Published Release Notes

Token credentials authentication service

You can create a new type of authentication service for token credentials authentication, which is useful for offline mobile applications. With token credentials authentication, users need to enter their credentials only once in a session. Subsequent access to the server is authenticated with a token. The token can be generated by the Pega Platform™ authorization layer (OAuth 2.0) or issued by an external identity provider.

For more information, see Configuring a token credentials authentication service.

Faster starting offline-enabled mobile apps

Pega Platform™ and Pega Infinity Mobile Client™ now support access group data prepackaging when you build the executable files for an offline-enabled mobile app. This shortens the time needed to start a mobile app for the first time, because only the data that differs between the package and the current server state is synchronized. The data that is prepackaged comes from the access group cache, and you can decide what access group cache data should be excluded or additionally included in the package.

For more information, see Enabling access group data prepackaging during build.

Business logic-based routing cards enhancements

To ensure that the sequence of business logic-based routing cards conforms to your business requirements, you now have the option to change the order of the cards. For easier navigation across multiple routing cards, the system automatically collapses the cards for you, and you can then easily expand the cards that you need to display.

For more information, see Navigate easier across business logic-based routing cards (8.5), Assigning users automatically at run time.

Execute Tests service now supports application name as a parameter

You can now use the application name and version as a parameter when running the Execute Tests service (REST API). When you build an application on Pega® Platform in a continuous delivery pipeline, you can use the Execute Tests service to validate the quality of the build by running PegaUnit test cases that are configured for the application.

For more information about the service, see Running PegaUnit test cases and test suites with the Execute Tests service in Pega 7.3.1.

Support for large case attachments

You can now attach large files to a case on a variety of cloud storage options, including Pega Cloud File Storage, Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, and JFrog Artifactory. Files can be 1 to 2 GB depending on your environment configuration. Attachments are streamed to the selected storage option without being loaded into memory, which reduces the risk of generating an out-of-memory error. Additionally, all cloud instances now have the new Pega Cloud File Storage repository defined.

For more information, see Storing case attachments outside the Pega Platform database.

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.

Default node types replace untyped nodes

For better performance, Pega Platform™ now replaces untyped nodes with default node types.

If you set a node as untyped, the system defines this node with all of the following node types:

• WebUser
• BackgroundProcessing
• Search
• Stream

Use node classification and defined node types to manage resources, such as job schedulers or queue processors, without configuring multiple JVM arguments or experiencing unexpected system behavior.

For more information, see Node types, Node classification.

Improved creation of When rules with the condition builder

Define conditions for When rules by using the condition builder view. You can create new or select existing values, and then group conditions with ANDs, ORs, or advanced logic. The condition builder does not support functions; the method for defining the conditions to use functions is the same as in the previous versions of Pega Platform™. 

For more information, see Defining conditions with a condition builder, Defining conditions for a When rule.

New database tables for email bots

Pega Email Bot™ now uses two new database tables that make the system more reliable and improve system performance. The pc_work_triage table stores complete information about email triage cases for the email bot. The pr_index_tracktriageactions table stores information about captured actions in triage cases.

Upgrade impact

During an upgrade to Pega Platform™ 8.5, a dedicated job scheduler automatically migrates resolved and open triage cases to these email bot tables in the background. If you expose additional properties as database columns or expose additional custom columns in the pc_work table, you must prepare your application for this automated migration. For more information, see Migrating triage cases to new tables.

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

If the pc_work table in your application has no additional properties or custom columns, there is nothing to do; if it does, prior to an upgrade to Pega Platform 8.5, you must extend the pyPopulateColumnNamesExtension data transform to any exposed additional columns in legacy tables with this information.

For more information, see Database schema for email bot tables.

Legacy landing pages removed

The following legacy landing pages and their links in the Designer Studio menu have been removed:

• Designer Studio > Data Model > Clipboard Pages > Data Pages
• Designer Studio > Data Model > Clipboard Pages > Undefined Pages
• Designer Studio > Data Model > Classes & Properties > Class Relationships

The streamlined Designer Studio menu facilitates locating and navigating to landing pages.

For information about the replacements for these landing pages, see Deprecated features.