[rules-users] Looking for attributes on an element obtainedfroma Map

Fri Aug 21 16:00:55 EDT 2009

Ok.. Think I've answered my own question.. (Just looking for confirmation at this point).  

Looks like it's:
rule "deal finder"
when
    SearchItem($upc : upc != null)  // see if a UPC was provided
    StockRoom($stock : stock)   // get a handle to the stock
    HashMap ($item : this[$upc] != null) from $stock   
    Item (onSale == true) from $item    
then
    // Buy stuff
End

-----Original Message-----
From: rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org [mailto:rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org] On Behalf Of Pegram, Macon
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 2:15 PM
To: Rules Users List
Subject: Re: [rules-users] Looking for attributes on an element obtainedfroma Map

The example below was a contrived one for the purposes of asking the question.  What you've proposed is definitely the "right" way to do things.  

I realize accessing items from a map in the manner I'm inquiring about is a little contrary to "best practices" with Drools.  However, I would like to understand the syntax for doing what I inquired about for those edge cases where it is needed.

Thanks!

-----Original Message-----
From: rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org [mailto:rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org] On Behalf Of Greg Barton
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 2:10 PM
To: Rules Users List
Subject: Re: [rules-users] Looking for attributes on an element obtainedfrom a Map

Do Items have a UPC?  Any reason why you can't insert the Items directly into working memory?  Then you could do this:

rule "deal finder" 
when
  SearchItem($upc : upc != null)     
  Item(onSale == true, upc == $upc) 
then
 Buy stuff 
end

--- On Fri, 8/21/09, Pegram, Macon <zmpegram at choosehmc.com> wrote:

> From: Pegram, Macon <zmpegram at choosehmc.com>
> Subject: [rules-users] Looking for attributes on an element obtained from a Map
> To: "Rules Users List" <rules-users at lists.jboss.org>
> Date: Friday, August 21, 2009, 11:47 AM
> 
> 
> 
>  
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> I was
> hoping the recent conversation
> regarding maps this would come up, but so far it
> hasn't. 
> 
> 
>   
> 
> How do I
> check for conditions on the
> element referenced in the map?   
> 
> 
>   
> 
> So given
> the following scenario:  
> 
> 
>   
> 
> SearchItem
> is the item being searched for
> by the user    
> 
> Item has
> the attributes:  UPC (String) and
> OnSale (Boolean) 
> 
> StockRoom
> has an attribute of stock which
> is  Stock = HashMap<String, Item>    (key value
> is UPC) 
> 
> 
>   
> 
> Now
> let's say I want to write a rule
> that says, "If the provided Item is in Stock, and on
>  Sale .. purchase it" 
> 
> 
>   
> 
> rule
> "deal finder" 
> 
> when
> 
> 
>    
> SearchItem($upc : upc != null)  // see
> if a UPC was provided 
> 
>    
> StockRoom($stock : stock)   // get a
> handle to the stock 
> 
>    
> HashMap (this[$upc] != null)   from
> $stock   // look for the UPC in stock 
> 
>     Item
> (onSale == true) from $item    //
> Where do I obtain the reference handle that is
> $item? 
> 
> then
> 
> 
>     //
> Buy stuff 
> 
> End
> 
> 
> 
>   
> 
> What
> I'm trying to understand syntactically
> is how do I obtain a reference handle to the
> "Item" found in the
> HashMap reference (IE: $item)  so that I can check
> additional attributes on
> that Item. 
> 
> 
>   
> 
> I
> haven't found any good examples of
> how to do this yet. 
> 
> 
>   
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From:
> rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org
> [mailto:rules-users-bounces at lists.jboss.org] On
> Behalf Of Edson Tirelli
> 
> Sent: Friday,
> August 21, 2009 9:16
> AM
> 
> To: Rules
> Users List
> 
> Subject: Re:
> [rules-users] Maps in
> Drools 
> 
> 
> 
>    
> 
> 
>   
> 
> 
> 
> 2009/8/20 André Thieme <address.good.until.2009.dec.14 at justmail.de>
> 
> 
> Would there not be an addition to the
> syntax needed, for the default
> 
> rule language? For mvel it would not require a change I
> guess. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> No, as I mentioned to you, the idea is for the DRL to
> remain the same, so that
> the rules author does not have to worry about what the IT
> guys are doing with
> the domain model. So, the rules author would write:
> 
> 
> 
> Customer( name == "bob" )
> 
> 
> 
> The IT guy would simply use a configuration to tell the
> engine: this object
> type uses a map format, that one is a POJO, that other is
> an XML entity, etc. 
> 
> For instance, if he wants to do that in DRL (he could also
> use API, or conf
> files), he could do:
> 
> 
> 
> declare Customer
> 
>     @format( map )
> 
> end
> 
> 
> 
> declare Order
> 
>     @format( pojo )
> 
> end
> 
> 
> 
> So, we have a clear distinction between the technical
> aspects and the business
> aspects of the application.
> 
> 
> 
> Your clojure macro would generate always the same DRL code
> "Customer( name
> == "bob" )", but you said yourself that
> clojure is 100% java
> compatible, so imagine the enterprise had a domain model
> implemented as pojos
> already and as part of the new application some new
> entities are modeled in
> clojure. The macro would generate always the same code, but
> you would configure
> some entities in the domain as POJOs and other entities as
> Maps.
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hmm, but the MVEL syntax can not
> magically eliminate the eval. Under
> the
> 
> hood the map accesses will still be inside an eval. Marc
> confirmed that
> 
> a few days ago.
> 
> MVEL only hides this from the user. This is what I will
> also do.
> 
> But under the hood it will become
> 
> 
> 
>   $a:Map()
> 
>   $b:Map()
> 
>   eval( $a.get("type") ==
> "Customer" )
> 
>   eval( $b.get("type") ==
> "DailyOrders" ) 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Here I think we have other misunderstanding. I will try to
> explain, but ideally
> you need to learn a bit about the Rete algorithm to see the
> whole picture.
> There are 2 types of eval(). Inline eval() and top level
> eval(). What you wrote
> above is a top level eval, meaning it will become a node in
> the rete network.
> So your example above generates an "execution
> plan" (making an
> analogy with SQL) that will get all Maps in the working
> memory, join them in
> tuples size 2, and then test each tuple for the 2 evals.
> So, you see why this
> will generate C(n,2) partial matches, while C(n,2) as we
> know is n!/(n-2)!,
> what is really bad for growing "n".
> 
> 
> 
> Now, the same thing could be written using inline evals
> as:
> 
> 
> 
> $a:Map( eval( $a.get("type") ==
> "Customer" ) )
> 
> $b:Map( eval( $b.get("type") ==
> "DailyOrders" ) )
> 
> 
> 
>   In this case, the inline eval() will generate an
> alpha constraint in the
> network, i.e., it will be applied BEFORE the joins. So,
> instead of doing all
> combinaions possible between all maps as above, it will
> first find all Customer
> maps and all DailyOrders maps and only after that will make
> a join between
> them. So you get Customers * DailyOrders partial matches.
> The above evals are
> semantically equivalent as:
> 
> 
> 
> $a:Map( this[ "type" ] == "Customer" )
> 
> 
> $b:Map( this[ "type" ] == "DailyOrders"
> )
> 
> 
> 
>    
> 
> > But currently I am forced to produce this cross
> product, as there is no
> direct support for Maps yet.
> 
> 
> 
> I hope that by the above you see that the problem of the
> cross products is not
> a problem with Maps support, but rather a question of how
> to write better
> rules. The same way you can write 2 completely different
> SQL queries that
> return the same result but one is fast and the other is
> completely heavy and
> slow, you can also write good rules and really bad rules.
> 
> 
> 
>    []s
> 
>    Edson 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>    
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
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