Published Release Notes

Improved offline support for mobile apps

The updated offline mode in Pega Platform™ now reduces implementation time, enhances the development process, and helps you create a more comprehensive mobile experience for users without a reliable web connection.

The improved offline support includes the following enhancements:

• Offline-enabled apps now use native mobile UI components, such as headers and bottom bars.
• Offline mode now supports decision trees for improved case processing. 
• Users can now process multiple cases simultaneously in separate offline tabs, which leads to higher productivity.
• Offline-enabled apps now work more efficiently because of improved caching and background synchronization.

For more information, see Working with offline apps.

Improved case auditing in App Studio

In Cosmos UI, App Studio now supports expandable case steps. This enhancement helps users quickly navigate a case and provides deeper insight into the case flow. In addition, Cosmos UI also introduces an improved history view that helps you better meet your business auditing requirements.

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

Upgrade impact

After an upgrade to Pega Platform 8.5 or later, the history and chevron designs change automatically. However, applications with custom history settings might still display the styling that you defined in the override.

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

If your application uses custom settings and you want to use the updated history, remove the overrides from the pyWorkCommonActions rule.

Support for validations in Declare Expression rules

Pega Platform™ now correctly evaluates validations on target properties in Declare Expression rules. As a result, any validations defined on properties that have Declare Expression rules in previous releases, now work correctly. 

Upgrade impact

Any unintended validations on properties that have configured Declare Expression rules, both default and user-defined, might cause issues in an application upon saving work objects and data objects that refer to Declare Expression rules.

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

If you experience issues when saving objects, debug your application by setting the declareexp/target/validation/disable dynamic system setting to true. If your application works correctly after the change, it means that validations on Declare Expressions cause the issues. For your application to work correctly, analyze the log files and remove any unintended validations.

For more information, see Declare Expression rules.

Enhancements in list view authoring and run-time editing of Cosmos React tables

Cosmos React tables now offer an enriched and more convenient way of authoring and editing. You can now achieve the following results:

• Enable editing in the list view template that holds your table so that users can instantly change values inline or preview and edit a referenced object from the table in a pop-up window.
• Change the label, format, or helper text for a column at design time.
• Create multiple preset views with different filters, and switch between these views at run time.
• Perform a variety of optional actions on a table row, such as update, change stage, preview, and open a row in a new tab.

These enhancements result in a better user experience by making tables more customizable, intuitive, and interactive.

For more information, see Enhance the user experience with new Cosmos React tables (8.6), Configuring a React table in a section (for Theme Cosmos applications), and Configuring lists (for Cosmos React applications).

Both Transfer and Transfer Assignment flow actions are displayed in the Bulk Actions tool

Both the deprecated Transfer flow action and its Pega 7.1.7 replacement Transfer Assignment (pyTransferAssignment) might appear in the Select Action menu on the Bulk Actions tool.

Either of the following situations can cause this behavior:

• The original application did not contain the UI-Kit-7 ruleset, for example, the application was built on Pega 7.1.5.
  • The default flow actions are based on BulkProcessTransferFlowAction system settings.
  • If you add pyTransferAssignment as a local action in a case type rule, users will see both old and new actions.
  • The flow actions are still available unless you override the settings.
• The upgraded application uses the UI Kit ruleset, but the Transfer local action was defined in the original case type rule and copied to the application.
  • The original is explicitly defined in the application.
  • pyTransferAssignment is available through the system settings in the UI Kit.

As a best practice, upgrade Transfer flow actions to Transfer Assignment in your flows and local actions. The UI Kit ruleset ensures that the new flow actions are optimized for mobile interfaces. In addition, Transfer Assignment provides multiple transfer functions (to manager, workbasket, advanced options) in a single form.

Alternatively, keep the original system settings so that the existing flow actions are still available.

Automatic management of run-time context for background processing

Management of system run-time context is now automatic. You no longer need to manually modify the AsyncProcessor requestor type context to make a queue processor or job scheduler work after importing or upgrading an application. Additionally, you do not need to manually modify the AsyncProcessor requestor type context to make new queue processors and job schedulers work.

For more information, see System general landing page and Automating the runtime context management of background processes.

Upgrade impact

After upgrade, you manage the runtime context of your background processing in System Runtime Context instead of in the deprecated AsyncProcessor requestor type.

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

Select the Include in background processing option in the Advanced section of the application rule form for all applications that use background processing (such as Job Schedulers and Queue Processing). When this option is enabled, the system automatically includes the rulesets (for the application and its components) in System Runtime Context used for resolving and running Queue Processors and Job Schedulers. Also, when the option is enabled, the application is placed on the System Runtime Context list during application rule saves (such as during application import and migration).

Validate rule support in offline-enabled applications

To enhance the user experience of your offline-enabled application, you can now use validate rules that are referenced by a flow action. You can also explicitly add other types of validate rules as offline-supported. The offline validation API provides two methods that you can use in your custom code to run from a Run script action or a custom JavaScript function. Several JavaScript utility functions, the equivalent of built-in Java functions for Pega^® Platform, are now also available.

For more information, see Validate rule support in offline mode and Function rule support in offline mode.

Apply logic to data import fields

When importing data from an external system, you can translate data fields into values that can be read by Pega^® Platform. From the Import wizard, you can do the following actions:

• Apply a decision tree or decision table to the data that is imported for a field.
• Use imported data for a field to look up a value in another record. For example, you can look up the key of a record that uses an external identifier to populate a foreign key field.
• Create templates that contain business logic, which eliminates the need to handle data transformations manually during preprocessing.

For more information, see Transforming data during import.

Personalized views in table layouts

Table layouts now provide users with the option to save preferred run-time configurations, such as column visibility and filtering, as permanent profiles. This enhancement helps users create dedicated views for specific work scenarios, which reduces the need for repetitive adjustments to the user interface and improves productivity.

For more information, see Enabling table personalization.

Upgrade impact

After an upgrade to 8.4 and later, the default table toolbar styling and experience may be unexpectedly different for any customized tables in a client's application: if you enabled a tool bar action for a personalizable table and the 8.4 application overrides your customization, your application now displays the default 8.4 table toolbar.

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

Existing clients that upgrade to Pega Platform 8.4 and later may need to update applications in some scenarios. Any custom actions present in the overridden section may need to be re-authored into this toolbar using the additional actions section.

Label changes to field types in Case Designer

The following field types have been renamed in Case Designer to be consistent with Data Designer and other areas of the Pega 7 Platform.

Users who upgrade from versions prior to Pega 7.2 do not have to take any action because the label changes are cosmetic and do not affect the underlying controls or property types that support form building.

For more information about the field types that you can use when building a form, see Storage and display of single-value fields.