Greetings:
Having just joined the developers list, one of the ten commandments
back in the old days of using either Java or C or C++ was to avoid
Global variables at all costs. From what I've been reading the past
couple of days is that there are several global variables distributed
throughout the Drools code, is that correct? I could be way off base
but it did seem that someone was having trouble keeping a global in
focus during function calls to a global Logger. Wouldn't a static
Logger be a better solution?
SDG
jco
Senior Consultant / Architect
KnowledgeBased Systems Corporation
Co-founder and Director of The October {Technical} Rules Fest -THE
RuleBased Systems Conference Oct 22-24 Dallas, TX
"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene III
It may be invoked by a consequence, an eval, a predicate, or a
return value constraint.
If you fix it for the consequence in JavaConsequenceBuilder, the
others will work the same. You will have to change the java.g
grammar as I mentioned in my previous e-mail to make it work.
[]s
Edson
2008/10/14 David Sinclair <dsinclair(a)chariotsolutions.com>
Edson,
Changing the builder shouldn't be too much of a problem. If I make
the changes you suggested, how does the global actually get passed
to the method? For example if something defined a function like
void function doX(int abc) {
...
global.doY(bcd);
}
and I rewrite it to be
void function doX(int abc, GlobalType global) {
...
}
Who is the invoker of the method?
thanks
dave
On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 3:24 PM, Edson Tirelli <tirelli(a)post.com>
wrote:
Hi Dave,
Excellent!
I will try to explain the current situation and one possible
solution, but you may have better ideas.
Functions in Drools are compiled as simple static methods in a
generated java class. We use MVEL Templates to generate the code of
the class and the static method.
Take a look at JavaFunctionBuilder.java class for the code
generation call and at javaFunction.mvel for the code template.
Now, the problem with globals is that they are scoped to
sessions, not rulebases, so you can not resolve them until runtime.
You can not for instance, make them a static reference of the
generated class and set it at rulebase compilation time.
So, my suggestion would be to:
1. at compile time, use JavaDialect.analyzeBlock() method to analyze
and find out what are the globals that are used by the funcion
method code.
2. modify the code generation to add parameters to that in the
method call. So, if "log" is a global and if the function is
declared like this:
function void someFunction( String param ) {
// ... code ...
log.something(...);
// ... code ...
}
you detect the use of "log" and add it as a parameter of the
generated method:
...
public static void someFunction( Logger log, String Param ) {
...
}
...
This way, at runtime we can inject the parameter into the call.
You can look at JavaConsequenceBuilder.java and javaInvokers.mvel to
see how we do kind-of the same thing for consequences.
3. Now the most interesting part. :) We use an ANTLR grammar for
parsing Java code blocks. You need to change the parser to rewrite
any function call the user is doing in his code to inject the log
parameter transparently. I did the very same thing for modify blocks:
modify( $something ) {
...
}
It is not hard once you get the hang of it. It is a bit of "hand
work" though. Look at the JavaConsequenceBuilder.fixModifyBlocks()
for what I did. Also, the ANTLR Java grammar is java.g.
Let me know if you have questions or if you have a better idea,
and welcome aboard!
Cheers,
Edson
2008/10/13 David Sinclair <dsinclair(a)chariotsolutions.com>
Hi Edson,
My name is dave sinclair. I started using Drools in early August of
this year, but have a lot of experience with rules engines. I have
worked primarily with ArtEntrprise and some with PegaRules. I would
love to help with this project and thought that this may be the area
to jump in on.
I have the M2 code, and was reading it over the weekend. Mostly the
core and some of the compilier. If you want to point me in the right
direction on the global/functions I'd be happy to have a look.
thanks
dave
On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 9:59 AM, Bagwell, Allen F
<afbagwe(a)sandia.gov> wrote:
Edson,
Thanks for the tip. I figured I'd need to use a workaround like this.
Unfortunately I'm under a series of tight development and test
deadlines all the way into early summer. Otherwise, I'd have a look.
Hopefully someone else out there can assist.
Thanks,
-A
From: rules-users-bounces(a)lists.jboss.org [mailto:rules-users-bounces@lists.jboss.org
] On Behalf Of Edson Tirelli
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 5:46 AM
To: Rules Users List
Subject: Re: [rules-users] No globals in functions?
Allen,
There is a technical explanation behind that and we never had the
time to find a way to overcome this limitation. What you can do,
although not ideal, is to send the global as a parameter:
funcion void foo( Logger log, String cond )
{
...
}
rule XYZ
when
then
foo( log, someString );
end
If you or anyone would like to help improving this, let us know
and we can discuss ways into doing it.
[]s
Edson
2008/10/9 Bagwell, Allen F <afbagwe(a)sandia.gov>
There's probably an easy explanation for this. I was wondering about
why functions inside of rule files can't access globals?
For example, I have a log4j logger that I pass into my rule files
via a global. The logger should never be a part of working memory.
It's just there to capture valuable feedback.
But I can't do this:
global Logger log;
function void foo(String cond)
{
if (cond == "error")
log.error("I saw an error");
}
Because the compiler says that in the function it can't resolve 'log'.
-A
Allen F. Bagwell
e-mail: afbagwe(a)sandia.gov
phone: 505/284-4517
fax: 505/ 844-7886
There is no monument dedicated to the memory of a committee. --
Lester J. Pourciau
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JBoss Drools Core Development
JBoss, a division of Red Hat @
www.jboss.com
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JBoss Drools Core Development
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www.jboss.com
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Edson Tirelli
JBoss Drools Core Development
JBoss, a division of Red Hat @
www.jboss.com
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