How to Use Web Components for Rule Editing

Samples > Rule Team Server Authoring Extensions > How to Use Web Components for Rule Editing

How to Use Web Components for Rule Editing

This sample shows how to build a web application using ILOG JRules web components to display and edit action rules and decision tables. It also manages permissions on a project. The web application opens a connection with Rule Team Server to get data from its database. The rules and decision tables are displayed and edited in the user web application using the following web components:

The tree component
The syntactic editor component
The decision table editor component

This sample contains a configuration file to describe the new user roles and permissions needed for the sample.

Key Features

Key features of this sample include:

Getting Rule Team Server data
Managing Rule Team Server roles
Using the tree component to display rule elements
Using the rule editor to edit an action rule
Using a decision table editor to edit a decision table

Installing this Sample

To install this sample:

In the Samples Console, locate the teamserver > servercomponents sample.
Check that the Samples Server is started.

For information on how to start and stop the Samples Server, see Stopping and Restarting the Samples Server from the Samples Console.

Execute the run command to compile and package the application, and then deploy it to JBoss.
Wait until you see the following message before continuing: The application has been deployed

Executing the run target builds and deploys the Server Components application on JBoss. In addition, the loanvalidation-rules project is modified as follows:

Project security is enforced
A new user rmtuser is associated with the project
New permissions for this role are set

Running this Sample

Before running the sample, note that Rule Team Server manages different user groups. The user rtsAdmin provided by default belongs to the rtsAdministrator group, which has all permissions. In this sample, the user rmtuser is defined with permissions described in data/rmtUserGroup.properties. They specify that users belonging to this group can:

Create action rules and decision tables
Update the definition property for action rules and decision tables if they were created by someone from their own group
Update any others elements
View any elements
Delete action rules and decision tables if they were created by someone from their own group
Delete all other elements

The following describes:

How to view project security settings
How to use the web application connected to Rule Team Server as rmtuser
How to check the permissions by signing in as rtsAdmin

How to View Project Security Settings

To view the security settings of the loanvalidation-rules project:

Open a web browser and enter the following URL to access Rule Team Server:

http://localhost:8080/teamserver/

Username: rtsAdmin

Password: rtsAdmin

In the Home tab, select loanvalidation-rules as the project in use.
Click the Admin tab.
Click Edit Project Security. Note that security is enforced for this project and a number of groups are associated with the project.
Click Cancel to return to the Admin tab.
On the Admin tab, click Edit Permissions.
Select rmtUserGroup from the drop-down list and view its current security settings. Note that users belonging to this group can update the content of action rules created by members of their own group.
Sign out of Rule Team Server.

How to Use the Web Application Connected to Rule Team Server as rmtuser

To use the web application connected to Rule Team Server:

Open a web browser and enter the following URL:

http://localhost:8080/rtsclient

Username: rmtuser

Password: rmtuser

The page displays a tree showing the folders of the loanvalidation-rules project. Open the computation folder to see the action rules and decision tables it contains.
Click on neverBankruptcy: the definition of the action rule is displayed on the right part of the page (this may take a few seconds).

Notice how the Edit, Save, Cancel, and Delete buttons are disabled: since you signed in as rmtuser can only update rules that were created by your group.

Click on bankruptcyScore.

The definition of the decision table is displayed on the right part. Notice also that for action rules, all buttons are disabled since they ware not created by your group.

Click on the computation package on the left tree.
Create a new action rule and name it NewRule.

Notice how the Edit and the Delete buttons are enabled this time.

Sign out

How to Check the Permissions by Signing in as rtsAdmin

To check the permission of the loanvalidation-rules project:

Open a web browser and enter the following URL:

http://localhost:8080/rtsclient

Username: rtsAdmin

Password: rtsAdmin

Open the computation folder and select the rule neverBankruptcy.

Notice that this time the Edit and Delete buttons are enabled. By signing is as rtsAdmin, you have permission to update any rule.

Note

You can restore the initial security settings for the loanvalidation-rules project by executing the run.remove.permission Ant command

Source Files

This sample is located in <InstallDir>/teamserver/samples/servercomponents.

The sample is based on the Sun JSF framework. A typical JavaServer Faces application includes one or more backing beans (JavaBean components associated with UI components used in a page). A backing bean defines UI component properties, each of which is bound to either a component's value or a component instance. A backing bean also defines methods that perform functions associated with a component. In our case, the beans feed the model that will be displayed and handle navigation processing.

The beans are in the package ilog.rule.sample.tree:

AbstractBean.java - The base class of the backing beans. It manages a list of errors.
ConnectionBean.java - The backing bean that stores the Rule Team Server connection parameters. It is used in servercomponents/WebContent/loginform.jsp

login() - Called to create a new Rule Team Server session with the given parameters.
logout() - Called to sign out of the Rule Team Server session.

TreeBean.java - The backing bean that manages the Rule Team Server project data. It is used in servercomponents/WebContent/treesample.jsp
treeController - The tree controller is provided to the Rule Team Server tree component to build the Rule Team Server project data tree. It gives access to the rule elements to display: the folders, the action rules, and the decision tables.

create() - Creates a new decision table or action rule in the current Rule Team Server project.
delete() - Deletes the decision table or action rule currently selected in the tree component.
display() - Displays the rule element in read-only.
edit() - Available if the user has permission to edit the rule and if the element is not already locked. It opens the editor corresponding to the decision table or action rule currently selected in the tree component. It relies on RuleEditorFacade to get the right web component editor. It locks the rule element.
save() - Saves all editor modifications to Rule Team Server and unlocks the element.
cancel() - Disregards all editor modifications to Rule Team Server and unlocks the element.
errors - This list contains the errors raised by Rule Team Server when saving rules.

BeanHelper.java - A utility class to get the bean from the JSF framework.
RTSHelper.java - Provides functions to create action rules or decision tables in Rule Team Server and to check the permissions.

The editors part is in the package ilog.rule.sample.editor:

Editor.java - An abstract editor class used by the Editor facade.

doPrint() - Displays the editor in a port.
doSave() - Saves the editor contents to Rule Team Server.

DecisionTableEditor.java - Extends the editor class for the decision table. It uses an instance of IlrDTWTableComponent to edit the decision table.
RuleEditor.java - Extends the editor class for the action rule. It uses an instance of IlrWSyntacticEditor to edit the action rule.
RuleEditorFacade.java - Lets the tree controller choose the correct editor according to the type of selected rule.

The JSF specific part is in package ilog.rule.sample.jsf:

JSFHelper.java - Provides functions to get information from JSF such as the session or the request and to add or remove messages in JSF.
JSFRuleEditorFacade.java - The editor facade implementation for the JSF framework.

The utilities class are in the package ilog.rule.sample.util:

Messages.java - Reads all messages from data/servercomponents.properties.

The installer package is used to modify the loanvalidation-rules project security with Ant tasks. They are not used by the web application.

PermissionHelper.java - Manages the permissions.

Highlights

In this sample you learn:

How to set/unset the permissions on a project
How to use the ILOG JRules web components
How to lock/unlock objects

To set/unset the permissions on a project

The main of the class PermissionHelper unsets the permission if there is an argument, otherwise it sets them. To set the permissions, see the setPermissionsForRole() function:

addGroup(session, userGroup) function - Adds the user and group to Rule Team Server.
enForceSecurity(session, project, userGroup) - Enforces the permission and adds the new group for the loanvalidation-rules project.
loadSorted(resourceName) - Reads the properties file and builds a map of permissions with it. The property file is data/rmtUserGroup.properties.
setPermissionsForRole(session, usergroup, propertiesMap) - Sets the permissions map to the user.

To unset the permissions, see function disableSecurity(session, project). It calls the Rule Team Server API to disable the security for the given project.

To use the ILOG JRules web components

Editing of components is managed by a controller. This controller is a servlet declared in the WEB-INF/web.xml description file. The components are: