Rule attributes

Rule name
A name for the rule that is appropriate to its business context.
Rule folder
The folder that contains the rule.
Start date
This is the date and time at which the rule goes into effect. Prior to this time, it will not be found by trigger points. Together with the end date, the start date defines a period of time during which the rule is effective. A rule that does not have a start date specified is not a valid rule and will not be found by trigger points.

The start date is stored internally in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but, when it is displayed, it is converted to the local time zone in which the GUI is running.

End date
This is the date and time at which the rule is no longer effective. After this date and time the rule is no longer in effect and will not be found by trigger points. Together with the start date, the end date defines a period of time during which the rule is effective. A rule that does not have an end date specified is valid and will never expire.

The end date is stored internally in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but, when it is displayed, it is converted to the local time zone in which the GUI is running.

Ready
This indicates whether the rule is ready to be used. Rules that are not marked as ready will not be found by trigger points. This is intended to be an easy way to keep a rule from being used until it is completely defined or to temporarily turn a rule off without having to change the basic rule data such as start and end dates.
Java Rule Implementor name
This is the fully package-qualified name of a Java class that implements the BRBeans RuleImplementor interface. The fire method of the class performs the function of the rule. Business Rule Beans (BRBeans) provide several predefined rule implementors or you can write your own. See Rule Implementors or Customized rule implementors for more information.
Initialization parameters
This is an array of parameters that are passed to the rule implementor to initialize it. Each element in the array can be any object. This also can be referred to as the rule data, which is the external data that may change over time. The initialization parameters defined for a rule are passed directly to the init method of the rule implementor when it is instantiated. See "Rule Implementors" for more information on how rule implementors can use initialization parameters.
Firing parameters
Normally, firing parameters are simply the parameters passed on the trigger point when a rule is triggered. However, it is allowed to override these parameters by specifying parameters on the rule itself. This is where these overriding parameters are specified.
Firing location
This specifies where the rule implementor for this rule is instantiated and run. The following values are allowed:
Local
This option instantiates the rule implementor and runs it local to the trigger point (in the same JVM as the trigger point call). This is run on the client machine if the trigger point call is done there or on the server if the server part of an application makes a trigger point call. Use this option for the best performance since, once a rule is cached on the client, the entire triggering process can be performed locally without going to the server at all. The main disadvantage of this option is that the class files for the rule implementors need to be available on every client that can trigger rules.
Remote
This will instantiate the rule implementor and run it on the application server where the Business Rule Beans enterprise beans are installed. When using this option at least one remote method call always is required to trigger a rule since the trigger takes place on the server. The advantage is that the rule implementor class files only need to be available on the server.
Anywhere
This option tries to instantiate and run the rule implementor locally, and, if the class cannot be found, it tries to trigger it remotely.
Classification
For classified rules, this is the classification to which the rule applies. This is used when you use a situational trigger. Once a classification is computed for the situational trigger point, rules that apply to that classification are found and triggered. For more information, see Situational trigger point.
Classifier
This indicates whether this rule computes a classification. Classification is used for a situational trigger. A classifier rule is used to perform the first step of a situational trigger which computes a classification that is used to find rules to deal with the situation. For more information, see "Situational trigger point".
Dependent rules
In many cases, a rule triggers other rules to complete the overall task. These other rules are referred to as dependent rules and can be specified using the dependent rules attribute. For more information, see Dependent rules.
Business intent
This is a text description of the intent of this rule from the view point of the business analyst. You can store any text string here.
Description
This is a text description of the rule at the programmer's level. You can store any text string here.
Original requirement
This is a text description of the initial business analyst requirement of this rule. You can use this description to keep track of why this rule was originally created (for example, to keep auditing records). You can store any text string here.
User-defined data
You can store a user-defined text string here. The format and use of this data is completely determined by the user.
Primary key
Every rule has a primary key to uniquely identify it in the database where the enterprise beans are stored. Normally, a unique primary key is generated automatically when you create a new rule. However, you can use the rule management APIs to specify your own primary key, if desired. See Rule management APIs for more information.
Precedence
This is the relative priority of this rule. The default finding strategy uses this value to order the rules found in the database, from lowest to highest, when more than one rule is found for a particular trigger point. Rules are sorted numerically by precedence with the numerically lowest precedence first and the numerically highest precedence last.


Related concepts
Overview of Business Rule Beans
Rule implementors
Customized rule implementors
Situational trigger point
Dependent rules
Related reference
Rule management APIs



Searchable topic ID:   cbrb_rulatt
Last updated: Jun 21, 2007 8:07:48 PM CDT    WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation, Version 5.0.2
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