Published Release Notes

Unable to drop triggers for frameworks with custom rule tables

For PostgreSQL and z/OS systems, if your deployment includes a framework or application with custom rule tables (such as CPM or any applcation built on CPM), upgrading to Pega 7.1.x causes the DDL application to fail when it tries to drop the following stored procedures:

• z/OS
  • SPPR_RULE_VW_UPDATE
  • PRPC_UPDATESCACHE
• PostgreSQL
  • sppr_base_uc_del.sql
  • sppr_base_uc_ins.sql
  • sppr_base_uc_upd.sql
  • sppr4_fv_ins
  • sppr4_fv_upd

During an upgrade, a number of stored procedures must be dropped and re-added. If the framework or application has custom dependencies that call the stored procedure, this problem is likely to occur.

To correct this issue, drop the framework’s custom dependencies before upgrading and add back the dependencies following the upgrade.

For instructions about how to drop and add the dependencies for your framework and database when this problem occurs, see Troubleshooting: PRPC 7.1.6 upgrade does not drop PRPC_UPDATESCACHE stored procedure.

Enhanced performance and usability of Cosmos React tables

Security fields in JFrog Artifactory repository do not work

The fields in the Security section of the JFrog Artifactory repository rule form, including the Secure protocol field, the Truststore field, and the Keystore field, were not implemented. In the Pega™ Platform 7.3 Designer Studio help, disregard the optional Security section in step 4 of the Configuring a JFrog Artifactory or Amazon S3 repository connection help topic, and disregard the optional Security section in step 5 of the Creating a repository configuration help topic in the 7.3.1 Designer Studio help.

Limits on active data flow runs

You can now configure a maximum number of concurrent active data flow runs for a node type. Set limits to ensure that you do not run out of system resources and that you have a reasonable processing throughput. If a limit is reached, the system queues subsequent runs and waits for active runs to stop or finish before queued runs can be initiated, starting with the oldest.

For more information see, Limit the number of active runs in data flow services (8.5).

Upgrade impact

If you have many data flow runs active at the same time, you might notice that some of the runs are queued and waiting to be executed.

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

You do not have to take any action. After the active runs stop or finish, the queued runs start automatically. The default limits are intended to protect your system resources, and you should not see a negative impact on the processing of data flows. However, if you want to allow a greater number of active data flow runs to be active at the same time, you can change the limits. For more information, see Limiting active data flow runs.

Visual enhancements and native search in UI-Kit 14

In addition to general bug fixes, UI-Kit 14 provides new font icons and enhancements to support Pega Infinity Mobile Client™ apps, such as a default native search configuration for finding case data. The improvements reflect the latest design trends and Pega Platform™ UI capabilities. By using UI Kit's sample end-user UI styling and components, you provide a consistent user experience across your applications.

In addition, the UI-Kit 14 introduces the following changes:

• The red triangle icon has been removed from error messages.
• The color of the calendar icon is now consistent with other icons.
• All caret down icons for auto-complete and multi-select lists use the caret-down.svg file.
• Checkbox alignment has been improved with the reduction of the left margin by 1px.
• The border-radius value has been reduced to 4px.
• The background and box shadow for rich text editor have been removed.
• The bottom margin for radio buttons has been removed.
• The header height of the None container format has been changed to 50px.
• The label font size has been changed to 14px.
• The label and border color have been slightly darkened.

Accessibility support using WAI-ARIA roles

The Pega 7 Platform supports accessibility by using Web Accessibility Initiative Accessible Rich Internet Application (WAI-ARIA) roles. WAI-ARIA roles are a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) ontology that specifies roles, states, or properties for each user interface element. Roles provide semantic information about features, structures, and behaviors that assistive technologies use to convey information to users.

• The dynamic container is marked as the main content area by default. When a user tabs through a page, the user can choose to follow a skip to the main content link by pressing the Enter key.
• WAI-ARIA roles are included by default on screen layouts, and each panel of the screen layout is assigned a role that is based on its position.
• Dynamic layouts can be configured with a specific WAI-ARIA role, depending on the function of the layout in the user interface.

Improve cluster security by limiting concurrent operator sessions

You can increase the security of a Pega^® Platform cluster by limiting the number of concurrent sessions allowed for each operator. Because operators typically do not require multiple concurrent sessions for performing their work, limiting the number of sessions reduces the chance that an unknown or untrusted person could access systems in the cluster. Use the new setting Number of concurrent sessions allowed for each operator on the Production tab of the System Data Instance form to configure the number of concurrent sessions for operators. You must restart your system when you change this setting. You can also create a list of operators by using the presence/maxsessions/operators/whitelist Dynamic System Setting, to which the maximum number of concurrent sessions setting will not apply.

For more information, see System form - Completing the Production tab.

Decisioning services now use default node classification

Decisioning services have been integrated with default node classification on Pega^® Platform to provide a unified way of creating and initializing services. As a result of the integration, the Data Flow service has been divided into Batch and Real Time services to better handle different types of data flow runs. You can now specify separate subsets of Data Flow nodes for batch data flow runs and real-time data flow runs to divide the workload between these two subsets.

For more information, see Node classification, Data Flows landing page, and Services landing page.

Failed Robotic Assignments work queue type changed to Standard

The default Failed Robotic Assignments work queue type is now Standard. In previous releases, the default type was Robotic. For usage information, see Configuring a work queue for robotic automation.

Upgrade impact

After upgrading to Pega Platform 8.5 and later, you cannot save case types in which you configure the Queue for robot smart shape to route new assignments to the Failed Robotic Assignments work queue. Existing assignments that you routed to the Failed Robotic Assignments work queue are not affected.

How do I update my application to be compatible with this change?

As a best practice, do not use the Failed Robotic Assignments work queue in your custom implementations. Instead, configure the Queue for robot smart shape to route new assignments to a Robotic work queue. When possible, update existing case types to use the robotic work queues that you created in your application.

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.