[rules-users] objects

I'm new to the rules syntax and a bit frustrated with trying to learn it. I've reviewed the docs but keep running into the same issue. I have a parent object, Message, that contains an Order. An Order has a status that I want to test. So looking at the documentation and taking my best guess I've created a rule as follows: rule "Order not Accepted" when $m : Message( state == MessageState.RELEASING, order.requestStatus == RequestStatus.ACCEPT ) then ... end The problem is that when I start my application I get a compilation error. Caused by: org.drools.rule.InvalidRulePackage: [54,54]: unknown:54:54 mismatched token: [@423,1899:1899='.',<69>,54:54]; expecting type RIGHT_PAREN[54,94]: unknown:54:94 mismatched token: [@433,1939:1939=')',<37>,54:94]; expecting type LEFT_PAREN at org.drools.rule.Package.checkValidity(Package.java:368) So what am I missing? I know it has to be something simple with my understanding of the syntax. Thanks for the help...