User interface

Productivity

• Offering true WYSIWYG editing, the new Live UI tool replaces the previous UI Tree and UI Inspector tools and allows less technical users to make UI adjustments at runtime. Publish, discard, and even undo changes on the fly through automated rule management using a new runtime branch governance model.
• The renewed chart control has an improved properties panel and provides HTML5-compliant pie, column, bar, area, line, and gauge charts. You can customize basic and threshold colors, borders, labels, and other chart elements. A preview on the property panel instantly displays the effects on the chart of the changes you make.
• By adding a unique Test ID, you can verify that you are writing dependable automated tests for your Pega applications. Assign your bulk Test IDs at both the ruleset and section levels and then view them in HTML or by using the Live UI panel.
• Use push notifications for mobile applications running on both iOS and Android devices to indicate that action is required by a user.

Responsive Design

• The auto-generated menu control offers multiple design options and configurations including text, descriptions, badges, and vertical in-line menus. Loading options include: at screen load, defer load, on first use, and on every use.
• Dynamic containers can be placed in a dynamic layout or in a section. Dynamic containers placed in a layout inherit the styling and positioning of the dynamic layout. Dynamic containers can also be dragged and dropped or copied and pasted between layouts. Selecting the Size To Content check box when configuring a dynamic container resizes the container at runtime to fit the container's content.

• Images inserted in a paragraph rule can be configured to resize in response to the browser size. Select the Auto resize check box in the paragraph rule Image Properties dialog to enable image responsiveness.

Mobile-friendly controls

• Date and time controls now support mobile browser-native date and time pickers on Android and iOS. This option is enabled in the Presentation tab of the Text input control Cell Properties.
• Swipe to navigate content in tabbed or menu-style layout groups from any supported touch device when enabled in the Layout Group Properties panel.
• The Attach Content control now utilizes responsive UI, allows for selection of multiple files during uploads, and can be configured as a button, link, or icon.
• You can specify events and actions on dynamic layouts rather than on individual items for enhanced touch-device interaction. You can define an action set and then add events and actions from the Actions tab of the Dynamic Layout Properties panel.

Case Management

• Use five new flow actions for transferring work, approving requests, attaching files, updating cases, and adjusting SLAs to ensure browser and mobile device compatibility, easy configuration, and an intuitive user experience. These new actions replace non-autogenerated actions which are deprecated but still supported.

• Customize step SLAs in the Step Configuration dialog. You can override the SLA defined on the underlying flow without affecting other steps employing the same flow.
• Give managers the ability to create and update cases in the Bulk Action tool. Select actions based on selected cases, and take advantage of flexible filtering options when processing cases.
• Review a history of rules edited or created from the Case Designer Stages & Processes tab on case type rule History tab. This feature allows all project team members review configuration changes.
• Take advantage of Case Designer Process Outline features with process-based flows. You can open the flow in the Process Outline view, allowing you to use the Step Tree and other Outline features to facilitate your process design.
• Showcase key features on user forms or portals. The new guided tour rule provides instructions, or controls in a sequence of pop-up windows called tour stops.
• Name framework and implementation class layers independently when you create applications in Application Express.

Designer Studio

Productivity

• All rule forms are now harness-based, allowing you to view or edit them in any supported browser. Previous restrictions still apply to any deprecated or custom rule forms in your application that remain form-based.
• The Run dialog box for supported rule types has been streamlined for improved usability, giving you direct access to the Clipboard for faster debugging.

Accountability

• The new Compliance Details tab gives greater detail on the warnings impacting your application and the team members who are introducing the greatest risk.
• Email scheduling is now available on each tab of the Application Guardrails landing page.
• All PRPC warnings have been converted to Rule-Message instances, making them easier to browse using the Records Explorer.
• The redesigned Message form now supports categorization of messages into: alerts, warnings, errors, tips, and custom information types in your application.
• Use the pxAddGuardrailMessage function to add warnings to rules that do not adhere to guardrails or best practices.

Simplified business modeling

• The redesigned Collection form helps you model business logic in your application without the need for complex implementations.
• Referencing rules are updated each time you map function input parameters to key parts of rules called by a collection.
• You can expose parameter prompting in a user-friendly way through function aliases.

Focused refinements

• The What’s new panel on the Designer Studio home page keeps you connected to the latest product announcements and feature changes.
• Automatically managed operator preferences provide a consistent development experience across sessions.
• The Explorer Class Display option in the Application Explorer allows you to view classes by name or label, based on your preference.

Project Delivery

Project Planning

• Populate the Release and Iteration fields in your specifications and requirements to help you prioritize your project deadlines.
• Accurately convey your application design to project stakeholders by linking specifications to the collection or collection steps that implement them.
• Use the new DSM specification type to map a decisioning component, such as a strategy or model, to your specification. Additional metadata for this specification type is included in project sizing worksheets.

Focused refinements

• Enable Track Changes in Microsoft Word to facilitate collaborative reviews of your specifications.
• Save time by adding more than one attachment to a requirement or specification at a time, without closing the Add/Edit Attachment modal dialog box.
• Brand your application documents by adding custom text, images, and field codes to your specification descriptions.

Reporting

• Report Viewer improvements simplify the user experience when working with reports. Column headers display initial sort order and type, and you can hover over a column header to display and use its context menu.
• BIX extract files and manifest files can now contain parameters to clarify the file names. Parameters can include the rule name, the extract run time and date, and a unique run sequence number.

Decision Management

Strategies extended with the ability of providing customer data when evaluating and executing strategy components that reference an external rule instance, allowing you to access both customer data and strategy results.

Revision management

• Revision rulesets extended to include additional rule types: decision tree, and map value.
• Direct deployment of decision parameters.

Predictive analytics

• Predictive Analytics Director (PAD) integrated in Pega 7. New rulesets, included in PegaDM, support the PAD functionality: PredictiveAnalytics-IntSvcs, and PredictiveAnalytics-UI.
• You can import third party models (PMML) in predictive models.
• Enhancements in the method used to group scores to create the adaptive model outcome profile (also known as, classifier). Scores are used to calculate propensities, therefore resulting in improved model accuracy.
• Internal Pega 7process makes it possible to add adaptive analytics functionality to an application without the availability of the external ADM service.
• Deplayed adaptive learning by running strategies in data flows.

Big Data platform

• Horizontally scalable, decision data stores supported by the Data Nodes (DNodes) infrastructure take data from different sources, and make it available for real time and batch processing. You can manage this infrastructure using the DNode Cluster Management landing page.
• Data sets (new rule type) manage data in database tables, decision data stores, and VBD data sources. Standard data sets manage data in Interaction History and Adaptive Decision Manager. Using the DataSet-Execute method, you can perform data management operations on records defined by the data set.
• Data flows (new rule type) orchestrate, combine and sequence data based on a set of instructions from source to destination. You can run and manage data flows using the Data Flows landing page.

Reporting

• Report Viewer improvements simplify the user experience when working with reports. Column headers display initial sort order and type, and you can hover over a column header to display and use its context menu.
• BIX extract files and manifest files can now contain parameters to clarify the file names. Parameters can include the rule name, the extract run time and date, and a unique run sequence number.

• Application-Based Validation (ABV) mode delivers a more flexible development experience without having to use ruleset prerequisites as is required with Ruleset Prerequisite-Based Validation (RSP) mode, which remains available and supported. An ABV ruleset (specified in the ruleset form) can reference all rules in rulesets defined in the same application and rulesets belonging to any built-on application. Application Validation mode is now enabled in Application Express by default.
• Improve the quality of your application by using the Designer Studio > Application > Validation tool regularly to ensure that all rules referenced in an application have valid rule references.

• Use the updated Designer Studio > System > Operations menu for a more efficient method of viewing agent activity and status across a node cluster.

Data management

• View and manage your data types in the Data Designer. In a selected data type, create and manage properties, track how your application uses your data types, review data sources, and create and manage local data storage for records..
• The Data Visualizer gives you a graphical display of the relationships between your application's data types and class types.

Process

• Business Events are deprecated in 7.1.7, and the landing page for them is no longer available.
• Flow action and attachment category rule types are now in the Process category in the Application Explorer and Records Explorer.

System

• Pega now uses Elasticsearch as its search tool, while continuing to support Lucene Search until the changeover is complete.

Integration

Leverage data in Big Data stores by writing to and reading from Cassandra and HBase:

• Cassandra data stores using Connect Cassandra rules
• HBase data stores using Connect HBase rules

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