Published Release Notes

Deprecated support for Pega Platform deployments on embedded Cassandra

If you use Pega Platform™ decision management capabilities, Pega Platform uses Cassandra as the underlying storage system for the Decision Data Store (DDS), which manages the Cassandra cluster and stores decision management data in a Cassandra database. Future versions of Pega Platform will no longer support deployments on embedded Cassandra. In Pega Platform version 8.6, deployments using embedded Cassandra are deprecated but still work. To ensure future compatibility, do not create any new installations using embedded Cassandra.

For information about how to configure Pega Platform to access an external database, see Defining Pega Platform access to an external Cassandra database.

Virtual questions deprecated in 8.6

Following the improvements in Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA), the creation of virtual questions is now deprecated and planned for removal. To avoid additional effort during updates to future releases, do not use deprecated features. For optimal application performance and efficient development of conversation processes, you now collect information from users by using the Ask a question smart shape.

For more information, see Adding a case type conversation process for a conversational channel and Asking a question in a case.

Text analytics on the Pega 7 Platform

The Pega 7 Platform offers users the capability to analyze units of text, extract quality information, and translate it into business intelligence. The text analytics functionality aims to determine the positive, negative, and neutral polarities (tone) of subjective sentences. It also provides mechanisms for categorizing units of text and classifying text elements into predefined categories. You can use it to analyze text-based content including news feeds, emails, and postings on social media streams, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

For more information, see Introduction to text analytics on the Pega 7 Platform.

Semantic URLs in Pega Platform

URL addresses for Pega Platform™ applications and application resources now appear as clear, meaningful paths. This enhancement helps users understand the structure of the application that they are using, which makes navigation quicker and more intuitive.

Loading cues in Pega Platform

Pega Platform™ applications that rely on the Cosmos React framework now feature a visual placeholder for the page that is being loaded. The system displays an indicator when loading portals, cases, simple pages, and list pages. This update provides users with a visual cue that their request is being processed, which improves the user experience.

Deployment Manager on Pega Cloud Services

Pega Cloud Services introduces Deployment Manager support, a service that is automatically installed and configured in Pega Cloud environments running Pega Platform 7.4 and higher. Deployment Manager on Pega Cloud allows you to manage the deployment of your Pega Cloud applications through staging to production environments. For details see Deployment Manager 03.01.01.

Verifying that a Pega 7 Platform instance is running

You can verify whether a Pega 7 Platform instance is up and running by entering this URL: http://<<hostName:port/contextName>>/PRRestService/monitor/pingservice/ping

The Pega 7 Platform Engine responds with HTTP Response Code 200 if the instance is available. The response contains JSON text in the format { "duration":"<time in milliseconds>" }. Any other response codes or timeout indicate that the instance is unavailable.

Data Flow service in the Pega 7 Platform

The Data Flow service configuration on the Services landing page now provides a single point of entry for enabling running data flows in batch and real-time modes. To configure the Data Flow service, you must add Decision data nodes on which to run data flows and specify the number of Pega 7 Platform threads that are assigned to process the data flow runs. Additionally, as part of the Data Flow service, you can view the number of active data flows on each node.

For more information, see Services landing page.

External keystore support in Pega Platform

Pega^® Platform now provides the ability to source certificates and encryption keys from external keystores. You use the Keystore rule to specify alternatives to the platform's database to source certificates and keys. You can choose to use a data page, a URL, or an external file in one of the following standard formats: JKS, JWK, PKCS12, KEYTAB, or KEY. Keystore information is stored in cache memory only. It is not stored on the clipboard nor is it directly accessible to the application logic.

For more information, see Creating a Keystore data instance.

Send event notifications in Pega Platform

You can configure applications to notify users of case changes or other significant events that occur in an application. Use notifications to engage application users by providing key updates that might be of interest to them.

You can deliver notifications over the default web gadget and email channels or use a custom channel that you created. You can configure multiple web gadgets to display different kinds of notifications. The email channel supports notification frequency of instant, daily, or weekly.

Application users can set their own notification preferences in the run-time portals or override the set preferences for a specific case type instance.

For more information, see Sending event notifications and Management of user notification preferences.