Pega Upgrade: DX Component Compatibility ?

User Experience
1

In the context of upgrading from Pega 23.1 to Pega 24+, what are the implications for both OOTB and custom Constellation DX components? Specifically:

  • Will there be changes in the DX component lifecycle that require rebuilding?

  • Are there new NPM dependencies or schema updates that must be adopted?

  • Will existing custom components require updates to be compatible with Pega 24 runtime?

Any guidance, compatibility checklists, or upgrade documentation that ensures smooth transition and continued component functionality would be greatly appreciated.

2

@Akhilesh.Madala DX Components are written in code and the implementation is owned and maintained by the application developer - Like any code, including when using Traditional UI like custom control or non auto-sections with Javascript code, if you are using 3rd party library, you need to check for security, accessibility and performance issues on a regular basis using code scanner and other tools that ensure that this code does not include vulnerabilities.

the template DX components that you auto-generate when using nom run create will require libraries like React, @pega/cosmos-XXX (Constelllation presentational core components) as dependencies as well as custom-dx-components, pcore-pconnect-typedefs are devDependencies (see package.json) - It is important to update all the 3rd party included in your dx components on a regular basis.

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When upgrading from 23.x to 24.1 - some libraries might change - Pegasystems Documentation - Is it critical that you update the @pega/cosmos-xxx and other libraries to be in sync with the release that the DX Components is running on - Same apply for React - it will be upgraded to React 18 in 25.1 and as such will require to be also updated in your dx components.

For this reason, the UI Gallery has a separate branch for each Pega Platform version and separate versions - see GitHub - pegasystems/constellation-ui-gallery: This open-source repository provides a collection of ready-to-use and customizable Constellation DX components. Use this resource to gain inspiration, best practices, and a solid foundation for implementing custom components.

3

@RichardMarsot

Thanks for your reply. I have a few follow-up questions based on your response:

  1. When upgrading to a major Pega Platform version (e.g., 23.x → 24.x), I understand that we need to update our local DX components and their dependencies.
    Q: Is this upgrade effort required only for major version changes, or do we also need to update or rebuild our local DX components for minor version upgrades (e.g., 24.1 → 24.2 → 25.1)?

  2. Are there any official guidelines on how long custom DX components built for a specific version (e.g., 24.1) will remain compatible with future minor or patch versions?

  3. Does Pega provide any code migration scripts, CLI tools, or best-practice documentation to help with upgrading DX components between major platform versions?

    Thanks

4

@Akhilesh.Madala

  1. this is required for every Pega platform release version .e.g 23.1, 24.1, 24.2, … - This is not required for patch release (for example. 23.1.0 to 23.1.1)

  2. Depending on the changes (see my link on the DXCB release notes) - it might take 1h of work, rebuild and republish and then retest

  3. The DXCB provides the tools and scripts to publish all the components - this can be run in any ci/cd pipeline - As long as you have automated tests (unit test and end to end integration test) this can be done automatically for the most part (for example upgrading the libs to the latest version) - changes in coreJS api and or the Constellation component library might require manual changes before submitting to the pipeline.

This is no different than upgrading to the Pega Platform and using the Jquery UI or any library provided OOB in the Pega PLatform - We continue to update and maintain 3rd party libraries to address security issues and there are also changes in these libraries that you need to account for.