[rules-users] Mapping complex objects info Guvnor compatible shim classes?

[Mark Bennett]

We want our domain experts to be able to create Guided Rules in Guvnor (5.5)

But Guvnor seems pretty limited about what it will accept, and how it will render it.

We're attempting to create adapter classes that will:
* Allow us to expose a rich set of fields and methods in UI
* Use as injected facts into the engine

Main issues we're having:
* Native objects are nested, but Guvnor seems to want shallow
* Our native objects can have different attributes (different schemas)
 - And you can't say getField( fieldName )
* Some returned items can be multivalued, vs. singular

Our idea is:
* Have admin send a prototypical request & schema event into our native system
* Scrape and flatten that into a java class that exposes Guvnor friendly methods
* Send that class into Guvnor
* Keep a copy of that class to create instances of when injecting facts into the engine

Is there some type of easy way to map complex objects to/from the simpler Guvnor/Drools model?  Some type of reflection based mapper with some simple rules or a template?  We're wondering what others have done in this situation?

Thanks,
Mark

--
Mark Bennett / LucidWorks: Search & Big Data / mark.bennett at lucidworks.com
Office: 408-898-4201 / Telecommute: 408-733-0387 / Cell: 408-829-6513