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The Rule Authoring topic includes the following information to assist administrators with creating, copying, and editing business rules:

• Overview
  • Understanding Rules Sessions
• Creating Rules
  • General
  • Definition
    • Business Rule
    • Decision Table
      • Conditions
      • Actions
        • Set Value
        • Business Language
      • Decisions
  • Load Options
  • Finalizing a Rule
    • Compiling the Rule Application
• Copying Rules
• Editing Rules
• Deleting Rules

Overview

Business Rules use business language to link the following:

Rule Language	Description
Condition	Logical circumstances, such as Fields, Field Values, or Functions, which are met in order for an Action to be assigned.
Action	Activities that are performed as a result of Conditions being met.

Rules can be used to create a logical statement such as, If [condition is true]…..then [perform this action]. If that condition is not met, then the logic can continue into an Else statement. You then can nest and add more If [condition is true]…..then [perform this action] statements.

Below are some guidelines to follow in preparation for authoring Business Rules:

• Write down what you are trying to accomplish before writing the rule. Remember that Business Rules can run on a person, an account, or a case.
• Review the Data Dictionary in conjunction with entities to understand what data fields are available.
• Think about categories and entities together. Each Rule runs on data that is available at the entity level and that which is mapped in the Load Options.

The overall steps to writing a Business Rule are as follows:

• Select a category.
• Select an entity.
• Define the conditions.
• Specify the actions to take place when the conditions are met.
• Map the Load Options necessary for the rule to execute.

Understanding Rule Sessions

Rule Sessions allow multiple users to work in the rule application simultaneously. Reference the table below for an overview of the session types that are supported in Rules Management:

Session Type	Description
Exclusive	Occurs when the entire rule application is locked by a single user, such as when the installer is run, or a Configuration Manager import is in progress. Only one user can have an exclusive lock on the rule application at a time. When a user has an exclusive lock on the rule application, other users can access Rules Management, but only in read-only mode, and no edits can be performed.  In order to have an exclusive session, no other user can have an active rule session in the rule application.
Editing	Occurs when a user opens the rule application. Multiple users can have an editing session in the rule application simultaneously; however, each rule can only be edited by one user at a time. A lock is placed on a rule when a user opens the Edit Rule window to create, copy, or edit the rule.
Saving	Occurs when a user saves the rule application, or performs a Sync Lookups or Sync Custom Fields. Only one user can have a saving session at a time.  In order to have a saving session, no other user can have an active exclusive or saving session.

The following behavior occurs in the rule application to ensure that more than one user is not able to edit the same rule at the same time, each user is working with the most up to date rule logic, and updated rule logic is able to be saved successfully:

• Once the Edit Rule window is open by a user, a lock is placed on the rule in the rule application. If another user attempts to edit the same rule while the lock is in place, the Edit Rule window opens in read-only mode, and the Save buttons are disabled within the window. A message also appears in the corner of the window to identify the username of the user who has the rule checked out for editing.

  A lock is not released on a rule until the rule application is saved, or the user exits Rules Manager. If a rule is opened, and no changes are made within the Edit Rule window, the rule remains checked out for editing until the logic is saved.

• If a rule has been added and/or modified while the rule application is open, a message is received when the user accesses the rule to notify that updates were made, and the rule application must be refreshed. Clicking OK in the message refreshes the rule application, and provides the user with the most up to date rule logic in Rules Management.
• If a user tries to perform a save action while another user has an active saving session, the save fails, and an error message is received to inform that one or more other users have open sessions, which are preventing the saving session from occurring. This message displays the username of the user, and the session type.

  The above message is also received If a user tries to obtain an exclusive lock on the rule application while other rule sessions are in progress.

The active sessions in the rule application can be viewed within the Rule Sessions tab on the Rules Management home page.

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Creating Rules

To begin authoring rules, click  on the Rules Management Home Screen in System Management > Collections > Rules Management.

Upon clicking , the Rules Management Application displays:

 

To create a rule, select the appropriate rule category from the left navigation pane. 

Click  and select one of the following options:

Rule	Description
Business Rule	Business Rules are based upon condition(s) and associated action(s) expressed in business language. Rule logic is typically expressed in the form of "If...Then..." statements.
Decision Table	Decision Tables are helpful to use in order to maintain complex business situations in a simple manner and are a powerful way to represent a set of related business rules in a table format in order to avoid repeating rule logic in several “If” statements. The resulting decision table evaluates the conditions and assigned actions from the top down until it finds a path where all conditions resolve to True.

 After selecting Business Rule or Decision Table from the Create drop-down, a Select Entity pop-up window displays.  Select the appropriate Entity where the rule is to be applied and click OK.

Once an entity is selected, the New Rule window appears displaying three tabs: General, Definition, and Load Options.

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General

On the General Tab, the following fields display:

Field	Description
Name	Enter a Rule Name. This field cannot contain spaces or special characters.  Rules under the same entity must be named differently in order to save the Rule Application. If this field is the same for more than one rule under the same entity, an error message is received when trying to save the Rule Application.
Description	Enter a Description. This field is not required, but is recommended in order to provide administrators with an understanding of the rule.
Entity	Displays the name of the entity. This field is not editable.
This rule only runs when executed from another rule	If checked, the rule is not executed as part of a rule category and is only executed if explicitly called from another rule. Users are able to call a different rule through action execute rule set and select the rule that is to be executed. This check box can be used to control the order of execution for rules in a group.  This functionality must be defined when a rule is created. After a rule is saved, this check box is disabled and can no longer be configured. If authoring Queuing Rules for Advanced Queuing, and calling additional rules within the AccountEligibilty, AccountQueuing, or Person Queuing rules, this check box must be enabled in order to configure the rule to appear within the execute rule set action template.
This rule is disabled	If checked, the rule is disabled and not executed. This check box can be used for creating rules to be activated at a later date. It is recommended to disable a rule rather than permanently delete it from the Rules Management Application.  When a rule is configured to execute from another rule, it cannot be disabled; therefore, this check box becomes inactive when the This rule only runs when executed from another rule check box is selected.

Once all fields are complete, navigate to the Definition Tab.

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Definition

The Definition tab contains the rule logic and is where administrators can modify and build a rule. The Definition tab appears different depending on the type of rule being created. 

Business Rule

To begin building a Business Rule, click Create Rule.

Select a rule construct or action from the list that displays:

Rule

Action

 After a Rule or Action is selected, the rule template displays:

 To begin building the rule condition, click [build condition]. A list of available fields and functions displays:

 When building conditions and actions, select a field or function from the list or type in the drop-down to filter the selections.

Based on this selection, blue links populate within the template in order to build a complete expression.

When an expression is incomplete, these links appear to indicate that an additional field or function is required in order to complete the rule expression. The blue links contain placeholders and special characters to alert to the following:

Name	Prompt	Description
Open Placeholder		Indicates that another template selection is required in order to complete the expression.
Named Placeholder		Indicates that a value, field or additional template selection is required in order to complete the expression.
Chevron Extender		Indicates that the rule template can be extended by selecting a condition of “and” or “or.”
Caret Extender		The ^ extender is used to append logic to the previous field, value or entire template, such as adding date or text functions.

Select a field to display a list of all relevant expressions applicable to the field. For example, clicking [collection] displays a list of the applicable Person Fields.

Click the … to display a list of the further information that is needed regarding the number of Promises. For this example, a value for the number of promises must be defined in order to complete this expression. Clicking the … populates a list of applicable Collection and Compare Functions.

Select a function from the list in order to populate the [value] field.

Click [value] and enter an integer value within the top of the list.

When all conditions are set, define the actions to occur as a result of those conditions.

Click [add action] to define the resulting action and select an action from the list that displays.

As previously mentioned, based on this selection, blue links populate within the template in order to build a complete expression. Select [type] to define the message type.

Once a type value has been selected, click [message] to define the panel message.

To add text, simply enter the message within the text box.

Click the ^ to define optional text options, such as with no leading or trailing spaces or with whitespace removed.

Once all rule logic has been defined, navigate to the Load Options tab within the New Rule window to assign the Load Options for the Business Rule. 

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Decision Table

Administrators can modify and build a decision table using the Conditions, Actions, and Decisions boxes that display within the Definition tab.

 This section provides an overview of the following information to assist administrators with configuring a Decision Table:

• Conditions
• Actions
  • Set Value
  • Business Language
• Decisions

Conditions

In a Decision Table, multiple conditions can be built to compare individual field values or ranges of values. The Decision Table evaluates from top to bottom until it finds a result where all conditions resolve to True.

The Conditions box contains the following buttons:

Button	Function
	Add Condition
	Edit an existing condition.
	Move the order that conditions appear in the columns of the Decision Table.
	Delete an existing condition.

To add a condition, select the Add Condition button   to begin building rule criteria.

The Add Decision Table Condition window appears:

Using the table below, complete the applicable Add Decision Table Condition fields:

Condition Field	Description
Condition name	Specifies the name of the condition that appears in the Decision Table column header.  This is a required field.
Include 'Any' checkbox	Adds the ‘Any’ option to the list of conditions. Selecting ‘Any,’ in the table triggers that condition to be True under any circumstances.
Linked Field	Specifies if the condition relates to a specific field. Enter the field name in the box or click the … icon to display a list of available fields.  This is not a required field.
Value List	If linked to a field, select a value list from the drop-down. This drop-down contains the lookup lists available from System Management > Field Configurations. When a Value List is selected, the field values associated with the list automatically populate within the Values grid.   A Value List cannot be selected if a Linked Field is not defined.
Values Grid	Specifies the Display name and Expression for each field value. When a Value List is selected, this grid pre-populates with the field values associated with the selected value list.  When a field value is selected within the Values Grid, the Display name, Condition type, and Value fields pre-populate with information for the selected field value.
Display Name	Specifies the name that displays in the drop-down for the condition column of the Decision Table.
Condition type	Specifies if the condition set relates to a field or is defined using an expression or business language.  If Expression or Business Language is selected, a window appears to define the rule logic:
Condition type	Specifies the compare function used to define the condition criteria.  This field does not display when the Expression or Business Language condition type is selected.
Value	Specifies the ID Value in the database for the selected field value.

Once all fields for the condition are configured, click OK to save the condition.

As previously mentioned, multiple conditions can be created within a decision table. Before defining actions for the decision table, create all conditions following the above steps.

Back to Decision Table configurations ^ 

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Actions

In a Decision Table, the end result of the logic path is determined by the defined actions. Multiple action sets can be created and associated with various conditions.

The Actions box contains the following buttons:

Button	Function
	Add an action.
	Edit an existing action.
	Move the order that actions appear in the columns of the Decision Table.
	Delete an existing action.

To create an Action, click the  button to select the desired action template.  

The Add Decision Table Action window appears. Select one of the following action modes:

Set Value

Business Language

Repeat the steps for the selected action mode until all options for the action are defined. Click OK to save the action.

Once all actions are created, navigate to the Decisions box to complete the Decision Table.

Back to Decision Table configurations ^ 

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Decisions

The Decisions Table is ready to populate once all Conditions and Actions have been defined.

Within the Decisions Box, the following buttons display to configure the Decision Table:

Button	Function
	Add new row to the Decision Table.
	Move selected row up.
	Move selected row down.
	Delete selected row.
	Copy selected row.
	Paste the copy of a row.
	Select the sort order of the Decision Table.
	Generate an exhaustive list of all possible options for the table.
	Check Decision Table for any duplicated or missing options.
	Delete all rows of the Decision Table.

In the example below, notice how the defined Conditions and Actions have pre-populated within the top of the table:

Manually add rows to the Decision Table by clicking  or select  to create an exhaustive list of all possible combinations for the table.

Using the associated drop-downs within an Action column, assign Conditions to Actions until all desired outcomes have been accounted for within the Decision Table.

Once all rule logic has been defined, navigate to the Load Options tab within the New Rule window to assign the Load Options for the Decision Table. 

Back to Decision Table configurations ^ 

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Load Options

Load Options define the data required to execute a rule and are used to improve performance by avoiding the transmission of unnecessary data. The Load Options for each rule are defined within the Load Options tab.

The Load Options tab displays two boxes: Available Options and Assigned Options:

To assign Load Options to the rule, select the load option from the Available Options box and move it to the Assigned Options box using the arrows that display.

In this demonstration, the rule being created is at the person level and, in order to retrieve promise information for each of the person’s accounts, account and promise entities are needed to execute the rule. The correct Load Options to assign for this rule are Person.Accounts and Person.Promises.

By assigning these load options, the information regarding all person accounts and promises made by the person are transmitted before the rule is executed, in order to display the warning message regarding outstanding promises.

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Finalizing a Rule

Upon completion of all rule logic, click  within the Edit Rule window to retain the new rule logic and return to the Rules Management screen. Once saved, the new rule populates within the Rules grid. Click  within the Rules Management screen to save the new rule logic to the Rule Application.

Clicking  within the Rules Management toolbar initiates the compilation process where the rule application is updated to include the new rule logic. Once the process is complete, the updated rule logic is available for execution. 

Compiling the Rule Application

When the rule application is saved, a compilation process is initiated to update the current rule application and apply all new and modified rule logic.

Each time the rule application is saved, this process is automatically performed behind the scenes, resulting in a delay between the time that the rule application is saved and the time that the modified rule logic is applied in the Lifecycle Management Suite.

While the rule application is compiling, the logic within the previous rule application continues to be applied throughout the Lifecycle Management Suite. Once the compilation process is complete, the logic within the existing rule application is automatically discarded and the updated logic within the compiled rule application is seamlessly put to use in the Lifecycle Management Suite. The date and time that the compiled rule application became current in the Lifecycle Management Suite populates within the Effective Date column in the grid on the Rules Management Home page.

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Copying Rules

To copy a Rule:

• Click to highlight a Rule within the Rules grid. 
• Click  within the Application Toolbar. The Copy Rule window appears.
• Navigate through the tabs and make any required/necessary changes.
• When finished, click  to retain the new rule logic, and return to the Rules Management screen.

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Editing Rules

To edit a Rule:

• Click to highlight a Rule within the Rules grid. 
• Click  within the Application Toolbar.
• The Edit Rule window appears. Navigate through the tabs and make any required/necessary changes.
• When finished, click  to retain the updated rule logic, and return to the Rules Management screen.

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Deleting Rules

To delete a rule:

• Highlight the rule within the Rules grid, and click . 
• Upon clicking , a confirmation message displays to confirm if the rule should be deleted:
• Click Yes to delete the rule, or No to retain the rule and return to the Rules Management Application screen.

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