Published Release Notes

Improved control of case locking and retry mechanisms

The Delay factor, Initial delay in minutes, and Max retry attempts fields have been added to queue processors, and the Timeout to acquire lock field has been added to the Queue-For-Processing method. Using these fields, you can quickly configure background processes that require you to lock cases or retry case processing.

For more information, see Creating a Queue Processor rule.

Upgrade impact

After a successful upgrade, the new fields contain their default values.

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

To customize the functionality of this feature (and the new fields), open the Queue-For-Processing definition and modify the values for the new properties or fields.

Role-based page access in App Studio

App Studio now supports the management of access to pages in your application based on user roles. You can use this functionality to define which pages are visible for every role, for example, make an analytics page available only to an administrator.

For more information, see Configuring role-based page access.

Custom DX API attributes for auto-generated controls

Auto-generated controls now include the option to add custom attributes for use with the Pega Digital Experience (DX) API. The attributes are part of the DX API response to the front end and you can use them to modify the run-time behavior of the UI elements in your application. For example, you can add an attribute to a field that displays a tooltip text for that field at run time. This enhancement introduces significant flexibility to application development and gives you greater control over UI components.

For more information, see Adding custom attributes for version 1 DX API to auto-generated controls.

Access PegaUnit compliance metrics from a centralized location

PegaUnit compliance metrics and execution rate have been added to the PegaUnit metrics tile of the Application Quality dashboard. This dashboard provides a centralized location for all PegaUnit data for a specific application. 

The dashboard also supports granular PegaUnit test information for each case type and data type, similar to the process currently available on the branch quality dashboard. 

For more information, see Analyzing application quality metrics. 

Improved rich user interface controls in IVA for Web Chatbot

In Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant™ (IVA) for Web Chatbot, you can use additional rich user interface controls, such as the time and date picker or a simple form, to help users accomplish tasks more quickly and to limit errors. IVA for Web Chat can now also display a welcome message in the chat window, for example, to inform the user about the person with whom they are chatting.

For more information, see Streamline conversations in IVA for Web Chatbot with rich user interface controls.

Upgrade impact

The new Ul controls for Web Chatbot are enabled by default upon upgrade. If you do not want the controls enabled, you must disable them.

Also, if you have changed the styles for the welcome message, you may need to make changes to the welcome message to incorporate the new areas in the bot conversation area (such as quick replies).

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

Existing channels will behave as they did previously, so you should determine whether you want to use the new UI controls. If you want to use the new Ul controls, configure the new design-time options.

If you have changed the default styles for the welcome message, review the new settings to ensure that the welcome message is configured properly. 

Open access to quiesced servers when using immediate drain

When using the immediate drain method to perform quiesce on a node, any operator can now access a quiesced server for root cause analysis or remediation, regardless of their user role or privileges. For quiesced server access when using the slow drain method, you must still include either the PegaRULES:HighAvailabilityAdministrator or PegaRULES:HighAvailabilityQuiesceInvestigator user role in a user's access group. Administrators using the slow drain method without either of these user roles are exiled from the quiesced node and are redirected to an active node.

For more information, see Immediate drain available for quiesce when using high availability.

Easy access to proposition-related rules when creating change requests in revision management

When selecting propositions for change requests in Decision Strategy Manager, you can view the proposition filter, strategy, and when rules that are associated with the decision data the selected propositions belong to. In addition, you can include those rules in change requests. To view and add any associated rules to a change request, the rules must be part of the application overlay. With the ability to view and select all proposition-related data, you can consistently revise not only propositions themselves but also all associated rules.

For more information, see Proposition-centric revision management functionality.

View application quality metrics by data type

You can now view application quality metrics by data type on the Application Quality landing page. The new Data Types tab displays metrics for data types grouped by data objects, which enables you to more quickly understand the overall coverage of the application's integrations and interfaces.

For more information about data type metrics, see Application Quality landing page.

Automatically generate OpenAPI Specification documentation for application REST APIs

You can now access a clear, standard view of all the REST APIs in your application by using autogenerated OpenAPI Specification (OAS) documentation. In App Studio, you can view the OAS documentation generated for application-specific REST APIs by using the new Application tab in the API channel. Additionally, service package rules now include an OpenAPI tab where you can view the automatically generated OAS documentation for all the REST services included in the service package. With these enhancements, you can easily find, visualize, and test the REST APIs in your application.

For more information, see Generating OpenAPI Specification documentation for application-specific REST APIs.

PegaWAI ruleset deprecated in 8.5

Accessibility functions that were contained in the PegaWAI ruleset are now integrated into the main Pega Platform™. Consequently, the user interface in your applications now features accessibility functions out of the box, so you no longer need to use the PegaWAI ruleset to ensure accessible behavior in your application.

For more information, see Building an accessible UI.