[rules-users] Globals asserted as facts... how to modify them...

Hi everybody, I followed all the topics about globals and the fact that they are immutables. I also understood that once we decide to reason over globals, it's time we no more use them and we start to use simple WM facts. Now... I tell you my scenario. I have got two globals. A "request" global and a "reply" global. The first one is a "Request" java instance and the second one is a "Reply" java instance. They belong to the Object model I designed. My application makes a request to the rule engine passing it a "request" as global, and get back a reply from it receiving a modified "reply" global. I use a ruleflow to execute the rules. I think everything would be perfect and smooth if I had not the need to reason over the reply during the rule session.... That's the point! I do not just need to modify the "reply" global in order to get the final value outside the rule engine, but I DO need to reason over it INSIDE the rule session. So.... what should I do in order to reason over the reply INSIDE AND OUTSIDE the Rule Session? Should I insert the "reply" global into the WM? Let assume I do that, what happen if I pass the "reply" global to a drools function which alters the "reply"? Imagine a rule as follows and imagine I previously inserted the "reply" global into the WM: ---- ... global my.object.model.Reply reply ... rule "addcriminal_2_reply" when $p: Person(job=="criminal") then addCriminaltoReply(reply, $p ); end ---- Will this alteration affect the corresponding Reply() fact in the WM as well? Now let see this other rule: (Same, let imagine i previously inserted: insert(reply); ) ---- global my.object.model.Reply reply rule "FullFill_replyCode" when $r: Reply(code=="john.wayne") from reply then $r.code.name = john; $r.code.lastname = wayne; end ---- If I execute this rule in a ruleflow, do i need to "update($r)" in order to get the modified $r value in the next ruleflow node? And what happens to the global??? Will it get modified as well? I am sure you can help me. Bye bye. Massi