devices

Pega Express device preview displays your application in a simulated mobile device. By previewing your application, you can view the user experience on a desktop, tablet, or phone. You can select from a list of common devices or add devices to the list by editing Pega-DevicePreview-Device.

For more information, see Previewing an application on a mobile device.

Access work items directly after login

You can now directly access work items that you receive as email notifications or URLs. The Pega 7 Platform opens the work item after successful user authentication instead of redirecting you to the portal. For a valid user, the type of authentication or number of failed login attempts does not affect this direct access.

For systems that use basic or secure basic authentication, administrators can disable the redirect URL by setting the authentication/basicschemes/redirectToLoginScreen switch to false.

Support for Hotfix Manager in service-enabled system management

You can manage hotfixes by using a REST service from Hotfix Manager in the service-enabled system management utility. With service-enabled system management, you can manage hotfixes simultaneously on more than one Pega 7 Platform system. You can manage the following hotfix operations: install, scan, commit, rollback, and GenerateDDL.

For more information, see Managing hotfixes (service-enabled).