Hi, what's your Experience object ? Your property "primary" is a String ? maybe it's this : when Experience( primary == "SY") ) ??? V. -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Difference-between-constraint-within-a-pattern-and-... Sent from the drools - user mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

I try with this and it's working. I don't know why your case doesn't work. public class Experience { private String primary; public String getPrimary() { return primary; } public void setPrimary(String primary) { this.primary= primary; } } and rules : rule "test1" dialect "mvel" when exp : Experience( eval(exp.getPrimary() == "SY") ) then System.out.println("SY1"); end rule "test2" dialect "mvel" when Experience( primary == "SY") then System.out.println("SY2"); end And in my console, I have : SY2 SY1 regards, V. -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Difference-between-constraint-within-a-pattern-and-... Sent from the drools - user mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

Found the problem, it something do with the getters declared as final. Here is test case Test1 DRL: package test.drools; import test.Experience; rule "test1" dialect "mvel" when exp : Experience( primary == "something" ) then System.out.println(">>>>>>>test1"); end rule "test2" dialect "mvel" when exp : Experience( eval(exp.getPrimary() == "something") ) then System.out.println(">>>>>>>test2"); end Fact: /** * rajgo - Oct 26, 2007 */ package test; import java.io.Serializable; import java.util.HashSet; import java.util.Set; /** * @author rajgo */ public class Experience implements Serializable { /** * long serialVersionUID. */ private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L; /** * String primary. */ private String primary; /** * Set secondary. */ private final Set<String> secondary = new HashSet<String>(); /** * rajgo - Oct 26, 2007. * * @return primary */ public final String getPrimary() { return this.primary; } /** * rajgo - Oct 26, 2007. * * @return secondary */ public final Set<String> getSecondary() { return this.secondary; } /** * rajgo - Oct 26, 2007. * * @param pPrimary * primary */ public final void setPrimary(final String pPrimary) { this.primary = pPrimary; } } Outcome: Test2 Removing the final keyword from getPrimary. DRL is same, Fact class changed to Fact: /** * rajgo - Oct 26, 2007 */ package test; import java.io.Serializable; import java.util.HashSet; import java.util.Set; /** * @author rajgo */ public class Experience implements Serializable { /** * long serialVersionUID. */ private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L; /** * String primary. */ private String primary; /** * Set secondary. */ private final Set<String> secondary = new HashSet<String>(); /** * rajgo - Oct 26, 2007. * * @return primary */ public String getPrimary() { return this.primary; } /** * rajgo - Oct 26, 2007. * * @return secondary */ public final Set<String> getSecondary() { return this.secondary; } /** * rajgo - Oct 26, 2007. * * @param pPrimary * primary */ public final void setPrimary(final String pPrimary) { this.primary = pPrimary; } } Outcome: >>>>>>>test1 BTW, i upgrade drools to 4.0.3 and still can replicate the issue. Searching jira I found the bug reported on this problem : http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JBRULES-1111 Final methods of POJO's aer never evaluated Please update documentation Thanks --Mohan (Note to self : Smart thing to do is first search buglist before wasting time) -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Difference-between-constraint-within-a-pattern-and-... Sent from the drools - user mailing list archive at Nabble.com.