Re: [rules-users] Is Drools appropriate for this app scenario?

Sebastien, I have built an e-commerce site [www.stoneside.com] with some if not all of the things you are talking about. If you go there and design a product you can see the rules working. Drools is being used for: Pricing rules and discounts within a product. Rules regarding what components of a product can exist with other components. [the end-user is custom designing something to purchase] Rules determine how to display the product as the end-user designs their product. Rules generate the BOM once the user ultimately orders the product that they designed. All the rules are managed using excel spreadsheet templates. We [the developers] defined the templates and the business enters the rules into the spreadsheet. This has worked pretty well. The biggest hurdle being defining the templates correctly and populating the initial sets of rules. Some of the more complex products have at least 5K rules [across all 4 areas of rules] that needed to be defined. So, I think it is appropriate for your app scenario. You will need to think about what you need as rules and what those rule 'templates' need to look like. Jeff -----Original Message----- From: rules-users-bounces(a)lists.jboss.org [mailto:rules-users-bounces@lists.jboss.org] On Behalf Of Sebastien Chevalier Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 6:28 AM To: rules-users(a)lists.jboss.org Subject: Re: [rules-users] Is Drools appropriate for this app scenario? @plugtreelabs: First of all, thank you very much for your response and hints. @all: As I'm still not quire sure how to realize my scenario: Please, could someone provide me with some diagrams or architectural sketches of a typical rules-based e-commerce web application? -- Or at least point me to online resources on that topic, especially showing the integration of the RBMS in a web app? This would really help me out a lot at the moment. _Recap: The main goal is that endusers shall, on the one hand, define almost the whole set of entities and rules in an initial shop specification/configuration process, and on the other hand, this set shall be modifiable later on (primarily through enhancements, not restrictions). The entity set basically is: customer types, product categories, products, product packages, customer(type)-to-product(type) price assignments (i.e. pricing rules), and inter-product/package selection rules, ...all of these dynamically definable via a WebUI and in a manner appropriate for non-technical end-users (considering declarative programming a good approach for this(?)). The most dynamic parts will be the multi-dimensional pricing tables in terms of (a) their schema -- when new pricing parameters (=dimensions) like delivery distance are added -- and (b) their value contents -- when concrete prices change. Another quite dynamic part will be the inter-product selection rule specifications from which a "smart" e-catalog will be generated for the client-side. Such rules will state sth. like: "Prod A must always be ordered with Prod B", "Prod B can never be ordered when Package C is selected", and similar. -- Currently, some "high-level architectural layouts" of a simple, rules-based e-commerce web app (Which components are necessary in which place? And which components are already delivered by Drools?) would be very helpful for me. Thank you very much for your help in advance. Best regards Sebastien -- View this message in context: http://drools-java-rules-engine.46999.n3.nabble.com/Is-Drools-appropriat e-for-this-app-scenario-tp2303204p2353169.html Sent from the Drools - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ rules-users mailing list rules-users(a)lists.jboss.org https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/rules-users