What's new in Pega 7.1.8

User interface

Productivity

• Design personalized dashboards by creating templates and widgets that allow users to access core business metrics and share with other users. Quickly add preconfigured widgets to a dashboard by using the Settings tab in a section.

• Add, delete, or move user interface elements directly in a portal by using Live UI. Elements can be added before or after an existing element. Live UI also allows elements to be moved between or added to dynamic layouts.

Mobile-friendly controls

• Show full-screen menus for a smooth and seamless mobile navigation experience.

Resources

• Discover the updated User Interface page on the PDN. From here, you'll find articles, help content, videos, and forums that are logically sorted into easy-to-navigate categories.

• Quickly configure your case types by using the contextual property panel in Case Designer.

• Use the case type wizard to easily add case types to your application.

• You can configure resolution stages to automatically resolve open assignments and set the status of a case.

• Generate mashup code in Case Designer that supports Internet Application Composer (IAC) and can be used to run cases in an external web page.

• Configure a location field type in Form Builder to display a text input and map with a movable location marker. Locations support searching by address.

• Use the attachment field type in Form Builder to add a file browser for attaching files on desktop and to add camera integration on mobile devices. Uploaded images show a clickable thumbnail. The attachment auto-generates a property that can be referenced later.

• Delegate business-facing application assets, such as paragraphs, decision tables, and data types to your business line by using a new delegation process.

• Allow business users to modify delegated items in the new Manage Change dashboard on the Case Manager portal.

• Merge multiple branch rulesets in the Merge Branches wizard.

• Build expressions in the enhanced Expression Builder. You can drag properties and functions, search for properties and functions, and select properties and functions from prompts in the text area. You can also use the updated text editor, which allows for automatic bracket-matching and syntax highlighting.

• Use the new context menu in the Applies To class in a ruleform header to open the Application Explorer for the Applies To class, Applies To class definition, or the inheritance display for the Applies To class.

• Use the enhanced text editor, which simplifies your text-editing tasks in Designer Studio.

• In addition to files, you can now attach URLs to applications, requirements, and specifications by using the Add/Edit Attachment modal dialog box in Pega 7. This change allows you to link directly to dynamic content in other URL-based systems rather than link to a static file of that content.

• When you generate system documentation by using the Document Application wizard (Designer Studio > Application > Tools > Document), the process now runs on a server and not on your local client system. This change not only generates your document more quickly, but also allows you to multi-task within Pega 7 while your document is being generated in the background. When the generation is completed, download the document to your computer. For more information, see:

  • Updating customized Application Document templates with 7.1.8+ server-side document generation

  • Screenshot generation still runs on local client

  • Warning message when opening server-generated documents

• Manage runs of the Data Flow based on a data stream, and monitor their performance.

• Configure a Filter as a processing component in the Data Flow.

• Collect statistics for each active data flow, including the number of processed records, records that caused errors and last processed records per shape, as well as historical throughput measured for the entire data flow.

• Run a case type or an activity from the Data Flows.

• Use new types of data sets: HDFS Data Set, HBase Data Set, Stream Data Set.

• Create HBase rule instances in a new form.

• Define in one place all connection details for a Hadoop host.

• Convert proposition data stored as data instances into decision data records by using the Convert Proposition Data wizard in the Proposition Management landing page.

• Use the Touch ID capability on iOS devices to securely log in to a Pega mobile app.

• Automatic checking of Pega Mobile Client version against Pega application version is available.

• Use full-screen mobile menus in your apps.

  Use the location field with an interactive map. You can configure the location field in a form, use live display, and drag the map control. In addition, you can reset the user's current location.

• Use mobile modals and overlays with transitions in your apps.

• Improved developer tools:

  • Mobile app users can change the URL of the Pega 7 application instance during login.

  • End users can send an issue report that includes the log information.

  • When working online, developers can control the level of logging.

  • When working offline, developers can see the contents of the local store and action queue.

• Use a new style sheet for inclusion in the skin to represent mobile toggle controls.

• Ability to build offline mobile applications targeted for mobile workers.

• Mobile workers can log in, create cases, open items from a worklist, and complete assignments in their mobile app, all while working offline.

• Offline-to-online transition is seamless with automatic data synchronization between the server and the mobile device.

• Basic screen flow progression is supported while working offline.

• Every screen must be built using modern layouts and lists with any of these controls: dropdowns, text inputs, check boxes, radio buttons, date/time, attach content, signature capture, and formatted text.

• A subset of actions are available while working offline.

• Ability to extend the mobile app by using the CallActivity extension point.

• An optimized storage stream allows for faster encoding and reading of BLOB values when you open and save objects.

• BIX 7.1.8 fully supports extraction of data from a Pega multitenant instance, and can now be run on Pega Cloud instances.

• Rule-Utility-Function rules are now resolved based on ruleset, and use the New or Save As forms to define or change parameters as a part of the form.

• A new default system setting improves the performance of queries by restructuring how tables are accessed.

• Oracle TIMESTAMP data type is supported throughout the data layer.

• Automatically defragment the PR_SYS_LOCKS database table at periodic intervals.

• Schemas that are installed on a new system are removed automatically after system startup when triggers are set on a rule table.

• The PEGA0055 alert detects the clock drift on any nodes in a multinode cluster.

• The PEGA0056 alert determines whether defragmentation exceeds the time threshold configured in the prconfig.xml file.

• The data page unit test case rule provides for testing and validation of the accuracy and speed of data sources. Repeatable automated unit tests can be created and modified by running a data page and converting the run into a test. Expected output of the test is defined by selecting properties and comparators.

• The data page automated unit test case landing page provides validation of the accuracy and speed of data pages. Tests can be viewed, added, or run for all data pages in an application. View the test library for data pages and data types and drill down into failed tests to understand and fix errors quickly.

• Data pages store data that Pega 7 needs to populate work item properties for calculations or other processes. Developers determine where that data comes from and how it gets there by referencing data sources on the data page record. Pega 7.1.8 provides developers with the tools they need to create custom error-handling responses to specific data page errors without the use of activities.

• The Hotfix Manager tool scans your system and installs, rolls back, and commits hotfixes.

• The delta mode and global exclusions in the product rule form allow for easy application packaging.

• The Pega API provides an easy way to use them within your Pega 7 applications. You can now power mobile and client applications quickly and seamlessly with improved and flexible open standard Pega REST services.

• Deploy a JMS message-driven bean (MDB) representing a JMS MDB listener for a new enterprise application using a streamlined process with a minimal number of steps.

• Provide a seamless user-authentication experience using Pega 7, which is now fully conformant with the SAML 2.0 web single sign-on and single logout profiles.

• Using FTP Secure (FTPS) in an FTP Server record, you can securely transfer files using TLS/SSL. A new Security section has been added to the Edit FTP Server configuration page for enabling and configuring FTPS.

• REST and SOAP connectors are used in data centers, on the cloud, or in a tenant application. See these best practices for securing these connectors.

The PDN provides overview articles, best-practice solutions to common development challenges, news of the latest Pega features, access to the latest version of the Pega help documentation, and many more learning resources.

Learn from the experts. Pega Academy courses provide design and implementation best practices covering Pega 7 application development as well as specialized topics.

Pega Academy courses provide you with the knowledge and hands-on experience you need to successfully design and deploy Pega 7solutions.

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