Service case recents are the open service cases within an interaction or a set of queued cases. The service case recents are displayed in the driver area under the Add Task menu. In versions prior to Pega Customer Service 8.1, the open and queued cases were built by extending the Pega Platform recents functionality that was dependent on Declare_pzRecentsCache. Due to this dependency, the following performance issues were encountered in the implementation that was built on Pega Customer Service 7.4 and earlier:

• Four data pages were required for service case recents functionality, which resulted in complex code strings and ongoing maintenance problems for implementations.
• Heavy customization of the Pega Platform recents functionality was required to build the data pages that resulted in dependency on Declare_pzRecentsCache.
• Quick switching between interactions led to some context issues.
• Multiple declarative refreshes happened whenever an action was performed on the service case recents, such as switching between interaction tabs or services. Due to these refreshes, there was a delay in the observable response time for customer service representative (CSRs).

The following improvements are available in Pega Customer Service 8.1:

• A single data page, D_CSRecents, holds all of the service case recents. This data page is parameterized by interactionID and is a requestor scope page.
• All case recents that are queued, completed, suggested, or in progress are populated in the D_CSRecents Data page list.
• The data page is updated whenever a CSR launches, closes, or switches between cases in an interaction. After the CSR closes an interaction, only the key fields remain in the data page as a part of the interaction thread.
• Whenever the data page is updated or an entry is made to the data page, the following major properties are populated:
  • LinkID
  • IsCurrentInteractionCase
  • ParentID
  • CurrentInteractionID
  • LinkCoverHandle
  • ContentID
  • pyIsSelected
  • AjaxContainerID
  • WorkInsKey
• The following master utilities are available for updating the data page:
  • CSUpdateDriverRecents – Invokes whenever an entry is added or deleted in the data page. This utility updates the highlighted service case in the driver whenever a CSR launches a new case or switches between cases. Itaccepts the IntentAction parameter, and based on the passed value, it branches to the corresponding data transform.
    • For the AddIntent parameter, the utility calls CSAddIntentToDriverRecents
    • For the DeleteIntent parameter, the utility calls CSDeleteDriverRecents
  • CSUpdateDriverRecentsStatus – Invokes to update required properties after a CSR loads a document and whenever a CSR switches between the cases.
• You can perform the following operations in the D_CSRecents list:
  • Adding – Whenever a CSR creates or opens a case using the recent gadgets, the D_CSRecents list is updated. The harness extensions that are provided by Pega Platform in PerformDefault, OpenDefaults, and NewDefaults helps to update the D_CSRecents list.After populating the entry, the driver section is refreshed by invoking the preMDC and the required properties are updated during the postMDC event.
  • Updating – Whenever a CSR switches between the cases or changes the case status, the list is updated to ensure that the right case is highlighted and shown in the correct state. The switchMDC API is used to update the D_CSRecents list and to invoke CSUpdateDriverCaseRecentsStatus.
  • Deleting – Whenever a CSR closes or resolves a case, the corresponding entry in the D_CSRecents list is updated by using the PreClose API that is provided by Pega Platform.

The improvements to service case recents in Pega Customer Service 8.1 provide the following benefits:

• Dependency on the Declare_pzRecentsCache data page is eliminated and the customization of the Declare_pxRecentsCache data page for launching, switching, and closing cases or interactions has been removed. This results in improved speed while switching between interactions or cases.
• Introduction of a single data page to hold all recents reduces the maintenance cost by increasing the code modularity.
• Removal of the declarative refreshes improves the performance, which decreases the response time delay for CSRs.