Published Release Notes

Default views for cases and data objects

Pega Platform™ now generates default views for new case types and data objects. Because of this feature, your application now automatically creates a case summary and case details view for every new case type, and a list view for each data object. The default views automate a common recurring task, and improve productivity by reducing development effort.

IMAGE data type replaced by varbinary(max) in SQLServer

Because Microsoft is discontinuing support for the IMAGE data type, the Pega 7 Platform now supports the varbinary(max) data type, which will replace the IMAGE data type. All new columns in existing tables and all new tables will use the varbinary(max) data type instead of the IMAGE data type, and IMAGE columns will be automatically converted to varbinary(max).

Upgrade utility for Get Next Work performance

You can run a utility to upgrade Get Next Work processing to more quickly process assignments that were created in versions of the Pega 7 Platform earlier than 7.2.2. Performance is automatically improved on new installations.

For more information, see Upgrading Get Next Work performance.

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.

A new transition effect for actions in custom mobile apps

Custom mobile apps that are developed on the Pega 7 Platform can include a new transition effect that animates your navigation in cases that use flows. This feature adds to the look-and-feel experience of the custom mobile app.

You can also add the pega.mobile.transitions.GO_HOME transition effect to actions that do not support built-in effects by using the Run Script action and calling the pega.desktop.setNativeTransition() JavaScript method.

For more information, see Transition effects on actions.

Run PegaUnit tests by using an API call

A new REST API is now available to create and run PegaUnit tests from an external continuous improvement (CI) tool. This synchronous method allows for the processing of large quantities of tests while reducing the possibility of time-out issues. This additional method of performing PegaUnit testing does not impact users who want to continue using their current testing workflow. 

For more information about setting up your environment and making API calls with Deployment Manager, see the Documentation/readme-for-swagger.md file in the DeploymentManager04_08_0x.zip file, found in the Deployment Manager download package. 

Optimized performance of Proposition Filter rules using audience simulation tests

Improve the performance of your proposition filters by testing them against simulated audiences. You can check how many potential offers are being filtered by each condition of the filter, and discover if a particular criterion is too broad or too narrow for your requirements.

For more information, see Optimize the performance of your Proposition Filter rules with audience simulation tests (8.4).

Strategies are now available as a condition type in proposition filters

When designing proposition filters, you can now include strategy outcomes as a condition to be evaluated. Select a strategy and specify the component that you want to use as output to include more advanced decisioning in your proposition filters.

For more information, see Enrich your Proposition Filter rules with conditions based on strategy results.

Support for custom topic detection models through an API

In Prediction Studio, you can now connect to your custom topic detection models through an API. You can then use the models to categorize and route messages from your customers.

For more information, see Broaden your selection of topic detection models by connecting to third-party services (8.5).

Improved tabbed layout group

Tabbed layout groups now generate semantic markup, which helps conform to accessibility standards. As a result, the tabs in the preview panel support numbers, for example, for items that might require attention, and a horizontal scroll bar if the number of tabs does not fit the display.

For more information, see Enhance the case processing experience in Theme Cosmos applications (8.6).