Integrating a business rule application into your enterprise environment consists in writing the integration code that calls the execution of business rules from your application, and deploying the rules to the execution environment.
Developers in charge of quality can also deploy the business rules onto a test server and use a solution created with Rule Scenario Manager to validate that the business rules comply with the required implementation logic. Once the business rule application is deployed, an administrator can monitor execution using the Rule Execution Server console.
The following table describes the modules you need to integrate business rule execution into an enterprise application, and validate the rules on a test application.
Table 4 Validation and Integration Modules
Module |
Description |
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The rule engine is a component in which you isolate and apply the business logic (the rules) of an application. A rule engine is used to answer questions such as "can we offer our client a mortgage?" and execute actions based on the answer. You provide the data (here, the client and the mortgage) and rules (a description of cases when the client can be offered a mortgage, and what to do in each case), and the rule engine gives an answer to the question and executes corresponding actions.
Architects and developers may also use the low-level engine API in advanced integration scenarios. They can use many of the features of the rule engine (selection of execution algorithms, runtime rule selection mechanisms, performance tuning) from Rule Studio. |
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Rule Execution Server is a managed, monitored execution environment for deployed business rules. Rule Execution Server handles the creation, pooling and management of ruleset instances in order to make invocation of a decision from application code as simple as possible.
For deployment purposes, individual rulesets are packaged into a RuleApp. Rule Execution Server provides a management console, from which you can deploy, manage, and monitor RuleApps. |
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Rule Scenario Manager is a framework that enables developers to provide business rule testing and simulation solutions to other developers or policy managers. |
The following table describes the user roles involved in integrating business rule execution into an enterprise application.
Table 5 Validation and Integration Roles
Role |
Description |
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System administrators are responsible for ensuring a smoothly running environment, and have the ability to restore a particular application state.
In the context of integration into an enterprise application, system administrators are responsible for: -
Installing and configuring Rule Execution Server
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Deploying the applications
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Redeploying rulesets as changes are made
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Managing user access to the execution servers
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Developers are responsible for the development, debugging, and deployment of business rule applications. They are familiar with object models, APIs, and the development environment (J2EE application servers or J2SE).
In the context of integration into an enterprise application, developers are responsible for writing the invocation code for rule execution, using either Rule Execution Server or the rule engine. |
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Architects are responsible for ensuring the overall deployment organization of the rules, and that the execution of rulesets is optimized.
In the context of integration into an enterprise application, architects are responsible for ensuring coherent ruleset deployment across a number of business rule applications, and defining reuse of rules. |
The following table describes the activities for integration into an enterprise application.
Table 6 Validation and Integration Activities
Activity |
Description |
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Administrators and developers make a ruleset available to a rule engine from Rule Studio or Rule Team Server.
Developers deploy rules from Rule Studio following two main scenarios: hot deployment when they want an immediate availability of rules for testing purposes, or staged deployment when they want to deploy to a controlled production environment
Administrators may also deploy rules from Rule Team Server or the Rule Execution Server console. |
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Developers use Rule Scenario Manager to create a business rule testing and simulation environment for use by rule developers, business analysts and policy managers. Depending on the individual user's needs, developers can use different Rule Scenario Manager services. For example, rule developers may create Excel spreadsheets that can be filled in by business analysts or policy managers with test data, which the rule developers then use to execute test suites. An example of a testing and simulation solution that can be built with Rule Scenario Manager is the Rule Scenario Manager Console. |
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Developers and architects package the contents of a rule project into an executable archive, called a ruleset, and write the code to run the rule engine on this ruleset. They may integrate rule execution into an embedded rule engine, or implement rule execution as a decision service within Rule Execution Server. |
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An administrator uses the Rule Execution Server Console, Ant scripts, or enterprise management tools (such as HP Tivoli or IBM OpenView) and JMX MBeans to monitor the execution of rulesets within Rule Execution Server. They can create backup versions of rulesets and revert to a previous version if necessary, and gather statistics on performance. |
Related Sections
Related Samples and Tutorials
