Published Release Notes

Text analytics on the Pega 7 Platform

The Pega 7 Platform offers users the capability to analyze units of text, extract quality information, and translate it into business intelligence. The text analytics functionality aims to determine the positive, negative, and neutral polarities (tone) of subjective sentences. It also provides mechanisms for categorizing units of text and classifying text elements into predefined categories. You can use it to analyze text-based content including news feeds, emails, and postings on social media streams, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

For more information, see Introduction to text analytics on the Pega 7 Platform.

Verifying that a Pega 7 Platform instance is running

You can verify whether a Pega 7 Platform instance is up and running by entering this URL: http://<<hostName:port/contextName>>/PRRestService/monitor/pingservice/ping

The Pega 7 Platform Engine responds with HTTP Response Code 200 if the instance is available. The response contains JSON text in the format { "duration":"<time in milliseconds>" }. Any other response codes or timeout indicate that the instance is unavailable.

MBeans deprecated in favor of Pega API

The use of MBeans for cluster management has been deprecated, although MBeans will continue to function for legacy deployments. The recommended best practice for automating system management is to use the Pega API. For more information, see Pega API.

Support for multiple custom mobile apps for a Pega Platform application

To enhance the user experience and provide support for native mobile components, you can create multiple custom mobile apps for a Pega Platform™ application. For each custom mobile app, you must create a different mobile channel interface. In addition, you can configure each custom mobile app to run only in a specific portal for an application. The custom mobile app uses this portal regardless of which default portal is defined for the access group.

For more information, see Selecting a portal for a custom mobile app.

Search indexes require rebuilding after upgrading from Pega Platform 7.1.7 through 7.2.1

Pega Platform™ now supports Elasticsearch 5.6.9. If you are upgrading from Pega 7.1.7 through 7.2.1, discard your existing indexes and build new indexes in a new empty index directory. Create the search indexes by using the Search landing page or the full text indexer. If you are upgrading from Pega Platform 7.2.2 or later, no action is required. You can continue to use your existing search indexes.

For more information, see Rebuilding search indexes and Batch creation and updating of Elasticsearch index files from the command line.

Support for an external Elasticsearch cluster for on-premises deployments

On-premises customers can configure an Elasticsearch cluster that is external to the Pega Platform™ by using client-server mode. Using an external search configuration makes Elasticsearch more highly available and scalable. 

You can view the status of your external Elasticsearch service on the Search landing page. For more information, see link to Viewing the status of an external search service.

Search field type is deprecated

The search field type in Form Builder is deprecated. Use a data reference or user reference instead, both of which prompt users with an autocomplete field at run time.

For the full list of supported field types in Form Builder, see Supported display modes by field type.

DCO Compatibility tool is deprecated

The DCO Compatibility tool has been deprecated. Use the Application Guardrails landing page to see the compliance score and any warnings for your application.

For more information, see Application Guardrails landing page.

For Microsoft SQL Server deployments, change settings to create data types in Integration Designer

For on-premises deployments that use Microsoft SQL Server, set the Pega-Reporting/reporting/useMergeHintForRRquery dynamic system setting to true. If you do not configure this setting, you might not be able to create a new data type in Integration Designer that uses Pega as the system of record. Configure the setting as follows:

• Owning ruleset: Pega-Reporting
• Setting purpose: reporting/useMergeHintForRRquery
• Value: true

For more information about configuring dynamic system settings, see Creating a dynamic system setting.

Support for character data type on local variables in activities deprecated

Support for the character data type for local variables in activities is deprecated. Use the string data type instead.

For more information about activities, see Activities.