WebSphere Integration Developer v6.0 Introduction to Business Rules

1. WebSphere Integration Developer v6.0Introduction to Business Rules

2. Agenda – Business Rules • Concepts and Overview • Where do Business Rules fit in the Architecture • Business Rule Components • Organized in Rule Groups, Rule Sets, Decision Tables • Business Rule Tooling • Developer roles and Business Analyst roles • Summary

3. BusinessProcesses ServiceComponents SupportingServices InterfaceMaps BusinessObject Maps Relationships Selectors Service ComponentArchitecture BusinessObjects Common EventInfrastructure SOA Core Fitting into WebSphere Process Server V6 HumanTasks BusinessStateMachines BusinessRules WebSphere Application Server (J2EE Runtime)

4. Business Rules – Concepts • Allows the separation of the business rule logic from the other services, applications, and processes in the system • Exposes Business Rules as its own service in the WebSphere Process Server as a peer to the other elements of the architecture • Allows the specification of the business rule logic in a simple form, easily understood by Business Analysts. • Logic is specified as either • A sequence of if-test-then-actions clauses • A simple decision tree • Ability to free up IT resources for simple rule changes and without expensive IT personnel • Details of Business Rules change frequently • While the structure of the rules will be specified using the WID tooling, elements can be added or customized using a simple Web tool • Changes can be made dynamically to the system

5. Business Rules - Examples • Discount service • Offer a discount that varies depending on • Size of Order • Credit Rating of Customer • Time of Year • Postage Calculation • Depending on weight and value we can compute postage cost • When postage rates change we need to reflect this in our rules • Would like to add new rules in advance, but have them come into force on a particular date • Online Book Seller • Offer a recommendation depending on your browsing and past order history together with ordering patterns of “similar” customers • NOT IN SCOPE – need a Commercial rules or inference engine. (so long as it has a WS interface this can be easily wired into the SCA X

6. Business Rules – Business Rule Group Business Rules Business Rule Group RlName01 Default Business Rule: RlName01 RuleSet Start Date End Date Business Rule Interface (WSDL) input1 RlName02 output1 Parameter Method: Current time, Java, or XPath DecisionTable

7. Business Rules – Business Rule Group - Summary • Business Rule Group is the highest level implementation component • Groups Rule Sets or Decision Tables that share a common business focus • Exposed in the runtime as an SCA service • Provides the interfaces for Rule Sets and Decision Tables to use • Lists the Partner references available for Rule set actions • Defines a table of dates and times for which implementation is to be used when for which interface • Which Business Rule to use is determined by the date/time that is provided during invocation The date/time can be either the current date/time, “mined” from the input parameters via Xpath, or determined using a Java snippet

8. Business Rules – Rule Set Business Rule Group Rule Set Actions Test1 Each test is evaluated in turn and as many actions as are appropriate are executed. Thus order of the rules is critical. Test2 Test3 Test4

9. Business Rules – Rule Set Business Rule Group RuleSet

10. Business Rules – Rule Set - Summary • Rule Set is a set of 1 or more if-then condition/action statements that are processed sequentially • Evaluated from first listed to last, so order is important • Able to choose any number of Action/If-Then conditions • An Action need not have an If condition associated. Simple actions are allowed, these are always executed. Example: Initializing variables • Evaluates multiple conditions and can fire multiple rules • All the actions that have conditions that evaluate to true are needs to be done • Local variables can be defined for more “complicated” processing • These can be of any datatype • Actions generally set values for output BOs • But can invoke other SCA modules

11. Business Rules – Decision Table Business Rule Group Decision Table Test3 Actions Test2 Thus exactly one of the action sets is executed. Test1 Decision Table is a balanced tree. Exactly one branch is taken after each decision

12. Business Rules – Decision Table Business Rule Group Decision Table

13. Business Rules – Decision Table - Summary • Decision Table represents a decision tree structure • Each level of the tree is like a case (or select) statement • Exactly one branch is taken at each level (the first listed that evaluates true so order is important here too) • If no case statement is satisfied at any level an exception occurs • The number of “total cases” is the product of the number of cases at each level • So Level1 choice of 3, level2 choice of 2, level3 choice of 4 would give 3*2*4=24 cases in total • Only one set of actions will be fired • The actions often consist of setting values for elements in the output, however more complex actions involving other SCA components are possible

14. Business Rules – Roles - Tooling Role Tasks Tools Used • The developer that codes the business rules that are editable via the Business Rule Editor web tool • Implements what the Architect lays out • Wires the rules into Business Process WebSphere Integration Developer More Technical Skills Developer Role Business Rule Manager Web Tool • The day to day administrator • Implements minor business rule changes • More in tune with business practices • No WID licence. More Business Skills Business Analyst Role

15. Business Rules – Tooling - WID • The tool that supports all the SCA component development • Easy to use tools for defining, testing and managing business rules • Eclipse based tooling for Business Rule development • Focused on the more technical developer role • Allows templates to be created which can be used in the Web based Business Rules Manager • Used to create new Business Rules

16. Tooling – Templates - WID • As well as using WID to create the rules and rule groups we have discussed, WID can be used to create parameterized rule templates. From these templates new rule instances can be created in WID or the Web bases Business Rule TEMPLATE RULE from TEMPLATE

17. Business Rules – Web Based Tooling • Built specifically for the Business Analyst • Manageable subset of full authoring functionality found in WebSphere Integration Developer • Templates built by the developer role allow the business rule analyst a very easy way to edit business rules at runtime • Browser is all that is required to use • url={host:port}/br/webclient/pages/index.jsp • It is part of the WBI runtime as an optional install (installBRManager.jacl), might expect to be on a staging server • No need to restart application or application server when changing Business Rules • Users are authenticated using standard WAS authentication/security

18. Business Rules – Web Based Tooling

19. Business Rules – Summary • WebSphere Process Server v6 exposes Business Rules as SCA components • Handles 80% of typical integration rules • Does not handle the other 20% of complex rules, like inferencing • Third party products with Web Service interface can easily integrate in SCA • WID Tooling allows creation, testing and deployment of rules • Web Based Business Rules manager allows Business Analyst to Edit, update and deploy business rules using only browser • It is included with WebSphere Process Server v6.0 as an optional install • Tested rules can be deployed as EAR files in the standard J2EE deployment model

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