Pega Platform 8.5 changes with upgrade impact

As Pega Infinity™ software advances, Pega is committed to providing software upgrades with minimal disruption so both clients and their customers can continue to access and use Pega applications throughout the entire upgrade process. To achieve this goal, the development process follows a near zero-downtime standard that attempts to ensure that the latest Pega software features and enhancements impact client applications as little as possible from release to release. The near zero-downtime standard sets the following goals:

• Changes allow client applications to run during upgrades.
• Changes are backward-compatible for client applications that are based on Pega Infinity.
• Performance and security enhancements may impose a minimal upgrade impact because application stability and client security are our highest priorities.

Pega supports both a major upgrade (7.x to 8.x) and a minor upgrade (8.x to 8.y) of the Pega Platform™ software versions and any Pega applications that are running in your system. For details about the process and standards for minor Pega software upgrades, see The minor upgrade process for Pega Infinity 8.4 and later.

Known upgrade impact in Pega Platform 8.5 features and functions

As part of its near zero-downtime commitment, Pega has reviewed the features and fixes in Pega Platform 8.5 and has identified the following areas where a minor upgrade to Pega Infinity 8.5 will have an impact. Click each area to learn about the impact and a workaround for it:

• Tamper-proof Pega Web Mashup loading
• Visual Business Director data is automatically cleaned after a retention period expires
• Uploading customer responses into adaptive models is no longer available
• New database tables for email bots
• Native synchronization indicators for offline-enabled mobile apps
• Improved case auditing in App Studio
• Failed Robotic Assignments work queue type changed to Standard
• Improving basic access control
• Limits on active data flow runs
• Support for validations in Declare Expression rules
• Close button on a pop-up application update removed from App Studio
• Removal of Pega Mobile Client 7
• Web portal reuse removed from the mobile channel

Known upgrade impact in previously released features and functions

Because impacts are cumulative, clients upgrading from early versions of Pega Infinity should review the following upgrade impact details in previously released features and functions.

Pega Platform 8.4

Pega has reviewed the features and fixes in Pega Platform 8.4 and has identified the following areas where a minor upgrade to Pega Infinity 8.4 will have an impact. Click each area to learn about the impact and a workaround for it:

• Increased visibility of strategy design changes with simulation batch tests
• Relationships between elements of microjourneys in application inventory
• Pega Express methodology in App Studio for successful microjourneys
• Personalized views in table layouts
• Custom application URL alias in the application definition
• Rules can no longer access Pega internal Java packages
• Support for the JSON Web Token Bearer grant type for accessing external APIs
• PDF/UA support
• Updated default dynamic system settings for requestor pools

Pega Platform 8.3

Pega has reviewed the features and fixes in Pega Platform 8.3 and has identified the following areas where a minor upgrade to Pega Infinity 8.3 will have an impact. Click each area to learn about the impact and a workaround for it:

• Improved control of case locking and retry mechanisms

• Automatic management of run-time context for background processing

• Cassandra 3.11.3 support for Pega Platform

• Improved rich user interface controls in IVA for Web Chatbot

• Test coverage support for more rule types

• Set a time zone for the DateTime control

• BIX ruleset is now included with Pega Platform

• Improved performance for work ID generation

• Support for the decisioning-enabled NLP text analyzer in IVAs and Email Bots

• Unit testing support for more rule types

• Create and view application settings in App Studio

• Text analytics models editing and versioning

• Text analytics models migration

• Simple associations for quickly joining classes

• Association changes after upgrade

• Change tracking tab removed from declare expressions