Published Release Notes

HDFS data sets support Parquet files

The Parquet file format has been added to the list of supported file formats for data storage in the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) data set record. On the Pega 7 Platform, you can now access an HDFS data set that stores data in the Parquet file format and perform various operations on that data set.

For more information, see Big Data enhancements in decision management.

New rule type: External Data Flow

You can now create External Data Flow rules on the Pega 7 Platform. By using this rule type, you run predictive models outside of the Pega 7 Platform and directly in the external Hadoop data set infrastructure. Processing large amounts of data on an external infrastructure improves overall performance on the Pega 7 Platform by reducing data transfer between the Hadoop cluster and the platform.

For more information, see Big Data enhancements in decision management.

Circumstance a rule by different properties

You can specialize or circumstance a rule by a different property even if the base rule is circumstanced by another property. This flexibility can help address cases where the same rule needs to be circumstanced by different properties. When you circumstance a rule by different properties, the circumstanced versions of the rule must be in different rulesets or Applies To classes.

You can circumstance a rule by a different property in the same ruleset, but in a higher version, by withdrawing the existing circumstanced versions.

For more information, see Circumstance a rule with different properties or templates.

Usability improvements in Pega Express

The following enhancements have been made in Pega Express to improve your development experience:

• Case Designer now has an option to create a case so that you can quickly test changes to the configuration of your case types.
• There are fewer steps in the process for configuring a dynamic view.
• Some controls on the screen have been repositioned for easier access and support for users who are not using a mouse.
• Some elements on the Life cycle tab of Case Designer support keyboard navigation when you use the Tab, Enter, Right Arrow, or Left Arrow keys.
• The status of a case can be set at the assignment level.

For more information about these changes, see:

• Creating a case
• Configuring a dynamic view
• Configuring a case at run time
• Adding an assignment to a process

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.

Add charts to reports

In Pega Express, you can now add charts to reports and edit existing charts. Select from a wide range of chart types and subtypes to meet your business needs.

For more information, see Adding or editing charts.

Goal and deadline push notifications in mobile apps

For mobile apps, you can enable push notifications to be sent to an assignee's or a manager's mobile device when a defined goal or deadline interval related to a service-level agreement expires. These notifications help caseworkers resolve cases on time.

For more information, see Requirements for goal and deadline push notifications.

View and apply schema changes when upgrading or updating

When you upgrade or update, you can view the schema changes to the default work and history tables and apply the changes to your cloned tables. By applying the changes, you improve performance and can take advantage of the latest reports on those tables.

For information about viewing and applying schema changes as part of the upgrade or update, see the Pega 7 Platform Upgrade Guide or the Pega 7 Platform Update Guide.

For information about using the Designer Studio tool or the command-line tool, see Updating cloned tables after an upgrade or update.

Discontinued support for multithreaded requestors

Multithreaded requestors are no longer supported in the Pega 7 Platform. Multithreading was previously specified by the prconfig setting initialization/allowMultiplePRThreads. If this setting is set to true when you upgrade to Pega 7.2.1, errors occur during the quiesce process.

Configure additional email accounts for Pulse notifications

You can now configure individual email accounts for each application for which you want to send Pulse email notifications. For example, you can configure a specific email account to send Pulse notifications for an HR Services application, a Release Management application, and so on.

For more information, see Configuring Pulse notifications on additional email accounts.