[rules-users] Setting date during execution of rules.

Mon Mar 10 03:20:48 EDT 2008

Hi Scott,

Mark's reply has answered my question, but I feel I need to reply to this so that my use case was clear.

I cannot use the promotion date in the rule definition because this rule is related to commission process based on premiums, targets etc for the agent. Promotion is a cross cutting 'functional' concern which may affect various processes in the organization including commission calculation. And hence the need to keep the cross cutting concern out of the rule definition.

What you have mentioned may work but would not be the right way to solve.

p.s. Sincerely appreciate your efforts in trying to understand the problem space.
Thanks.
Regards,
- Nimesh

________________________________
From: rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org [mailto:rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org] On Behalf Of Scott Reed
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 8:00 PM
To: Rules Users List
Subject: Re: [rules-users] Setting date during execution of rules.

I am probably still misunderstanding, but it seems that the effective and expires dates are constants that can be used in the left hand side of the rules:
rule "Commission Calculation 07-08"
          when
                   $agent: Agent( promotedDate >= "01-Apr-2007",
                                          promotedDate <= "30-Mar-2008")
                   $sale: Sale( agent = $agent, $amount: amount  )
                   ....
          then
                  $agent.addCommission( $sale, $amount, .09); // .09 is the commission rate for this rule
                   ....
end

Now for the next financial year we define a new rule as follows

rule "Commission Calculation 08-09"
          when
                   $agent: Agent( promotedDate >= "01-Apr-2008",
                                          promotedDate <= "30-Mar-2009")
                   $sale: Sale( agent = $agent, $amount: amount  )
                  ....
          then
                  $agent.addCommission( $sale, $amount, .06); // .06 is the commission rate for this rule
end

Nimesh Muley's message received 3/6/2008 1:00 AM:
I was not able to portray the right picture :(. Here's another shot at clarifying my situation.

Let's say we have a commission rule as follows
rule "Commission Calculation 07-08"
          date-effective "01-Apr-2007"
          date-expires "30-Mar-2008"
          when
                   ....
          then
                   ....
end

Now for the next financial year we define a new rule as follows
rule "Commission Calculation 08-09"
          date-effective "01-Apr-2008"
          date-expires "30-Mar-2009"
          when
                   ....
          then
                   ....
end

Now let's say today's date is 15th April 2008. An agent is promoted today with effective date as 1st March 2008. Hence his commission needs to be recalculated as per the "Commission Calculation 07-08" rule and not the effective rule as on today i.e. "Commission Calculation 08-09". For rest of the agents commission would be calculated based on the rule effective today i.e. 15th April 2008. Hence a need to pass a date during execution of rule based on which the right rule would be chosen.

Basically there is no legacy code as part of my example but a need to fire the rules that are effective on a date other than the system date always.

I have seen similar functionality in other rules engines too. Can this be done in JBoss Rules? If yes, is TimeMachine the right way of doing it?

Regards,
- Nimesh

________________________________
From: rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org<mailto:rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org> [mailto:rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org] On Behalf Of Scott Reed
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 8:40 PM
To: Rules Users List
Subject: Re: [rules-users] Setting date during execution of rules.

As I understand it, the problem is that you have legacy code that uses the system date in it's calculations and you cannot fix that so it will take a date parameter, right? If so, then my recommendation is to fix the legacy software if possible since messing with the system date gives me the willies. If you can't fix it, then anything that can be called from Java to set the system date (e.g.Runtime.exec(...).waitfor()?) should be callable from the 'then' part of a rule. Make that call, call your legacy code, then make the call to set the date back. But that is so ugly, please don't tell anyone I had anything to do with it.

Nimesh Muley's message received 3/5/2008 1:25 AM:
Hi,

Is there a way to set the date while executing the rules? The effective dates would be checked against this date instead of today's date. By default the effective dates would be checked with System date. But in some cases we would need to execute the rules in a 'back-dated' mode.

Use case.
Let's say in insurance industry there are commission calculation rules for an agent. On these rules the effective dates are appropriate (as per their needs). Now when an agent is promoted and his/her promotion date is couple of months back then we would want to calculate the commission once again with the date as 2 months back.

The nearest I could see is TimeMachine, as this is being used during execution of rules. Although I could not find a way to set the TimeMachine in release 4.0.4.

Has anyone tried something like this before?

Regards,
- Nimesh
"The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time" - Murphy's Law
While so very true, this is not Murphy's Law, which I think of as "Whatever can go wrong, probably will." (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law)
Your rule here is called the 90-90 rule: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule

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In the US, we're called MAJESCOMASTEK

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Opinions expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not that of Mastek Limited, unless specifically indicated to that effect. Mastek Limited does not accept any responsibility or liability for it. This e-mail and attachments (if any) transmitted with it are confidential and/or privileged and solely for the use of the intended person or entity to which it is addressed. Any review, re-transmission, dissemination or other use of or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. This e-mail and its attachments have been scanned for the presence of computer viruses. It is the responsibility of the recipient to run the virus check on e-mails and attachments before opening them. If you have received this e-mail in error, kindly delete this e-mail from desktop and server.
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