Published Release Notes

Enhanced entity extraction with the CRF method

The Free Text Model rule now uses the Conditional Random Field (CRF) method for named entity extraction. The CRF method improves the accuracy of entity extraction by using sequence tagging and by reducing the number of false positives that were generated in the process of extracting named entities from the text. In addition, you can define your own custom entities and import them into the Pega 7 Platform as entity extraction rules that contain Rule-based Text Annotation (Ruta) scripts.

For more information, see Improved Free Text Model rule type.

Support for additional key management services

By supporting additional key management services, Pega Platform™ offers you increased flexibility when defining keys that are used for encryption of application and internal system data. You can now create keystores that reference keys from key management services such as Microsoft Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp Vault, and Google Cloud KMS, in addition to Amazon KMS. You can also create a keystore that references other key management services through the use of a data page.

For more information, see Configuring a Microsoft Azure Key Vault keystore, Configuring a HashiCorp Vault keystore, and Configuring a Google Cloud KMS keystore.

Dynamic System Setting for selecting clipboard pages implementation

Create the dsm/clipboard/optimize Dynamic System Setting to select which clipboard pages to use for strategies and data flows in all contexts. Without this setting or with its value set to true, strategies and data flows work on DSM clipboard pages. When you set the value to false, strategies and data flows work on the conventional Pega 7 Platform clipboard pages. This Dynamic System Setting allows you to configure run strategies consistently and obtain consistent results.

For more information, see DSM clipboard pages implementation.

New assertions for data page unit test cases

You can now configure the following assertions for data page unit test cases:

• Result count assertions for page lists, page groups, value lists, and value groups
• Unordered list and ordered list assertions for page lists

The Pega 7 Platform now supports these assertions in addition to expected run-time assertions for the data page and property assertions for any property type.

For more information, see Data page unit test case assertions.

Associate specifications on implementation rule forms

You can now view, add, and delete the specifications that are associated with a rule on the new Specifications tab of most rule forms. The Specifications tab is available for almost all implementation rules, except for administrative and deprecated rule types. By associating specifications with the rules that implement them, you improve the end-to-end traceability of your specifications.

For more information, see Associating specifications on implementation rule forms.

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.

Execute Tests service to run all data page unit test cases

You can now use the Execute Tests service to run a set of tests at the end of build runs. An external validation engine, such as Jenkins, calls the service, which runs all data page unit test cases in your application, and returns the results in XUnit format. Use this service to validate the data in your application and to correct any issues before you deploy your application.

For more information, see Running all data page unit test cases with the Execute Tests service.

Automatic management of run-time context for background processing

Management of system run-time context is now automatic. You no longer need to manually modify the AsyncProcessor requestor type context to make a queue processor or job scheduler work after importing or upgrading an application. Additionally, you do not need to manually modify the AsyncProcessor requestor type context to make new queue processors and job schedulers work.

For more information, see System general landing page and Automating the runtime context management of background processes.

Upgrade impact

After upgrade, you manage the runtime context of your background processing in System Runtime Context instead of in the deprecated AsyncProcessor requestor type.

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

Select the Include in background processing option in the Advanced section of the application rule form for all applications that use background processing (such as Job Schedulers and Queue Processing). When this option is enabled, the system automatically includes the rulesets (for the application and its components) in System Runtime Context used for resolving and running Queue Processors and Job Schedulers. Also, when the option is enabled, the application is placed on the System Runtime Context list during application rule saves (such as during application import and migration).

Visual enhancements and native search in UI-Kit 14

In addition to general bug fixes, UI-Kit 14 provides new font icons and enhancements to support Pega Infinity Mobile Client™ apps, such as a default native search configuration for finding case data. The improvements reflect the latest design trends and Pega Platform™ UI capabilities. By using UI Kit's sample end-user UI styling and components, you provide a consistent user experience across your applications.

In addition, the UI-Kit 14 introduces the following changes:

• The red triangle icon has been removed from error messages.
• The color of the calendar icon is now consistent with other icons.
• All caret down icons for auto-complete and multi-select lists use the caret-down.svg file.
• Checkbox alignment has been improved with the reduction of the left margin by 1px.
• The border-radius value has been reduced to 4px.
• The background and box shadow for rich text editor have been removed.
• The bottom margin for radio buttons has been removed.
• The header height of the None container format has been changed to 50px.
• The label font size has been changed to 14px.
• The label and border color have been slightly darkened.

Enhanced data flow performance monitoring

The performance alert log now provides more detailed information about the data flows in your application. You can view performance details for data flows that are currently running and data flow runs that have completed successfully. You can also view a performance summary for data flow runs that are running for too long or have failed.

For more information, see:

• PEGA0082 alert: Dataflow started
• PEGA0083 alert: Dataflow complete
• PEGA0062 alert: Data flow execution time above threshold
• PEGA0072 alert: Data flow run failed