Published Release Notes

Improving basic access control

Pega Platform™ has implemented a new basic access control (BAC) to protect your application from unauthorized server calls from otherwise authenticated users.

For more information, see Access Control Checks.

Upgrade impact

After you upgrade to Pega 8.5, all the functionality in the model configurations that use auto-generated controls and actions continues to work as before. However, you must secure any customized JavaScript in your application layer that makes AJAX (server) calls  by using registration or encryption mechanisms.

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

After upgrade, to migrate custom JavaScript functionality, see Access Control Checks.

Signature Capture control

The Signature Capture control allows you to capture a user's signature when using either a desktop application or a mobile app accessed from the Pega 7 mobile application. Once a user has input a signature, it is added to the work item as an image attachment.

Access the Signature Capture control from the Advanced dropdown in Designer Studio.

See How to use the Signature Capture control.

Address Map control

The Address Map control creates an instance of Google Maps in an application at runtime that can be used in both desktop applications and mobile apps that use the Pega 7 mobile application.

This control allows users to interact with multiple points on a map and see location details, and can display directions and distance between a current position and a specified address.

Access the Address Map control from the Advanced dropdown in Designer Studio.

See How to use the Address Map control.

New JWT access token format: Authorized Access Token

Pega Platform™ is changing from using opaque tokens to using JSON Web (JWT) tokens and the JWT access token format: Authorized Access Token (AAT). An AAT enables a client application to validate the server for user permissions and authorizes a specific application to access specific parts of a user’s data.

The major benefits to using the JWT format are:

• The JWT is a self-contained token that has authentication information, expire time information, and other user-defined claims digitally signed.
• A single token can be used with multiple applications.
• The tokens are short-lived and can minimize damage if transport security is compromised, as the token signature is verified.
• As the token is verified with the signature, there is no need to verify against a database, thus reducing latency (usually important for Web APIs).

For more information, see Understanding authorized access tokens.

Control group configuration for predictions

You can now configure a control group for your predictions in Prediction Studio. Based on the control group, Prediction Studio calculates a lift score for each prediction that you can later use to monitor the success rate of your predictions.

For more information, see Customizing predictions.

Limited access for end user portals

The following portals are only accessible from supported versions of Internet Explorer in “quirks” mode:

• WorkUser
• WorkManager

Improved access to Cosmos UI settings

The Settings tab in the App Studio case designer now includes tools for configuring Cosmos UI. With this enhancement, you can adjust design system settings without the need to specialize individual When rules in Dev Studio, which simplifies UI creation and saves development time.

For more information, see Managing Cosmos UI settings in case designer.

Ability to restrict access to the Import wizard

You can now restrict access to the Import wizard so that users implement an automated pipeline to deploy changes between environments such as staging and production. Deployment Manager is one method by which to create pipelines. By using pipelines to propagate changes, users can apply a standardized and automated deployment process for migrating their applications.

For more information, see:

• Ensuring that users migrate applications with a pipeline by restricting the Import wizard
• Understanding model-driven DevOps with Deployment Manager

All tabs are accessible on delegated rule forms

Delegates can now access all tabs in a delegated rule form.

You can continue to customize the development experience for delegated users, such as line managers, who may not require the full set of rule form options. For example, you can prevent users from adding new nodes on the Decision Tree form or using the expression builder on the Map Value form. All users, including delegated users, can remove these restrictions if they hold a rule-editing privilege.

For more details on this process and a list of commonly delegated rules, see How to delegate a rule.

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.