While handling RuleDocs you can fully exploit the capabilities of OpenXML, the new file format specification used by Microsoft Office 2007. In addition to the standard Office content, a RuleDoc also contains data that is specific to business rules. This data is stored in the XML data store of the OpenXML file (also referred to as the custom XML part of the OpenXML document).

Each rule, ruleflow, or decision table defines a set of properties that are stored in this custom data part. This clear separation between the business rule data and the Office document allows applications to easily extract the data and update it independently of how the data is presented in the document. For example, you can retrieve the last modification date of a rule without needing to know whether this information is located in a table or a paragraph, or even whether it is displayed in the document.

Furthermore, accessing the data does not require any Office client application, which makes this approach particularly well suited for server-side scenarios. For example, you can use the new workflow capabilities of SharePoint 2007 to implement a business rule lifecycle process. Whenever a document is checked in Rule Team Server for SharePoint, the workflow can analyze the properties of the rule artifacts in the RuleDoc, perform consistency checks and automated property updates, send notifications to the policy managers that work on the project, and so on.

The RuleDoc data is stored in a custom XML part within the http://schemas.ilog.com/Rules/3.0/RuleDocumentData namespace. You can find the documentation of the RuleDocumentData.xsd schema in the XML Schemas section. You can use the API in the System.IO.Packaging namespace to open a RuleDoc, navigate to the RuleDoc data part and use the standard XML API to query or modify rule properties.

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