Question
LLoyds Banking Group
GB
Last activity: 21 Nov 2020 1:52 EST
Silverlight alternative post 2021
I am working on a set of Pega 7 application and one of them is utilising the Microsoft Silverlight capabilities to launch Word Merge. It came into light that Silverlight will retire in 2021. What alternative Pega has to support Word Merge feature for Pega 7 and beyond in absence of Silverlight?
***Edited by Moderator: Lochan to update platform capability tags***
Updated: 30 Dec 2019 10:21 EST
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Hi Manash, please review below a response from the past from our SMEs
" Both ActiveX and Silverlight have been deprecated by Microsoft for some time. Neither technology is supported across the modern web browsers that we support for Pega applications. As such, we have deprecated features, like WordMerge, that depended on those client-side libraries and are not making further investment in maintaining them.
In 8.4, which is due out in early 2020, we are introducing a new smart shape that uses server-side technology to fill out a word template with data from a case and attach the resulting word document to the case. This happens without any end-user interaction. Further edits to the document can be manually made by an end user by downloading the attachment, editing offline, and then reattaching to the case."
Hope, this helps!
Thanks!
LLoyds Banking Group
GB
Does this mean you are ending the run time editing feature before you attach the created merged document? Will editing be made available before the smart shape generates the document?
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Yes, I believe that aspect of the feature will no longer be available in order to support this change. It will be more of a simplified download, make any edits you want, then re-upload sort of design. This is similar and analogous to the same sort of changes that the edit in Excel feature went under when these features were refactored to remove the client side dependencies on ActiveX. They too have a more simplified export/import model as well.
If @tanie_GCS can link his thread from that quote, perhaps the product owner can chime in and confirm this understanding as well.
Pegasystems Inc.
US
@dennis.grady Hi Dennis, can you please review this thread and provide your additional comments or responses on this thread? Thank you, Elisha (Pega GCS)
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Hi All,
A new 8.4 feature will provide a server-side documentation generation smart step. We do not yet have an OOTB replacement for the client-side editing of the word document.
One short-term work-around is for the user to download the attached word document, make edits offline, and then reattach it to the case.
Thanks,
Dennis
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Thanks for your comments @dennis.grady
@Manash_LSA - Hope, this help!
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Here is a link from microsoft, just for a reference
Silverlight End of Support - https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4511036/silverlight-end-of-support
Microsoft Silverlight will reach the end of support on October 12, 2021. Silverlight development framework is currently only supported on Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11, with support for Internet Explorer 10 ending on January 31, 2020. There is no longer support for Chrome, Firefox, or any browser using the Mac operating system.
Updated: 21 Nov 2020 1:52 EST
Bank of America
IN
I have used Microsoft silver light plug-in in one of our project to provide inline editing feature of the word document. But avoid using that as inline editing cant support longer session where users do some research offline to edit the content, the other headache is rolling out the activex installation to all the client machines requires network administrator support due to GIS restrictions. I used a utility function to generate the work dynamically and provided for a local download. The user attaches the document later some time to the case, they are happy :) .