Unit testing support for more rule types
Valid from Pega Version 8.3
You can now create unit tests for the following additional rule types. You can also create assertions to validate activity status. The expanded rule types for unit testing enable developers to more thoroughly perform regression testing of their application, thereby improving application quality.
- Collection
- Declare expression
- Map value
- Report definition
For more information about unit testing rules, see Pega unit test cases.
Upgrade impact
With the four new rule types, unit test execution and unit test compliance metrics will change. Reports on automated unit testing of the customer application decrease due to the increased pool of supported rules.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
After a successful upgrade, create Pega unit test cases for the newly supported rules to see updated and accurate unit test metrics.
Simple associations for quickly joining classes
Valid from Pega Version 8.3
Associations now have a simple mode. Use a simple association to quickly and easily join a class to another class. The simple association defines a left join, using a foreign key in the source class and the class key in the target class. Use an advanced association for all other conditions. In addition, simple associations are drawn in the Visual data model reporting mode to visualize the relationships that are available for reporting.
Upgrade impact
The new simple mode draws a map of where all the classes defined in the application rule are drawn as nodes. Relationships between the nodes that are defined by relevant properties are drawn as lines linking the two classes. This feature only includes Case and Data classes that are defined on the Application rule form's Cases and Data tab. It also only includes relevant fields for those classes in order to define the relationships from one class to another.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
After a successful upgrade, add the data and case type classes to the application rule in Dev Studio to have the selected classes appear as a node. In addition, if you want a relationship to display as relevant, set the properties (of the class that defines that relationship) as relevant.
For more information, see Exploring the data model.
Association changes after upgrade
Valid from Pega Version 8.3
Associations now have a simple mode. Simple associations are those that join to only one class, use a left join, and have one filter condition to a class key in the target class. Existing associations that define a simple foreign key relationship are upgraded to simple associations when opened; all others are treated as advanced associations. All associations continue to work in reporting.
Making an association simple changes only one piece of metadata; all other data on the association rule is not affected.
Upgrade impact
The new simple mode draws a map of where all the classes defined in the application rule are drawn as nodes. Relationships between the nodes that are defined by relevant properties are drawn as lines linking the two classes. This feature only includes Case and Data classes that are defined on the Application rule form's Cases and Data tab. It also only includes relevant fields for those classes in order to define the relationships from one class to another.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
After a successful upgrade, add the data and case type classes to the application rule in Dev Studio to have the selected classes appear as a node. In addition, if you want a relationship to display as relevant, set the properties (of the class that defines that relationship) as relevant.
For more information, see Associations.
Default value of the threadpoolsize agent affects batch indexing
Valid from Pega Version 8.5.2
After you patch Pega Platform to version 8.5.2 or higher, the system changes the default value of the threadpoolsize agent, which controls the number of concurrent activities (threads) in the system, from 5 to 15. Batch indexing in Pega Platform™ does not require all 15 threads, so you can change the agent value to increase system performance by managing the indexing/distributed/batch/numworkers dynamic system setting.
If your deployment does not support that setting, and batch indexing does not use Queue Processors, the system uses the threadpoolsize value for batch indexing instead.
For more information, see Editing a dynamic system setting.
Upgrading to Hazelcast 4.x requires downtime during upgrades to Pega Infinity 8.6
Valid from Pega Version 8.6
Upgrade impact statement
On-premises upgrades of Pega Infinity release 8.4.2 and later to version 8.5.1 or later on Tomcat and PostgreSQL are completed with near-zero downtime. However, upgrading to Hazelcast 4.x requires that you shut down and restart your application server.
What is required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
Hazelcast 3.x is enabled by default. For near-zero downtime upgrades, you do not need to perform any action.
For instructions about upgrading to Hazelcast 4.x, see one of the following topics:
- For near-zero downtime upgrades from Pega Infinity release 8.4.2 or later on Tomcat and PostgreSQL, see "Optional: upgrading to Pega Platform version 8.6: Upgrading to Hazelcast 4.x" in Near-zero downtime Upgrade Guide for Pega Platform version 8.4.2 and later for Tomcat and PostgreSQL.
- For all other upgrades, see "Optional: upgrading to Hazelcast 4.x" in the appropriate upgrade guide.
Insights from 8.5 require additional configuration after upgrade
Valid from Pega Version 8.6
Upgrade impact
After you upgrade Pega Platform™ version 8.5 to 8.6, the Explore Data landing page might not include insights that come from the earlier version of the product.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
Run the pxUpgrade85Insights activity to make all insights from version 8.5 accessible for you in 8.6. By running this activity, you upgrade insights with new metadata that is required in version 8.6. For example, the pxUpgrade85Insights activity provides you with the option to set the visibility of insights to private, public or shared.
For more information about insights, see Visualizing data with insights.
Improved indexing of StringList and StringGroup property types
Valid from Pega Version 8.6
Search and Reporting Service in Pega Platform™ 8.5 may improperly index StringList and StringGroup property types. As a result, the data model does not include the affected properties.
Upgrade impact
After upgrading to Pega Platform version 8.6, the system requires that the classes with the StringList or StringGroup type are reindexed.
What steps are required to update the application to be compatible with this change?
On the Search Landing Page, manually reindex all the classes that include properties with the StringList or StringGroup types to ensure that all your data is present in the data model. Alternatively, if finding specific instances of classes is difficult, you can reindex all classes in your application.
For more information, see Indexing class data.
Change logic does not work in Report Editor
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.2
The Report Editor change logic button does not work. As a workaround, use the rule form to change the logic.
List view and summary view reports might not display in HTML5-compliant browsers
Valid from Pega Version 7.1.7
List view and summary view reports use framesets to provide a view of drill-down reports. HTML5 does not support framesets, so these reports might not display well, or at all, in versions of browsers that are compliant with HTML5.
To prevent display issues, re-create the custom list view and summary view reports that you need as report definition reports. Standard management reports are already available as report definition reports.
As of Pega 7.2, list view and summary view rules are deprecated. For more information, see Discontinued support for list view and summary view rules.
Exporting charts in scheduled reports to a PDF file
Valid from Pega Version Pega Platform
When a scheduled report with a chart is exported to a PDF file, the chart is not automatically included in the PDF file. This behavior is different from when you export reports from the Report Viewer. When you export a report with a chart from the Report Viewer, the chart is included in the PDF file.
For scheduled reports, you can use the pyEmbedChartUsingPhantomJS HTML rule and the pyCallPhantomJS activity rule to implement a solution that exports a chart to a PDF file.
For more information, see Exporting a chart in a scheduled report to a PDF file.