What's new in Version 5.4?

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Pegasystems Inc. announced PegaRULES Process Commander V5.4 in February, 2008. This topic highlights several functional enhancements and contains links to the relevant help topics. Version 5.4 is known as Project Orlando.

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What's new for application developers?

Features listed in the following table bring new capabilities to Process Commander applications or improve developer productivity:

Benefit	Description	Topics
Flexibility	You can extend the Tools menu on the Developer portal.	How to extend the Developer portal menus
Management	An optional project management interface allows you to connect an application in development to an external project management system (PMS). When enabled, the developer identifies projects and tasks in the external PMS during New, Save As, and check-in/checkout operations.	About the Project Explorer and the project management interface
Flexibility	Rules can be circumstance-qualified by two or more properties, such as by U.S. state and Customer Channel Preference. Two new rule types support this multivariate circumstance capability.	About Circumstance Definition rules About Circumstance Template rules
Simpler flow development	On the Flow form, you can identify local flow actions that are to be available on every assignment, eliminating the need to list them in each assignment shape.	Flow form — Completing the Design tab
Simpler work object form development	Controls on the Layout tab of the Harness and Section form (and the similar Form tab of the Flow Action form) are reorganized and enhanced. Adding controls and fields to harness, sections, and flow actions is faster and more uniform across many types. In add-on, you can rapidly mock up and prototype the appearance and layout of a flow action before the property rules that the flow action will ultimately reference are defined.	Harness form — Completing the Layout tab
Faster testing	With a new menu option `File > Open > Application`, developers can more easily test applications that require a different RuleSet list than their "home" RuleSet list, rather than logging in with a different Operator ID.
Developer productivity, performance	Three new methods for activities provide simpler, higher-performance alternatives to the Obj-List method for efficiently searching and selecting objects from the PegaRULES database.	Obj-Browse method Obj-Filter method Obj-List-View method
Productivity and quality	The Automatic Testing capability is expanded to cover flows as well as decision rules, and has a new dashboard.	About the Automated Testing facility How to test a flow rule with the Run Rule feature flow marker
Faster application development	To speed application development, you can save business objectives and use cases for proposed new applications directly in rules. The Application Document tool can generate an application profile and proposal.	Direct Capture of Objectives use case About use case rules
Simpler branding and user interface customization	A new wizard simplifies the process of building a User or WorkManager portal with your organization's colors, fonts and styles.	About the Application Skin wizard
Productivity	A new method allows you to apply a model rule to an existing page, optionally overwriting existing values.	Apply-Model method
Power	Section rules optionally accept parameters. HTML Property rules and section rules can accept complex parameters corresponding to `Value List, Value Group`, and embedded page structures. .	Section rules — Completing the Parameters tab HTML Property rules — Completing the Parameters tab
Flexibility	The Split-ForEach flow shape can be used in screen flow rules.	Flow form — Editing in Visio — Creating and Editing Screen Flows
Faster testing	You can test a harness rule, section rule, or flow action rule with data from a clipboard page.	How to test a harness rule How to test a flow action rule How to test a section rule
Ease of understanding rule inheritance	A new display allows you to explore relationships among all the classes in your application.	About the Class Structure display
Power and availability	A new type of agent can process items that applications have placed in a queue.	About Agents rules Agents — Concepts and terms Queue-for-Agents method
Productivity	New keyboard shortcuts provides quick access to Rules Inspector display of field value codes.	About the Rules Inspector tool
Productivity	Optionally, you can present a tab in the Developer portal workspace for each open form, through a preference setting.	Developer portal — Setting Preferences
Productivity	You can test a flow rule that is saved in Visio Draft mode.	How to unit test a flow rule How to set up Visio
Power	Additional options in parse normalize rules allow multiple search-and-replace operations in one rule, and post-replacement cleanups.	About Parse Normalize rules
Easier compliance	The Application Preflight tool provides seven charts and reports that summarize warnings found.	About the Application Preflight tool
Flexibility	Developers can create rules with Work-, Work-Folder-, or Work-Cover- as the Applies To class. (Restrictions imposed in earlier releases are removed in V5.4)
Flexibility and reuse	The `Top` keyword, which identifies the top-level clipboard page on which a property belongs, can appear in almost all rule types that have a Pages & Classes tab.	How to complete a Pages & Classes tab
Ease of learning	The Validate rule form is redesigned to present property validations in a tree structured format, similar to decision tree rules. Validate rules can call other validate rules. .	Validate rules — Completing the Validate tab
Power	Properties of mode `Single Value`, `Value List` and `Value Group` can now be marked as reference properties.	Property-Ref method reference property
Power	Declare expression rules and constraints rules can be qualified with circumstances.	Declare Expression rules — Completing the New dialog Constraints rules — Completing the New dialog
Flexibility	Optionally, an application can override the presentation or the processing of the default failure window (red X) or success window (green checkmark).	How to customize the activity success and exception windows
Rapid application development	An optional RuleSet Pega-AppDefinition provides new wizards that support rapid application development. These tools and new rule types allow the direct capture of application objectives, use cases, and objectives. Developers can generate an application proposal from these inputs.	Direct Capture of Objectives About Application Use Case rules
Reuse	Two optional new categories of RuleSets — component and shared — support the reuse of entire RuleSets within multiple applications. A third new category, override — supports the ability to override rules in all non-override RuleSets. New wizards support the creation and installation of component RuleSets.	RuleSet rules — Completing the Category tab Direct Capture of Objectives
Ease of debugging	Tracer output now includes, for each line, the RuleSet version of the rule being executed	Tracer — Understanding Results
Flexibility	A new option on Declare Expression rules supports property reflection — automatic copying of a property value from a parent page.	Declare Expression form — Completing the Expression tab
Power	Summary view and list view reports can use SQL Join capabilities to select and show exposed columns from two or more classes with related columns.	List View form — Completing the Join tab Summary View form — Completing the Join tab
Flexibility	Optionally, agents can be configured to run activities for which the Authenticate? check box (on the Security tab of the Activity form) is checked.	Agents rules — Completing the Security tab

Enhancements described in the following table help development teams integrate Process Commander applications with other systems and code:

Benefit	Description	Topics
Flexibility	For six service types, arriving requests can be queued and processed asynchronously.	About Service Request Processor data instances
Integration with popular email client	Two standard flow actions SendMeetingRequest and GetAppointmentList</cite> allow direct interconnection with the appointment calendar in Microsoft Outlook.	Atlas — Standard Flow Actions (Connector)
Public Web access	Your application can present work object forms and reports directly in an HTML frame, requiring no ActiveX downloads. Many standard user interface capabilities are now marked as "cross-browser", meaning that they work with Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Firefox 2.0. Your applications can be accessed directly from the World Wide Web. Security-checking features are enhanced.	Internet Application Composer
Broader SOAP support	SOAP connectors and dotNet connectors now support binary attachments and AXIS 2.	Connect SOAP form — Completing the Request tab Connect SOAP form — Completing the Advanced tab
More powerful email processing	Your application can accept and process Delivery Status Notifications from email messages sent out earlier. Incoming email messages can contain attached images or other binary file attachments.	Email Listener form — Completing the Process tab
Ease of update	The Validate rule form is redesigned to be easier to use.	Validate form — Completing the Validate tab
Standards compatibility	Process Commander portlets can be generated as WSRP Producers that conform to the OASIS Web Services for Remote Portlets 1.0 standard.	Service Package form — Completing the Deployment tab
Flexibility	JMS connectors can use resource references.	Connect JMS form — Completing the Service tab

Enhancements described in the following table help with security, operations, and other administrative tasks:

Benefit	Description	Topics
Productivity	The Organization, Division, and Organization Unit forms each have a Chart tab that allows additions and changes to the organization structure.	Organization form — Completing the Chart tab Division form — Completing the Chart tab Organization Unit form — Completing the Chart tab
Productivity	A new wizard simplifies the process of creating a Declare Index rule to facilitate access to the values of an embedded property.	About the Declarative Index wizard
Flexibility	During import of a ZIP archive, you can select individual rules or other instances to be imported.	Help: Import Archive
Performance	HTTP traffic between the Process Commander server and a user's browser session is reduced through new rules and processing that reduce HTTP 304 timeouts and network size.	static content About Static Content Bundle rules
Performance	The Pega-RULES agent automatically prunes files and directories containing static content that are more than three days old.	Understanding the Pega-RULES agent
Performance	V5.4 preprocesses and compresses the source code text of JavaScript files before sending them to a browser. By eliminating comments and spaces, this reduces network traffic and workstation memory demand. Developers who need to debug JavaScript execution can disable this compression through a preference setting.	Developer portal — Setting preferences
Ease of learning	The Declare Expression rule form and the Constraints rule form are redesigned to look and work more like other rule forms in the Decision category.	Declare Expression rules — Completing the Expressions tab Declare Constraints rules — Completing the Constraints tab
Faster navigation	New tabs on the RuleSet, Access Role, Privilege, and Access Group forms provide fast access to related rules.	RuleSet Name — Using the Versions tab Access Role form — Using the Role tab Privilege rules — Using the Roles tab About Access Groups
Flexibility	You can control the processing of outbound mail that returns a Delivery Status Notification.	Email Account form — Completing the Process tab
Performance	The Usage Daemon uses less processing and requires less space for the hourly `Log-Usage` snapshots.
Flexibility	When importing a ZIP archive, you can optionally select which individual rules or data instances to import, rather than all.	Import Archive — Completing the Import ZIP file option
Ease of maintenance	A new comparison tool allows administrators to compare the rules in two V5.4 systems, producing a report that lists the differences.	About the Rulebase Compare wizard
Flexibility	New wizards and tools allow: Deleting all rules in a class Renaming a class Replacing a text string in all rules that contain a string match or regular expression match Renaming of Work- and Data- related classes as a ZIP archive is imported	About the Delete a Class tool About the Refactor on Import wizard About the Search/Replace a String wizard About the Rename a Class wizard
Monitoring	The optional Autonomic Event Services facility (PegaAES) is enhanced with a revised manager's dashboard.	Autonomic Event Services
Scalability	Reports about problem assignments and flow problems can optionally be directed to individuals at the division and organization unit levels.	Working with the Flows with Problems report

These enhancements help with business management, user training and productivity:

Benefit	Description	Topics
Business insights	Four overlay reports are available from the Diagram tab of the Flow form, to summarize past flow activity.	Flow form — Interacting with the Diagram tab
Attractive, useful reports	Reports can include headers and footers. Report fields can include links and images as well as numbers and text	List View form — Completing the Format tab Summary View form — Completing the Format tab
Ease of use	Labels can have an associated pop-up windows, defined by a section rule. Known as SmartLabels, these appear in dark red font and operate similarly to SmartInfo pop-up windows.	Harness, Section, and Flow Action rules — Adding a SmartLabel
Flexibility, Performance	New settings allow developers to reduce the volume of work object history records created by flow processing, potentially reducing clutter on the display and improving performance.	Flow rules — Controlling the volume of generated work object history
Ease of use	The Report wizard now allows you to start with a copy of an existing list view or summary view rule. When using the Report Wizard to report on work objects, you can select multiple work types.	About the Report wizard
Ease of use	Assignments and transfers in work object history display identifies operators by name rather than by Operator ID. New options allow fast access to email attachments.
Ease of use, productivity	Users can select from suggested values for a text-box field from a drop-down list of matched text values, provided by an activity or by searching a clipboard page.	Harness, Section, and Flow Action forms — Adding an autocomplete field
Ease of use, flexibility	The location, styles, and other aspects of error messages on work object forms can be customized. (The red X marker remains the default presentation.)	Harness forms — Completing the Display Options tab
Ease of use, productivity	To make multiple selections of values, users can drag or click using a new list-to-list control.	Harness, Section, and Flow Action forms — Adding a List-to-List control
Accessible applications for disabled users	Work object forms and reports can be designed to be meet the accessibility requirements of Section 508 of the United States Rehabilitation Act for the disabled. Accessible versions of the WorkManager and WorkUser portals are available.	accessibility Understanding accessible forms
Graphical display of business volumes	Three new views on the Diagram tab of the Flow form provide managers with intuitively presented data on task volumes, flow paths, and task durations.	Flow form — Interacting with the Diagram tab
Broader search for the next assignment to work on	New options for the GetNextWork algorithm allow fast searches for the most urgent open assignment in a set of workbaskets, rather than examining workbaskets in sequence.	Operator ID form — Completing the Work Settings tab
Productivity	After the user completes data entry for a new work object, the application can close the work object form rather than present a confirmation or other form.	Flow form — Completing the Process tab
Completeness	More information is automatically retained in history and in the work object about reopened work objects
Flexibility	Users can select a local flow action form by clicking a button of a new standard type `Local Action`. The local action form appears in a pop-up window that optionally can be modal, requiring users to complete and submit the form before any other work.	Harness. Section, and Flow Action forms — Placing a button in a cell
Flexibility	Ordinarily, SmartInfo pop-up windows disappear whenever a user clicks anywhere outside the window. A new option allows pop-up windows to stay open until explicitly closed.	Smart Info
Productivity	The standard WorkManager and WorkUser portals allow users and managers to switch rapidly among multiple applications.
Performance	Flow execution performance is improved. No changes to existing rules are required to achieve this benefit.
Flexibility	When drilling down from a summary view display or interactive chart, the resulting display can be from a second summary view display, and may be an interactive chart.	Summary View form — Completing the Drilldown tab
Performance	Version 5.4 uses Adobe Flash rather than Scalable Vector Graphics displays. No SVG viewer is required to use any V5.4 feature.
Performance	Work object forms based on V5.4 standard rules can require less workstation memory than earlier forms; certain JavaScript code is not included.	Harness rules — Completing the HTML tab

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