IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Programming IBM BPM > Business rule management programming

Programming model

IBM Integration Designer business rules are authored with two different authoring tools and issued by the rule run time. All three environments share the same model for the business rule artifacts.

Sharing of the model was deemed critical for not only ease of future maintenance, but for a consistent programming model for the end user. Sharing this model required compromises between the needs of desktop tools and runtime execution and authoring -- all have clear sets of requirements to meet for their respective environments and these requirements at times conflicted with each other. The artifacts described below as part of the overall programming model represent a balance in meeting the requirements of these different environments.

Modification of business rules is limited to only those items that are defined with templates in the rule sets and decision tables as well as the operation selection table (effective dates and targets). Creation of new rule sets and decision tables is only supported through the copy of an existing rule set or decision table. The business rule group component itself is not eligible for dynamic authoring in the runtime with the exception of the user defined properties and description values. Changes that need to be made to the component (for example, adding a new operation) must be done using IBM Integration Designer and then redeployed or reinstalled in the server.

• Business Rule Group
  The BusinessRuleGroup class represents the business rule group component. The BusinessRuleGroup class can be considered the root object which contains rule sets and decision tables.
• Business Rule Group Properties
  The properties on business rule groups are intended to be used for management of business rule groups. Properties set on business rule groups can be used in queries to return only a subset of business rule groups which are to be displayed and then modified.
• Operation
  Operations are starting points for reaching individual rule sets and decision tables to modify. The operations of a business rule group match the operations listed in the WSDL which is associated with the business rule group component.
• Business Rule
  

  The RuleSet and DecisionTable classes are based off a generic BusinessRule class with methods that provide information that is available on both rule sets and decision tables.

• Rule set
  A rule set is one type of business rule. Rule sets are typically used when multiple rules may need to be executed based on different conditional values. Rule sets are composed of a rule block and rule templates. The rule block ( RuleBlock) contains the different if-then and action rules which make up the logic of the rule set.
• Decision table
  Decision tables are another type of business rule which can be managed and modified. Decision tables are typically used when there are a consistent number of conditions which must be evaluated and a specific set of actions to be issued when the conditions are met.
• Templates and Parameters
  Templates in rule sets and decision tables are based off of a common definition. Templates have parameters and a user presentation. The template parameter values are defined to allow for changes to be made to the rule once it has been deployed.
• Validation
  Many of the main objects have a validate method which allows for the artifacts to be checked for correctness and completeness before publishing the artifacts.
• Tracking Changes
  For all objects, a hasChanges method is available to check if there have been any modifications which have occurred to the object and any containing objects.
• BusinessRuleManager
  The BusinessRuleManager class is the main class for working with the business rule groups, rule sets and decision tables.
• Exception Handling
  Exceptions can occur when validation is called on an artifact or when an artifact is published. When a validation error occurs, the ValidationException is thrown with a list of problems. If there is a problem during publishing due to another transaction publishing the same artifacts, a ChangeConflictException is thrown. Anytime another transaction is detected as changing an artifact, the ChangeConflictException exception is thrown.
• Authorization
  The classes do not support any level of authorization. It is up to the client application using the classes to add its own form of authorization.

Business rule management programming