[rules-dev] Package based import/export in Guvnor

[Jervis Liu]

Hi,

I am currently evaluating a Guvnor feature request which is to implement 
package based import/export. The idea is to use this feature to move a 
rule package from the DEV repo to QA to Stage to the Prod repo. For 
details please check https://jira.jboss.org/browse/GUVNOR-311. My 
initial investigation shows that it is not possible to do a single 
package import/export technically. A single package in Guvnor repository 
is never a self-contained unit. For example, every asset under the 
package has a mandatory attribute which is a reference link to category 
information. In short, package can not be exported/imported as long as 
it contains references to entities outside package.

There are two things I would like to ask for your opinions. Firstly, can 
you think of any way to implement this import/export feature? Personally 
I dont see how this can be done. This is similar to relational database, 
generally it is impossible to export and import data from/to a single 
non-isolated table in database. Or sometimes it is possible but with 
extensive care normally involved in manual work to deal with dirty data. 
In our case, one example of dirty data is category, but what can we do 
with category information, we discard package information when we do 
package export?

Secondly, if such feature can not be implemented, can we figure out a 
different way to help users to better manage the life cycle in Guvnor? 
The current version of Guvnor is not very strong on this part yet. If 
you are a Guvnor user or you have experience of using similar products, 
how did you manage and how do you want to manage the lifecycle of assets 
in your repository?


Thanks,

Jervis