This is now what the spring XML looks like:
  <bean id="rb1" class="org.drools.ioc.spring.KnowledgeBaseFactoryBean">      
      <property name="resources">
          <list>
              <bean class="org.drools.ioc.spring.KnowledgeResourceFactoryBean">

                  <property name="knowledgeType" value="DRL" />

                  <property name="source" value="file:src/main/java/org/drools/ioc/spring/testSpring.drl" />                 
              </bean>
             
              <bean class="org.drools.ioc.spring.KnowledgeResourceFactoryBean">

                  <property name="knowledgeType" value="DTABLE" />

                  <property name="source" value="file:src/main/java/org/drools/ioc/spring/IntegrationExampleTest.xls" />                 
                  <property name="knowledgeResourceConfiguration">   
                      <bean class="org.drools.ioc.spring.DTableResourceConfigurationFactoryBean">

                          <property name="inputType" value="XLS" />
                      </bean>
                  </property>
              </bean>                     
          </list>
      </property>     

  </bean>

How is that looking? Most people happy with that, it's very generic. I've dropped the agent side for the moment, just focusing on scripting of a KnowledgeBase via spring. It now more closely follows the KnowedgeBuilder api.  The above spring configuration will return a rulebase of two resources, on is a simple DRL, the other is a decisiontable of type XLS.

I'll extend this further to make sure that ALL knowledge types can be built for a knowledge base via the spring api. I'll also make sure it can take a KnowledgeBaseConfiguration and KnowledgeBuilderConfiguration. Then I'll also make sure there is a spring configuration to return a stateful or stateless session given a knowlebasefactorybean ref. Finally I might add some basic agent facilities.

I think this should give spring users everything they need, i.e. the capability to build knowledge bases and wire sessions and knowledge bases to other beans - all via xml.

Mark

Mark Proctor wrote:

I'm updating drools-api as we speak, based on the spring Resource idea. the following Factory will provide a set of ready to go Resources, that should satisfy most people's needs. So drools-api will be spimplied to
kbuilder.addResource( Resource, KnowledgeType )
kbuilder.addResource( Resource, KnowledgeType, ResourceConfiguration )

And the Resources available, and ofcourse people can implement the interface themselves is:

public class ResourceFactory {
 
    public static Resource newURLResource(URL url) {
        return null;
    }
 
    public static Resource newURLResource(URI uri) {
        return null;
    }
 
    public static Resource newURLResource(String url) {
        return null;
    }    
 
    public static Resource newFileResource(File file) {
        return null;
    }
 
    public static Resource newFileResource(String file) {
        return null;
    }
 
 
    public static Resource newByteArrayResource(byte[] bytes) {
        return null;
    }
 
    public static Resource newInputStreamResource(InputStream stream) {
        return null;
    }
 
    public static Resource newReaderResource(Reader reader) {
        return null;
    }
 
    public static Resource newReaderResource(Reader reader, String encoding) {
        return null;
    }  
 
    public static Resource newClassPathResource(String path) {
        return null;
    }
 
    public static Resource newClassPathResource(String path, ClassLoader classLoader) {
        return null;
    }    

}

It can take a Reader, which underneath will open an InputStream, it'll use default encoding unless the encoding is
specified as otherwise in the alternative param. 

So typically it'll be
kbuilder.addResource( ResourceFactory.newClassPathResource( "some path" ), KnowledgeType.DRL );

don't forget you can import static methods, so it can actually be:
kbuilder.addResource( newClassPathResource( "some path" ), KnowledgeType.DRL );


Mark
  

Greg Barton wrote:

Well, if you look at String.getBytes() it uses the default encoding, then ISO-8859-1 if that fails. (Default is UTF-8 unless otherwise specified in the "file.encoding" property.) As long as that's documented I guess it's not a problem, unless someone wants to specify their own charset for a particular file.  Java 1.6 has String.getBytes(Charset) and that could allow someone to use an alternate charset.

I figure for the vast majority of cases it won't be a problem.

--- On Sun, 11/23/08, Mark Proctor <mproctor@codehaus.org> wrote:

  

From: Mark Proctor <mproctor@codehaus.org>
Subject: Re: [rules-dev] Spring support for drools-api
To: "Rules Dev List" <rules-dev@lists.jboss.org>
Date: Sunday, November 23, 2008, 9:09 PM
I'm thinking of adopting the Spring approach to
Resources for 
drools-api, obviously not tieing drools-api to spring -
just copying the 
concept. Resource however doesn't seem to work with
Readers. Readers in 
general are only needed for in memory generation , using
StringReader, 
otherwise file/url/classpath resources suffice. So it seems
to do the 
Spring way you would do a ByteArrayResource( "this is
my drl 
file".getBytes() ). I'm wondering what people
think of that, and what 
about encoding issues? Compared to the way at the moment
that we just 
take a Reader, and that's it.

Mark

Mark Proctor wrote:
    

now my spring skills are improving, I'm looking to
      

improve the xml and 
    

leverage spring Resource framework - so that we can
      

get complete 
    

scripting of the entire KnowlegeBuilder api. I've
      

come up with the two 
    

xmls so far:
     <property name="drls">
         <list>
             

      

<value>file:src/main/java/org/drools/ioc/spring/testSpring.drl</value>
    

         </list>       </property>   
     <property name="dtables">
         <list>
                 <bean 

      

class="org.drools.ioc.spring.DtableResourceFactoryBean">
    

                     <property
      

name="resource" 
    

value="file:src/main/java/org/drools/ioc/spring/dt.xls"
/>
    

                     <property
      

name="inputType" value="XLS" />
    

                 
</bean>                                         
      

</list>       </property>
This one has a property per knowledge type, the
      

advantage is on 
    

knowledge types which are just string, we can use a
      

simple <value>. 
    

Although knowlege tyep that require additional
      

information, like the 
    

DT input type, will need a bean.

     <property name="resources">
         <list>
             <bean 

      

class="org.drools.ioc.spring.KnowledgeResourceBeanFactory">
    

                 <property
      

name="knowledgeType" value="DRL" />
    

                 <property
      

name="resource" 
    

value="file:src/main/java/org/drools/ioc/spring/testSpring.drl"

    

/>                              </bean>

             <bean 

      

class="org.drools.ioc.spring.KnowledgeResourceBeanFactory">
    

                 <property
      

name="knowledgeType" value="DTABLE"
/>
    

                 <property
      

name="resource" 
    

value="file:src/main/java/org/drools/ioc/spring/dt.xls"
/>
    

                 <property
      

name="resourceConfiguration">   
    

                     <bean 

      

class="org.drools.ioc.spring.DtableResourceFactoryBean">
    

                         <property
      

name="inputType" value="XLS" />
    

                     </bean>                 
      

</property>
    

             </bean>                            
      

 </list>
    

     </property>
This approach more closely resembles the kbuilder api.
      

We have  simple 
    

resources list. Everything is a bean, so it's very
      

flexible, but we 
    

lose the shortcut approach of the first one where we
      

can just give a 
    

list of strings. As each one must be a bean, so that
      

it can contain 
    

atleast the knowledge type, as well as the resource
      

string.
    

My preference currently is for the second one, as I
      

don't tink it's 
    

too verbose, and it provides better consistency than
      

the first.
    

Mark


Geoffrey De Smet wrote:
      

It doesn't indeed sound overkill to me to
        

create a FactoryBean for 
    

the Builder.
Though I would probably reuse the Builder inside
        

the 
    

KnowlegdeBaseFactory to build the Knowlegde base.

The real issue is concurrency.
Spring promotes the idea of stateless beans which
        

do have global 
    

variables, but those global variables are either
        

synchronised 
    

thread-safe or also follow the stateless bean
        

pattern.
    

This in fact makes the stateless beans thread
        

safe, without any need 
    

for synchronization/locking.

So the question is: is your KnowlegdeBase
        

thread-safe?
    

Thread safe objects are usually put into global
        

variables,
    

while not thread unsafe objects are always put
        

into local variables.
    

class A {
  private B b; // thread-safe by synchronization
        

(JDBCConnection, ...)
    

  private C c; // thread-safe by the stateless
        

pattern:
    

  // both b and c are set during initialization
        

(constr. or setter), 
    

before A is exposed to other threads

  public void metho(D d) { // d is not thread-safe
    E e = ...; // e is not thread-safe
  }

}

In drools 4. B is the RuleBase, while E is the
        

working memory instance.
    

With kind regards,
Geoffrey De Smet


Mark Proctor schreef:
        

Geoffrey De Smet wrote:
          

With kind regards,
Geoffrey De Smet


Mark Proctor schreef:

            

I'd also maybe consider
                

dropping the Spring prefix, as it's in a 
    

package called spring?
=>
                

org.drools.spring.KnowledgeAgentFactoryBean
    

My worry here is it might be a
              

duplicate of the same name used in 
    

the future - although it'll be in
              

a different package namespace, 
    

it's still not good practice.
              

Anyone else have any opinions on this?
    

Good point, prefixing it with Spring
            

can't hurt :)
    

I'm just wondering about
          

KnowledgeBuilderFactory and 
    

KnowledgeBaseFactory. While it makes sense to
          

put the 
    

KnowledgeAgentFactory into spring, does it
          

make sense for those 
    

other factories? What are they gonna do other
          

than return 
    

KnowledgeBuilder or a KnowledgeBase, only
          

possible advantage is that 
    

it would allow spring to inject the
          

KnowledgeBuilderConfiguration 
    

and KnowledgeBaseConfiguration. And ideas?

          

http://anonsvn.labs.jboss.com/labs/jbossrules/trunk/drools-api/src/main/java/org/drools/builder/KnowledgeBuilderFactory.java

    

http://anonsvn.labs.jboss.com/labs/jbossrules/trunk/drools-api/src/main/java/org/drools/builder/KnowledgeBuilder.java

    

http://anonsvn.labs.jboss.com/labs/jbossrules/trunk/drools-api/src/main/java/org/drools/KnowledgeBaseFactory.java

    

http://anonsvn.labs.jboss.com/labs/jbossrules/trunk/drools-api/src/main/java/org/drools/KnowledgeBase.java

    

This is typically how those two factories are
          

used:
    

KnowledgeBuilder kbuilder = 
KnowledgeBuilderFactory.newKnowledgeBuilder();
kbuilder.addResource( new URL(
          

"file://myrules.drl" ),
    

KnowledgeType.DRL);
    

KnowledgeBase kbase =
          

KnowledgeBaseFactory.newKnowledgeBase();
    

If we use spring to automate the adding of
          

resources, that's pretty 
    

much what the agent is doing anyway, so
          

wouldn't that be pointless?
    

Mark


          

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