Published Release Notes

Remote case types in App Studio

App Studio now supports remote case types for applications that you build on Cosmos React. With remote case types, you can create a case type inside one application, and then work on cases based on this case type in another, remote application. As a result, users can perform work from multiple applications on one screen without the need to switch between applications, which results in increased efficiency and faster case resolution.

For more information, see:

• Increase efficiency by sharing remote case types between applications (8.6)
• Remote case types  

Managed real-time data flow runs

Pega Platform™ now fully manages the life cycle of real-time data flow runs which helps you save time and reduce maintenance efforts. You no longer need to re-create the runs in every environment and manually pause and restart them after every modification. The application manages such runs by seamlessly implementing your changes and keeping the runs active until they encounter a specified number of errors or until you exclude the runs from the application.

For more information, see Tutorial: Using managed data flow runs and Creating a real-time run for data flows

Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) policies for APIs and REST services

You can now use cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) policies to control how external systems and websites (origins) are permitted to access resources such as APIs and services within your applications. For example, Pega^® Platform uses CORS policies to restrict which Pega Robotic client applications can connect to your Pega applications, and to limit which mobile apps can call Pega mobile services. Using CORS policies results in reduced cost and implementation times, while providing increased security when other systems or websites interact with your application.

For more information, see Creating a cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) policy and Mapping an endpoint to a cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) policy.

Tracer support for Cosmos React

The Tracer tool is now available for stateless applications, so that you can trace and debug applications that you build on Cosmos React. Because in a stateless application multiple requests can run simultaneously, to provide clarity, Tracer shows the events by request ID instead of grouping the events by the time of occurrence. For greater convenience, debugging Cosmos React applications is also available in an offline Tracer tool. As a result, you speed up the development process and deliver top-quality applications that are free of bugs.

For more information, see:

• Debug your Cosmos React applications faster with Tracer (8.6)
• Application debugging by using the Tracer tool
• Pega Digital Experience (DX) API
• Cosmos React

Improved reliability of Visual Business Director

Improvements to the reliability of Visual Business Director (VBD) eliminate the impact of temporary access loss to the VBD cluster. The improvements include the ability to continue writing data to a VBD dataset while the corresponding server node is unavailable, enhancements to single-case data flows that write data to VBD, and a reduction in the VBD cache size.

For more information, see Eliminate the impact of temporary access loss to the VBD cluster (8.4).

Improved case previews and case utility enhancements

The collapsible preview panel in Cosmos applications has been enhanced. The preview panel now helps users complete assignments in the previewed case directly from the panel, to save time. The preview also includes a clickable case stage link which displays an overlay with the case life cycle and all its steps for better context.

Additionally, to help save screen space when a case is fully opened, the collapsed or expanded state of the utility panel now persists for all cases that you open in the same browser tab.

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

New dynamic setting to manage validation of hidden fields

Pega Platform™ version 8.6.4 introduces a new DSS setting for Theme Cosmos and other section-based applications. The validateHiddenField setting controls whether the application validates fields that you hide through visibility rules. By default, validateHiddenField is set to true, which means that the application fields are validated for completeness even if they are not displayed in the form. You can also switch off this functionality by changing the setting value to false. 

For more information, see Managing field validation in hidden sections.

WebSphere log error with Java 8 for Enterprise JavaBeans

For environments that are deployed by using Java 8 on IBM WebSphere Application Server version 8.5.5.9 through the last 8.5.5.x fix pack, the log might report that a class was not found when the application server attempts to start Enterprise JavaBeans. If Java EE functionality is not needed, no further action is required. However, to use Enterprise JavaBeans, see WebSphere log error with Java 8 for Enterprise JavaBeans.

Connect to external REST APIs by using OAuth 2.0

You can now connect to external REST services that are provided by web applications, such as Twitter and Facebook, by using the OAuth 2.0 protocol client credentials grant. Your Pega 7 Platform application acts as an OAuth 2.0 client to access protected API resources. For example, you can connect to Twitter by using OAuth 2.0 to obtain a collection of tweets that match a specific query.

For more information, see Accessing protected API resources by using OAuth 2.0.

Flexbox support for all default layouts

To improve scalability, Pega Platform supports flexbox-based layouts by default in all its screen and column layouts and layout groups. You can convert existing layouts to flexbox-based layouts by selecting the Optimized code option on the Presentation tab of the layout.

For more information, see Screen Layout Properties.