talking about new features...
by Olenin, Vladimir (MOH)
Hi,
Talking about new features to be included in the new release, I think the
most compelling might be the ability to use Maps as facts (ie, from the
point of view of a complete DROOLS newbie). Technically POJO is a Map with
some restricted functionality (can't count properties, check for property
existence, etc). Is it really a big change? The rule formulation will remain
the same from what I understand and the LHS like
Map(name == 'myName')
Will simply mean any map object which has a key 'name' and value for the key
is 'myName'. The 'type matching' feature would be kind of less useful in
case Map fact is used, but this can probably solved through introducing some
default 'type' key which Map object should have and in a very simplistic
implementation just include 'type' as a constraint.
Another alternative (which might probably be more 'backward compatible' with
existing implementation) is to dynamically generate POJOs from Map
definition. 'type' or 'class' key will correspond to a full qualified class
name, all other keys found in the map - POJOs properties. Or 'type' can stay
'anonymous' - might be useful in some cases as well....
The 'weakly defined' fact objects might be quite useful in some cases, eg
when rules 'cross cut' business domain. Kind of 'dynamic rules' :-).
Vlad
