Published Release Notes

Support for Pega Platform 8.1 Patch releases

Pega Cloud Services updated the Standard maintenance activities definition to specify the adoption of Pega Platform 8.1 patch releases. For details see Pega Cloud maintenance and types of system updates.

Unified Messaging Desktop integration with Pega Platform

You can now use the Pega Unified Messaging Desktop™ customer service solution with a Pega Platform™ application so that customer service representatives (CSRs) and other users, such as managers, can respond to user requests more quickly and in a more consistent manner. With integrated Pega Unified Messaging Desktop, CSRs can escalate user requests from Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistants™ (IVAs) by using case processing and artificial intelligence alongside Pega Customer Service™

For more information, see Develop a single IVA channel to chat across different messaging platforms.

Node types renamed after upgrade from Pega 7.2.2 to Pega Platform 7.3

If you used node classification in Pega^® 7.2.2, when you upgrade to Pega 7.3, node type names are automatically changed to a new name when you start a node with a node type.

• UniversalNode becomes Universal
• WebUserNode becomes WebUser
• BackgroundProcessingNode becomes BackgroundProcessing
• BIXNode becomes BIX
• SearchNode becomes Search

If you created agents in Pega 7.2.2, agent schedules are also automatically updated with a new name during the upgrade. For more information, see Customized agent schedules for standard Pega Platform agents must be updated after Pega 7.2.2 to Pega Platform 7.3 upgrade and the appropriate Deployment Guide.

Terminate sessions for operators from outside the Pega 7 Platform

The newly added Users REST API allows an authorized administrator to terminate sessions for one or more operator IDs from outside the Pega^® 7 Platform. A typical use case for this API is to terminate a user’s session when the user's security credentials, which are stored externally, are known to have changed.

Access the Pega API by clicking Resources > Pega API.

REST APIs for viewing Pega Platform configuration settings

New REST APIs in the Nodes category provide a view of the current configuration settings for any node in a cluster or for an entire cluster. You can also find a specific node ID by listing all the nodes in the cluster. To diagnose settings issues for a node, you can download the prconfig.xml file.

For more information, see Pega API for Pega Platform 7.4, Pega API, and Viewing the current configuration settings for a node or the whole cluster.

Cosmos React UI is now available in Pega Platform

Pega Platform™ now provides you with tools to develop React-based applications in App Studio. This enhancement, which was developed as part of Project Fnx, uses components that rely on the ReactJS library to power the Cosmos design system. The updated UI technology improves application performance, creates a better user experience, and provides greater flexibility for front-end developers by drawing from a well-established open-source technology.

In Pega Platform 8.5, Cosmos React UI is an opt-in beta. For more information about using Cosmos React UI in your application, see Previewing Cosmos React UI.

To learn about Project Fnx, see Project Fnx.

Legacy rules removed to reduce Pega Platform installation size

The installation of Pega^® Platform 7.4 removes deprecated and unused rules. The smaller installation size decreases rule sync time and reduces the amount of storage required for Pega Platform. In addition, the smaller installation reduces the rule database size and shortens installation and upgrade times. You can access the legacy rules, if needed, in the PegaLegacyRules:01-01-01 in the Resource Kit on the Pega Platform media.

For more information see Finding legacy rules in sections.

Pega Survey documentation refers to deprecated field

The documentation for Pega^® Survey refers to the Answer Layout field on the Complex Question form, but this field is no longer supported. For more information about the question layout formats that Pega Survey supports, see Pega Survey.

Streamlined Pega Cloud upgrade for Pega Platform and the suite of CRM applications

Pega Cloud Services introduces a streamlined upgrade process for Pega Platform^TM and the suite of CRM applications. To upgrade your software from Pega Platform 7.4 to 8.1, Pega Cloud Services provides you with an upgraded, cloned staging environment for a 30 day test-and-assess period. This streamlined upgrade process reduces downtime and manual post-upgrade steps and allows you to focus on taking advantage of the latest capabilities and features in the 8.1 software releases.

For more information, see Pega Cloud upgrade for Pega Platform and the suite of CRM applications.

Pega 7 Platform startup fails with an evaluateWhen-Exception after upgrade

If the batch requestor, Data-Admin-Requestor.BATCH, does not have access to the PRPC:Agent access group, the Pega 7 Platform fails to start up after an upgrade. The checkSecurity step fails with an evaluateWhen-Exception while evaluating access to the Data-Admin-System-Settings.pzSharedTenant when rule.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

1. On the pre-upgraded environment, grant the Data-Admin-Requestor.BATCH access to the PRPC:Agents access group. See the online help for information about granting access to access groups.
2. Move the database table record that corresponds to the batch requestor type from the pr_data_admin table of the pre-upgraded environment to the pr_data_admin table on the upgraded environment. See the online help for information about moving database table records.