[rules-dev] Debugging, Tracing and Visualization of rule execution

[Mark Proctor]

Daniel Gebler wrote:
>
> For our integration of Drools 5.0 we want to provide end users with 
> limited technical skills the possibility to debug, trace and visualize 
> the rule execution as well as the fact base.
>
>  
>
> Questions that are frequently asked by users as well as by the 
> development/qa team:
>
> -          Did my rule r1 fire for this query?
>
> -          Why did rule r1 not fire (i.e. which constraint doesn't match)?
>
> -          Which kind of rule dependencies (chaining) do I have in my 
> rule base? Rule r1 and r2 are dependent iff action of r1 (e.g. publish 
> a fact) makes constraint of r2 true.
>
> -          Which rules need to fire in order to generate the 
> additional fact f1 in the fact base?
>
> -          What is the smallest change in the fact base (additional 
> facts etc.) in order to make rule r1 to fire (abduction)?
>
>  
>
> Problems:
>
> -          Eclipse plugin doesn't provide information of what didn't 
> happen and why it didn't happen ( 'Audit' view allows just tracking of 
> positive cases, i.e. what happened). Furthermore the stability of the 
> eclipse plugin seems to be limited.
>
> -          Integrating over SPI doesn't allow to show the Rete network 
> because Rete view works only with drl files
>
> -          How to provide feedback to a normal end user of the search 
> server (limited tech skills) about rule-related information?
>
>  
>
> Solution ideas/approaches + our assessment:
>
> 1.       Use a run time monitor providing on-demand log trace 
> information when facts are being published.  The log trace provides 
> the information about which and why a particular constraint is or is 
> not satisfied. Our initial implementation uses an aspect oriented 
> approach (JBoss AOP) to gather relevant information. In detail: Our 
> initial implementation uses an aspect oriented approach (JBoss AOP) to 
> gather the information by intercepting EntryPointNode.assertObject(), 
> and traversing the rete network to collect the constraint information 
> for every unique alpha/join node. This will allow to visualize the log 
> trace (GUI) and interpret the trace in the context of our product. We 
> discussed this approached in #drools with Edson Tirelli and he was 
> very interested.
>
> 2.       Use drools AgendaEventListener. Listener does not gets enough 
> debug info exposed, esp. we cannot extract the cause to reject a rule. 
> Not enough information available therefore this one is not an option.
>
>  
>
> Additionally, it would be nice for our development to also visualize 
> the Rete-OO network, but that seems to be impossible when integrating 
> drools directly via the SPI classes. Is there a way to connect the 
> viewer to a network inside a running VM?
>
Constructing against the SPI instead of using DRL, you are scaring me now?

Mark
>
>  
>
> We would like to hear whether you know any other opinions, or have 
> points how to implement those features. Please share your experience 
> how to bridge the gap between end-users with limited technical 
> backgrounds expressing and investigating the rule inference.
>
>  
>
> Thanks,
>
> Daniel
>
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