[rules-users] Using the Rule Flow Builder GUI

[Shahad Ahmed]

I've been playing with the new Ruleflow stuff in 4.0MR2 - which is cool -
and it's raised a couple of questions and observations that I hope other
users can answer.

1. Is there a way of specifying a constraint(s) on a Split node. I can
see the Split node type property can be given an AND value, but there seems
to be no way of specifying which output connections(s) should be traversed
after the split. I quick peek at the source code did reveal that the core
ruleflow stuff seems to have constraint attributes in the split node
implementation, so is this still a "Todo", or is there a way of
specifying constraints in 4.0MR2 release?

2. Am I correct in assuming that a rule can only ever belong to a single
RuleFlowGroup node (i.e. ruleset), as the rules in a RuleFlowGroup seem to
be specified by a rules (single) ruleflowgroup attribute? It appears that if
you want to reuse a rule in another RuleFlowGroup node in the ruleflow then
you have to redefine a copy of the rule and give it a different
ruleflowgroup attribute. However, if a rule could belong to several ruleflow
groups then you could reuse a rule in other RuleFlowGroup nodes in the
same ruleflow, or even in a different ruleflow. In some the applications
I've developed with commercial rules engines,  it's common to have a number
of ruleflows that implement different parts of a system, but where all the
rules are defined against a common model, thus allowing some reuse of rules.


3. The Eclipse GUI ruleflow builder doesn't seem to allow loops in the flow.
It may sound a bit perverse, but is there any reason why loops should not
allowed (assuming the rule modeler is aware of the potential of infinite
loops etc)? I've implemented applications with commercial rules engines,
where looping in the ruleflow has proved useful. As I said, it may sound
perverse, but several commercial rules engines are getting to the point
where the ruleflow tools are essentially Business Process Management Systems
(BPMS). These systems mix rules and process control flow, such as split
conditions, looping and much more, to define applications within a single
framework, but that's a whole different topic.

Thanks
Shahad
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