Published Release Notes

Multi-answer questions available for surveys

Pega Platform™ now supports multi-answer questions for all types of surveys. You can use multi-answer questions to collect multiple answers from users. For example, you can ask users to list all the languages that they speak by selecting multiple check boxes.

For more information, see Designing a survey.

Identify, install, and manage hotfixes with the Hotfix Manager

Hotfixes are packages of files that address issues in Pega 7 and in participating Industry Applications. With Hotfix Manager, you can:

• Scan your system for installed and missing critical hotfixes and create a report that you can provide to Pegasystems Support for diagnostic purposes.
• Review the descriptions and contents of hotfixes.
• Install, rollback, and commit hotfixes.
• Manage hotfixes that include schema changes or require other special handling.

The Hotfix Manager replaces the Update Manager Hotfix Installer and System Scanner, both of which are deprecated. For more information, see Hotfix Manager identifies, installs, and manages hotfixes to Pega 7 and participating Industry Applications.

End of support for Netscape Plugin API in Google Chrome 45

Beginning with Chrome 45, which is expected to be available in September 2015, Google is ending support for browser plug-ins that rely on the Netscape Plugin API (NPAPI) architecture. These plug-ins include Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player, and Java.

The Pega 7 Platform includes several optional features that use these plug-ins. For a detailed overview of these features, see Client-side technologies.

Updates to the Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX) product

The Business Intelligence Exchange (BIX) add-on has been updated with several new features. BIX 7.1.8 fully supports extraction of data from a Pega 7 multi-tenant instance. BIX can also now be run on Pega Cloud instances. Additionally, the new pxExtractDataWithArgs activity can be used by on-premises customers to schedule BIX runs by using Pega Platform agents.

For more information, see the BIX 7.1 User Guide.

View status of custom search indexes

Custom search indexes are special purpose indexes that are created and managed outside of Pega Platform™. You can view the status of custom search indexes on the Search landing page to see whether they are complete. This information is useful for troubleshooting and can help you determine whether to rebuild the index.

For more information, see Checking search index status.

Enabling access to upgraded help

After upgrading to Pega Platform ™ 8.1, the default URL to the upgraded help files might be incorrect. To enable access to the latest help files, reset the URL:

1. In the header of Dev Studio, click Configure > System > Settings > URLs.
2. Enter the Online Help URL:

   https://community.pega.com/sites/default/files/help_v81/

3. Click Save.
4. Log out and log back into Pega Platform.

Using SAML 2.0 for web single sign-on

Provide a seamless user-authentication experience across your SAML 2.0-enabled service provider applications by using SAML 2.0 for web single sign-on.

Pega uses this industry-standard protocol to ensure simple and proven connectivity with your Identity Provider (IdP). The Pega 7 platform is fully conformant with the SAML 2.0 web single sign-on and single logout profiles.

For additional information about SAML 2.0 conformance, including configuring Pega 7 as a service provider, see SAML 2.0 conformance for web single sign-on and single logout profiles.

New Email Manager portal

From the Email Manager portal you can more easily and quickly triage received emails and create business cases in a Pega Platform™ application. You can use the Email Manager portal with an application that is used with Intelligent Virtual Assistant for Email. The Email Manager portal suggests business cases for you to create from emails and automatically sends replies to a customer.

For more information, see Email Manager portal.

@java and locatable pages no longer supported

@java and locatable pages are no longer supported. Existing rules that use @java and locatable pages will continue to work; however, changes to these rules cannot be saved unless @java and locatable pages are replaced by supported functionality. Use a rule utility function (RUF) instead of an @java page, and use a data page instead of a locatable page. In addition, Pega Platform™ displays a guardrail warning when you open a rule that uses an @java page or a locatable page.

Log Management adds log categories

Pega Platform™ provides default log categories, but now you can also create custom log categories. You can associate loggers with a defined category according to your criteria and you can select the log level for all loggers in that category. The log level determines the type and severity of messages that are included in the log file. For example, you can choose to show all log messages or only the most severe.

For more information, see Log categories and Log levels for log categories.