Chapter 2. DRL (Drools Rule Language) rules

A declaration of a new fact does not require any metadata, but must include a list of attributes or fields. If a type declaration does not include identifying attributes, the decision engine searches for an existing fact class in the classpath and raises an error if the class is missing.

The following example is a declaration of a new fact type Person with no metadata in a DRL file:

declare Person
  name : String
  dateOfBirth : java.util.Date
  address : Address
end

rule "Using a declared type"
  when
    $p : Person( name == "James" )
  then   // Insert Mark, who is a customer of James.
    Person mark = new Person();
    mark.setName( "Mark" );
    insert( mark );
end

In this example, the new fact type Person has the three attributes name, dateOfBirth, and address. Each attribute has a type that can be any valid Java type, including another class that you create or a fact type that you previously declared. The dateOfBirth attribute has the type java.util.Date, from the Java API, and the address attribute has the previously defined fact type Address.

To avoid writing the fully qualified name of a class every time you declare it, you can define the full class name as part of the import clause:

import java.util.Date

declare Person
    name : String
    dateOfBirth : Date
    address : Address
end

When you declare a new fact type, the decision engine generates at compile time a Java class representing the fact type. The generated Java class is a one-to-one JavaBeans mapping of the type definition.

For example, the following Java class is generated from the example Person type declaration:

public class Person implements Serializable {
    private String name;
    private java.util.Date dateOfBirth;
    private Address address;

    // Empty constructor
    public Person() {...}

    // Constructor with all fields
    public Person( String name, Date dateOfBirth, Address address ) {...}

    // If keys are defined, constructor with keys
    public Person( ...keys... ) {...}

    // Getters and setters
    // `equals` and `hashCode`
    // `toString`
}

You can then use the generated class in your rules like any other fact, as illustrated in the previous rule example with the Person type declaration:

rule "Using a declared type"
  when
    $p : Person( name == "James" )
  then   // Insert Mark, who is a customer of James.
    Person mark = new Person();
    mark.setName( "Mark" );
    insert( mark );
end

DRL supports the declaration of enumerative types in the format declare enum <factType>, followed by a comma-separated list of values ending with a semicolon. You can then use the enumerative list in the rules in the DRL file.

For example, the following enumerative type declaration defines days of the week for an employee scheduling rule:

declare enum DaysOfWeek
   SUN("Sunday"),MON("Monday"),TUE("Tuesday"),WED("Wednesday"),THU("Thursday"),FRI("Friday"),SAT("Saturday");

   fullName : String
end

rule "Using a declared Enum"
when
   $emp : Employee( dayOff == DaysOfWeek.MONDAY )
then
   ...
end

DRL supports type declaration inheritance in the format declare <factType1> extends <factType2>. To extend a type declared in Java by a subtype declared in DRL, you repeat the parent type in a declaration statement without any fields.

For example, the following type declarations extend a Student type from a top-level Person type, and a LongTermStudent type from the Student subtype:

import org.people.Person

declare Person end

declare Student extends Person
    school : String
end

declare LongTermStudent extends Student
    years : int
    course : String
end

You can associate metadata in the format @key(value) (the value is optional) with fact types or fact attributes. Metadata can be any kind of data that is not represented by the fact attributes and is consistent among all instances of that fact type. The metadata can be queried at run time by the decision engine and used in the reasoning process. Any metadata that you declare before the attributes of a fact type are assigned to the fact type, while metadata that you declare after an attribute are assigned to that particular attribute.

In the following example, the two metadata attributes @author and @dateOfCreation are declared for the Person fact type, and the two metadata items @key and @maxLength are declared for the name attribute. The @key metadata attribute has no required value, so the parentheses and the value are omitted.

import java.util.Date

declare Person
    @author( Bob )
    @dateOfCreation( 01-Feb-2009 )

    name : String @key @maxLength( 30 )
    dateOfBirth : Date
    address : Address
end

For declarations of metadata attributes for existing types, you can identify the fully qualified class name as part of the import clause for all declarations or as part of the individual declare clause:

import org.drools.examples.Person

declare Person
    @author( Bob )
    @dateOfCreation( 01-Feb-2009 )
end

declare org.drools.examples.Person
    @author( Bob )
    @dateOfCreation( 01-Feb-2009 )
end

Although you can define custom metadata attributes in DRL declarations, the decision engine also supports the following predefined metadata tags for declarations of fact types or fact type attributes.

public class VoiceCall {
  private String  originNumber;
  private String  destinationNumber;
  private Date    callDateTime;
  private long    callDuration;  // in milliseconds

  // Constructors, getters, and setters
}

By default, the decision engine does not re-evaluate all fact patterns for fact types each time a rule is triggered, but instead reacts only to modified properties that are constrained or bound inside a given pattern. For example, if a rule calls modify() as part of the rule actions but the action does not generate new data in the KIE base, the decision engine does not automatically re-evaluate all fact patterns because no data was modified. This property reactivity behavior prevents unwanted recursions in the KIE base and results in more efficient rule evaluation. This behavior also means that you do not always need to use the no-loop rule attribute to avoid infinite recursion.

You can modify or disable this property reactivity behavior with the following KnowledgeBuilderConfiguration options, and then use a property-change setting in your Java class or DRL files to fine-tune property reactivity as needed:

KnowledgeBuilderConfiguration config = KnowledgeBuilderFactory.newKnowledgeBuilderConfiguration();
config.setOption(PropertySpecificOption.ALLOWED);
KnowledgeBuilder kbuilder = KnowledgeBuilderFactory.newKnowledgeBuilder(config);

Alternatively, you can update the drools.propertySpecific system property in the standalone.xml file of your Red Hat Decision Manager distribution:

<system-properties>
  ...
  <property name="drools.propertySpecific" value="ALLOWED"/>
  ...
</system-properties>

The decision engine supports the following property-change settings and listeners for fact classes or declared DRL fact types:

Declared types in DRL are typically used within the DRL files while Java models are typically used when the model is shared between rules and applications. Because declared types are generated at KIE base compile time, an application cannot access them until application run time. In some cases, an application needs to access and handle facts directly from the declared types, especially when the application wraps the decision engine and provides higher-level, domain-specific user interfaces for rules management.

To handle declared types directly from the application code, you can use the org.drools.definition.type.FactType API in Red Hat Decision Manager. Through this API, you can instantiate, read, and write fields in the declared fact types.

The following example code modifies a Person fact type directly from an application:

import java.util.Date;

import org.kie.api.definition.type.FactType;
import org.kie.api.KieBase;
import org.kie.api.runtime.KieSession;

...

// Get a reference to a KIE base with the declared type:
KieBase kbase = ...

// Get the declared fact type:
FactType personType = kbase.getFactType("org.drools.examples", "Person");

// Create instances:
Object bob = personType.newInstance();

// Set attribute values:
personType.set(bob, "name", "Bob" );
personType.set(bob, "dateOfBirth", new Date());
personType.set(bob, "address", new Address("King's Road","London","404"));

// Insert the fact into a KIE session:
KieSession ksession = ...
ksession.insert(bob);
ksession.fireAllRules();

// Read attributes:
String name = (String) personType.get(bob, "name");
Date date = (Date) personType.get(bob, "dateOfBirth");

The API also includes other helpful methods, such as setting all the attributes at once, reading values from a Map collection, or reading all attributes at once into a Map collection.

Although the API behavior is similar to Java reflection, the API does not use reflection and relies on more performant accessors that are implemented with generated bytecode.

Timers and calendars are DRL rule attributes that enable you to apply scheduling and timing constraints to your DRL rules. These attributes require additional configurations depending on the use case.

The timer attribute in DRL rules is a string identifying either int (interval) or cron timer definitions for scheduling a rule and supports the following formats:

timer ( int: <initial delay> <repeat interval> )

timer ( cron: <cron expression> )

// Run after a 30-second delay
timer ( int: 30s )

// Run every 5 minutes after a 30-second delay each time
timer ( int: 30s 5m )

// Run every 15 minutes
timer ( cron:* 0/15 * * * ? )

Interval timers follow the semantics of java.util.Timer objects, with an initial delay and an optional repeat interval. Cron timers follow standard Unix cron expressions.

The following example DRL rule uses a cron timer to send an SMS text message every 15 minutes:

rule "Send SMS message every 15 minutes"
  timer ( cron:* 0/15 * * * ? )
  when
    $a : Alarm( on == true )
  then
    channels[ "sms" ].insert( new Sms( $a.mobileNumber, "The alarm is still on." );
end

Generally, a rule that is controlled by a timer becomes active when the rule is triggered and the rule consequence is executed repeatedly, according to the timer settings. The execution stops when the rule condition no longer matches incoming facts. However, the way the decision engine handles rules with timers depends on whether the decision engine is in active mode or in passive mode.

By default, the decision engine runs in passive mode and evaluates rules, according to the defined timer settings, when a user or an application explicitly calls fireAllRules(). Conversely, if a user or application calls fireUntilHalt(), the decision engine starts in active mode and evaluates rules continually until the user or application explicitly calls halt().

When the decision engine is in active mode, rule consequences are executed even after control returns from a call to fireUntilHalt() and the decision engine remains reactive to any changes made to the working memory. For example, removing a fact that was involved in triggering the timer rule execution causes the repeated execution to terminate, and inserting a fact so that some rule matches causes that rule to be executed. However, the decision engine is not continually active, but is active only after a rule is executed. Therefore, the decision engine does not react to asynchronous fact insertions until the next execution of a timer-controlled rule. Disposing a KIE session terminates all timer activity.

When the decision engine is in passive mode, rule consequences of timed rules are evaluated only when fireAllRules() is invoked again. However, you can change the default timer-execution behavior in passive mode by configuring the KIE session with a TimedRuleExecutionOption option, as shown in the following example:

KieSessionConfiguration ksconf = KieServices.Factory.get().newKieSessionConfiguration();
ksconf.setOption( TimedRuleExecutionOption.YES );
KSession ksession = kbase.newKieSession(ksconf, null);

You can additionally set a FILTERED specification on the TimedRuleExecutionOption option that enables you to define a callback to filter those rules, as shown in the following example:

KieSessionConfiguration ksconf = KieServices.Factory.get().newKieSessionConfiguration();
conf.setOption( new TimedRuleExecutionOption.FILTERED(new TimedRuleExecutionFilter() {
    public boolean accept(Rule[] rules) {
        return rules[0].getName().equals("MyRule");
    }
}) );

For interval timers, you can also use an expression timer with expr instead of int to define both the delay and interval as an expression instead of a fixed value.

The following example DRL file declares a fact type with a delay and period that are then used in the subsequent rule with an expression timer:

declare Bean
  delay   : String = "30s"
  period  : long = 60000
end

rule "Expression timer"
  timer ( expr: $d, $p )
  when
    Bean( $d : delay, $p : period )
  then
    // Actions
end

The expressions, such as $d and $p in this example, can use any variable defined in the pattern-matching part of the rule. The variable can be any String value that can be parsed into a time duration or any numeric value that is internally converted in a long value for a duration in milliseconds.

Both interval and expression timers can use the following optional parameters:

timer (int: 30s 1h; start=3-JAN-2020, end=4-JAN-2020, repeat-limit=50)

In this example, the rule is scheduled for every hour, after a delay of 30 seconds each hour, beginning on 3 January 2020 and ending either on 4 January 2020 or when the cycle repeats 50 times.

If the system is paused (for example, the session is serialized and then later deserialized), the rule is scheduled only one time to recover from missing activations regardless of how many activations were missed during the pause, and then the rule is subsequently scheduled again to continue in sync with the timer setting.

The calendar attribute in DRL rules is a Quartz calendar definition for scheduling a rule and supports the following format:

calendars "<definition or registered name>"

// Exclude non-business hours
calendars "* * 0-7,18-23 ? * *"

// Weekdays only, as registered in the KIE session
calendars "weekday"

You can adapt a Quartz calendar based on the Quartz calendar API and then register the calendar in the KIE session, as shown in the following example:

Calendar weekDayCal = QuartzHelper.quartzCalendarAdapter(org.quartz.Calendar quartzCal)

ksession.getCalendars().set( "weekday", weekDayCal );

You can use calendars with standard rules and with rules that use timers. The calendar attribute can contain one or more comma-separated calendar names written as String literals.

The following example rules use both calendars and timers to schedule the rules:

rule "Weekdays are high priority"
  calendars "weekday"
  timer ( int:0 1h )
  when
    Alarm()
  then
    send( "priority high - we have an alarm" );
end

rule "Weekends are low priority"
  calendars "weekend"
  timer ( int:0 4h )
  when
    Alarm()
  then
    send( "priority low - we have an alarm" );
end

A pattern in a DRL rule condition is the segment to be matched by the decision engine. A pattern can potentially match each fact that is inserted into the working memory of the decision engine. A pattern can also contain constraints to further define the facts to be matched.

In the simplest form, with no constraints, a pattern matches a fact of the given type. In the following example, the type is Person, so the pattern will match against all Person objects in the working memory of the decision engine:

Person()

The type does not need to be the actual class of some fact object. Patterns can refer to superclasses or even interfaces, potentially matching facts from many different classes. For example, the following pattern matches all objects in the working memory of the decision engine:

Object() // Matches all objects in the working memory

The parentheses of a pattern enclose the constraints, such as the following constraint on the person’s age:

Person( age == 50 )

A constraint is an expression that returns true or false. Pattern constraints in DRL are essentially Java expressions with some enhancements, such as property access, and some differences, such as equals() and !equals() semantics for == and != (instead of the usual same and not same semantics).

Any JavaBeans property can be accessed directly from pattern constraints. A bean property is exposed internally using a standard JavaBeans getter that takes no arguments and returns something. For example, the age property is written as age in DRL instead of the getter getAge():

Person( age == 50 )

// This is the same as the following getter format:

Person( getAge() == 50 )

Red Hat Decision Manager uses the standard JDK Introspector class to achieve this mapping, so it follows the standard JavaBeans specification. For optimal decision engine performance, use the property access format, such as age, instead of using getters explicitly, such as getAge().

public int getAge() {
    age++; // Do not do this.
    return age;
}

public int getAge() {
    Date now = DateUtil.now(); // Do not do this.
    return DateUtil.differenceInYears(now, birthday);
}

However, if the getter of a property cannot be found, the compiler uses the property name as a fallback method name, without arguments:

Person( age == 50 )

// If `Person.getAge()` does not exist, the compiler uses the following syntax:

Person( age() == 50 )

You can also nest access properties in patterns, as shown in the following example. Nested properties are indexed by the decision engine.

Person( address.houseNumber == 50 )

// This is the same as the following format:

Person( getAddress().getHouseNumber() == 50 )

You can use any Java expression that returns a boolean value as a constraint inside the parentheses of a pattern. Java expressions can be mixed with other expression enhancements, such as property access:

Person( age == 50 )

You can change the evaluation priority by using parentheses, as in any logical or mathematical expression:

Person( age > 100 && ( age % 10 == 0 ) )

You can also reuse Java methods in constraints, as shown in the following example:

Person( Math.round( weight / ( height * height ) ) < 25.0 )

Person( incrementAndGetAge() == 10 ) // Do not do this.

Person( System.currentTimeMillis() % 1000 == 0 ) // Do not do this.

Standard Java operator precedence applies to constraint operators in DRL, and DRL operators follow standard Java semantics except for the == and != operators.

The == operator uses null-safe equals() semantics instead of the usual same semantics. For example, the pattern Person( firstName == "John" ) is similar to java.util.Objects.equals(person.getFirstName(), "John"), and because "John" is not null, the pattern is also similar to "John".equals(person.getFirstName()).

The != operator uses null-safe !equals() semantics instead of the usual not same semantics. For example, the pattern Person( firstName != "John" ) is similar to !java.util.Objects.equals(person.getFirstName(), "John").

If the field and the value of a constraint are of different types, the decision engine uses type coercion to resolve the conflict and reduce compilation errors. For instance, if "ten" is provided as a string in a numeric evaluator, a compilation error occurs, whereas "10" is coerced to a numeric 10. In coercion, the field type always takes precedence over the value type:

Person( age == "10" ) // "10" is coerced to 10

For groups of constraints, you can use a delimiting comma , to use implicit and connective semantics:

// Person is at least 50 years old and weighs at least 80 kilograms:
Person( age > 50, weight > 80 )

// Person is at least 50 years old, weighs at least 80 kilograms, and is taller than 2 meters:
Person( age > 50, weight > 80, height > 2 )

You cannot embed a comma operator in a composite constraint expression, such as in parentheses:

// Do not use the following format:
Person( ( age > 50, weight > 80 ) || height > 2 )

// Use the following format instead:
Person( ( age > 50 && weight > 80 ) || height > 2 )

You can bind variables to patterns and constraints to refer to matched objects in other portions of a rule. Bound variables can help you define rules more efficiently or more consistently with how you annotate facts in your data model. To differentiate more easily between variables and fields in a rule, use the standard format $variable for variables, especially in complex rules. This convention is helpful but not required in DRL.

For example, the following DRL rule uses the variable $p for a pattern with the Person fact:

rule "simple rule"
when
    $p : Person()
then
    System.out.println( "Person " + $p );
end

Similarly, you can also bind variables to properties in pattern constraints, as shown in the following example:

// Two persons of the same age:
Person( $firstAge : age ) // Binding
Person( age == $firstAge ) // Constraint expression

// Do not use the following format:
Person( $age : age * 2 < 100 )

// Use the following format instead:
Person( age * 2 < 100, $age : age )

The decision engine does not support bindings to the same declaration, but does support unification of arguments across several properties. While positional arguments are always processed with unification, the unification symbol := exists for named arguments.

The following example patterns unify the age property across two Person facts:

Person( $age := age )
Person( $age := age )

Unification declares a binding for the first occurrence and constrains to the same value of the bound field for sequence occurrences.

In some cases, you might need to access multiple properties of a nested object, as shown in the following example:

Person( name == "mark", address.city == "london", address.country == "uk" )

You can group these property accessors to nested objects with the syntax .( <constraints> ) for more readable rules, as shown in the following example:

Person( name == "mark", address.( city == "london", country == "uk") )

When you work with nested objects in patterns, you can use the syntax <type>#<subtype> to cast to a subtype and make the getters from the parent type available to the subtype. You can use either the object name or fully qualified class name, and you can cast to one or multiple subtypes, as shown in the following examples:

// Inline casting with subtype name:
Person( name == "mark", address#LongAddress.country == "uk" )

// Inline casting with fully qualified class name:
Person( name == "mark", address#org.domain.LongAddress.country == "uk" )

// Multiple inline casts:
Person( name == "mark", address#LongAddress.country#DetailedCountry.population > 10000000 )

These example patterns cast Address to LongAddress, and additionally to DetailedCountry in the last example, making the parent getters available to the subtypes in each case.

You can use the instanceof operator to infer the results of the specified type in subsequent uses of that field with the pattern, as shown in the following example:

Person( name == "mark", address instanceof LongAddress, address.country == "uk" )

If an inline cast is not possible (for example, if instanceof returns false), the evaluation is considered false.

By default, the decision engine supports the date format dd-mmm-yyyy. You can customize the date format, including a time format mask if needed, by providing an alternative format mask with the system property drools.dateformat="dd-mmm-yyyy hh:mm". You can also customize the date format by changing the language locale with the drools.defaultlanguage and drools.defaultcountry system properties (for example, the locale of Thailand is set as drools.defaultlanguage=th and drools.defaultcountry=TH).

Person( bornBefore < "27-Oct-2009" )

DRL supports standard Java semantics for operators in pattern constraints, with some exceptions and with some additional operators that are unique in DRL. The following list summarizes the operators that are handled differently in DRL constraints than in standard Java semantics or that are unique in DRL constraints.

DRL supports standard Java operator precedence for applicable constraint operators, with some exceptions and with some additional operators that are unique in DRL. The following table lists DRL operator precedence where applicable, from highest to lowest precedence:

DRL supports the following rule condition elements (keywords) that you can use with the patterns that you define in DRL rule conditions:

OOPath is an object-oriented syntax extension of XPath that is designed for browsing graphs of objects in DRL rule condition constraints. OOPath uses the compact notation from XPath for navigating through related elements while handling collections and filtering constraints, and is specifically useful for graphs of objects.

When the field of a fact is a collection, you can use the from condition element (keyword) to bind and reason over all the items in that collection one by one. If you need to browse a graph of objects in the rule condition constraints, the extensive use of the from condition element results in a verbose and repetitive syntax, as shown in the following example:

rule "Find all grades for Big Data exam"
  when
    $student: Student( $plan: plan )
    $exam: Exam( course == "Big Data" ) from $plan.exams
    $grade: Grade() from $exam.grades
  then
    // Actions
end

In this example, the domain model contains a Student object with a Plan of study. The Plan can have zero or more Exam instances and an Exam can have zero or more Grade instances. Only the root object of the graph, the Student in this case, needs to be in the working memory of the decision engine for this rule setup to function.

As a more efficient alternative to using extensive from statements, you can use the abbreviated OOPath syntax, as shown in the following example:

rule "Find all grades for Big Data exam"
  when
    Student( $grade: /plan/exams[course == "Big Data"]/grades )
  then
    // Actions
end

Formally, the core grammar of an OOPath expression is defined in extended Backus-Naur form (EBNF) notation in the following way:

OOPExpr = [ID ( ":" | ":=" )] ( "/" | "?/" ) OOPSegment { ( "/" | "?/" | "." ) OOPSegment } ;
OOPSegment = ID ["#" ID] ["[" ( Number | Constraints ) "]"]

In practice, an OOPath expression has the following features and capabilities:

OOPath expressions can be reactive or non-reactive. The decision engine does not react to updates involving a deeply nested object that is traversed during the evaluation of an OOPath expression.

To make these objects reactive to changes, modify the objects to extend the class org.drools.core.phreak.ReactiveObject. After you modify an object to extend the ReactiveObject class, the domain object invokes the inherited method notifyModification to notify the decision engine when one of the fields has been updated, as shown in the following example:

public void setCourse(String course) {
        this.course = course;
        notifyModification(this);
        }

With the following corresponding OOPath expression, when an exam is moved to a different course, the rule is re-executed and the list of grades matching the rule is recomputed:

Student( $grade: /plan/exams[ course == "Big Data" ]/grades )

You can also use the ?/ separator instead of the / separator to disable reactivity in only one sub-portion of an OOPath expression, as shown in the following example:

Student( $grade: /plan/exams[ course == "Big Data" ]?/grades )

With this example, the decision engine reacts to a change made to an exam or if an exam is added to the plan, but not if a new grade is added to an existing exam.

If an OOPath portion is non-reactive, all remaining portions of the OOPath expression also become non-reactive. For example, the following OOPath expression is completely non-reactive:

Student( $grade: ?/plan/exams[ course == "Big Data" ]/grades )

For this reason, you cannot use the ?/ separator more than once in the same OOPath expression. For example, the following expression causes a compilation error:

Student( $grade: /plan?/exams[ course == "Big Data" ]?/grades )

Another alternative for enabling OOPath expression reactivity is to use the dedicated implementations for List and Set interfaces in Red Hat Decision Manager. These implementations are the ReactiveList and ReactiveSet classes. A ReactiveCollection class is also available. The implementations also provide reactive support for performing mutable operations through the Iterator and ListIterator classes.

The following example class uses these classes to configure OOPath expression reactivity:

public class School extends AbstractReactiveObject {
    private String name;
    private final List<Child> children = new ReactiveList<Child>(); 1

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
        notifyModification(); 2
    }

    public void addChild(Child child) {
        children.add(child); 3
        // No need to call `notifyModification()` here
    }
  }

DRL supports the following rule action methods that you can use in DRL rule actions. You can use these methods to modify the working memory of the decision engine without having to first reference a working memory instance. These methods act as shortcuts to the methods provided by the KnowledgeHelper class in your Red Hat Decision Manager distribution.

For all rule action methods, download the Red Hat Decision Manager 7.5.1 Source Distribution ZIP file from the Red Hat Customer Portal and navigate to ~/rhdm-7.5.1-sources/src/drools-$VERSION/drools-core/src/main/java/org/drools/core/spi/KnowledgeHelper.java.

In addition to the standard rule action methods, the decision engine supports methods in conjunction with the predefined drools and kcontext variables that you can also use in rule actions.

You can use the drools variable to call methods from the KnowledgeHelper class in your Red Hat Decision Manager distribution, which is also the class that the standard rule action methods are based on. For all drools rule action options, download the Red Hat Decision Manager 7.5.1 Source Distribution ZIP file from the Red Hat Customer Portal and navigate to ~/rhdm-7.5.1-sources/src/drools-$VERSION/drools-core/src/main/java/org/drools/core/spi/KnowledgeHelper.java.

The following examples are common methods that you can use with the drools variable:

You can use the kcontext variable with the getKieRuntime() method to call other methods from the KieContext class and, by extension, the RuleContext class in your Red Hat Decision Manager distribution. The full Knowledge Runtime API is exposed through the kcontext variable and provides extensive rule action methods. For all kcontext rule action options, download the Red Hat Decision Manager 7.5.1 Source Distribution ZIP file from the Red Hat Customer Portal and navigate to ~/rhdm-7.5.1-sources/src/kie-api-parent-$VERSION/kie-api/src/main/java/org/kie/api/runtime/rule/RuleContext.java.

The following examples are common methods that you can use with the kcontext.getKieRuntime() variable-method combination:

In general, effective rule actions are small, declarative, and readable. However, in some cases, the limitation of having a single consequence for each rule can be challenging and lead to verbose and repetitive rule syntax, as shown in the following example rules:

rule "Give 10% discount to customers older than 60"
  when
    $customer : Customer( age > 60 )
  then
    modify($customer) { setDiscount( 0.1 ) };
end

rule "Give free parking to customers older than 60"
  when
    $customer : Customer( age > 60 )
    $car : Car( owner == $customer )
  then
    modify($car) { setFreeParking( true ) };
end

A partial solution to the repetition is to make the second rule extend the first rule, as shown in the following modified example:

rule "Give 10% discount to customers older than 60"
  when
    $customer : Customer( age > 60 )
  then
    modify($customer) { setDiscount( 0.1 ) };
end

rule "Give free parking to customers older than 60"
    extends "Give 10% discount to customers older than 60"
  when
    $car : Car( owner == $customer )
  then
    modify($car) { setFreeParking( true ) };
end

As a more efficient alternative, you can consolidate the two rules into a single rule with modified conditions and labelled corresponding rule actions, as shown in the following consolidated example:

rule "Give 10% discount and free parking to customers older than 60"
  when
    $customer : Customer( age > 60 )
    do[giveDiscount]
    $car : Car( owner == $customer )
  then
    modify($car) { setFreeParking( true ) };
  then[giveDiscount]
    modify($customer) { setDiscount( 0.1 ) };
end

This example rule uses two actions: the usual default action and another action named giveDiscount. The giveDiscount action is activated in the condition with the keyword do when a customer older than 60 years old is found in the KIE base, regardless of whether or not the customer owns a car.

You can configure the activation of a named consequence with an additional condition, such as the if statement in the following example. The condition in the if statement is always evaluated on the pattern that immediately precedes it.

rule "Give free parking to customers older than 60 and 10% discount to golden ones among them"
  when
    $customer : Customer( age > 60 )
    if ( type == "Golden" ) do[giveDiscount]
    $car : Car( owner == $customer )
  then
    modify($car) { setFreeParking( true ) };
  then[giveDiscount]
    modify($customer) { setDiscount( 0.1 ) };
end

You can also evaluate different rule conditions using a nested if and else if construct, as shown in the following more complex example:

rule "Give free parking and 10% discount to over 60 Golden customer and 5% to Silver ones"
  when
    $customer : Customer( age > 60 )
    if ( type == "Golden" ) do[giveDiscount10]
    else if ( type == "Silver" ) break[giveDiscount5]
    $car : Car( owner == $customer )
  then
    modify($car) { setFreeParking( true ) };
  then[giveDiscount10]
    modify($customer) { setDiscount( 0.1 ) };
  then[giveDiscount5]
    modify($customer) { setDiscount( 0.05 ) };
end

This example rule gives a 10% discount and free parking to Golden customers over 60, but only a 5% discount without free parking to Silver customers. The rule activates the consequence named giveDiscount5 with the keyword break instead of do. The keyword do schedules a consequence in the decision engine agenda, enabling the remaining part of the rule conditions to continue being evaluated, while break blocks any further condition evaluation. If a named consequence does not correspond to any condition with do but is activated with break, the rule fails to compile because the conditional part of the rule is never reached.

A rule unit data source is a source of the data processed by a given rule unit and represents the entry point that the decision engine uses to evaluate the rule unit. A rule unit can have zero or more data sources and each DataSource definition declared inside a rule unit can correspond to a different entry point into the rule unit executor. Multiple rule units can share a single data source, but each rule unit must use different entry points through which the same objects are inserted.

You can create a DataSource definition with a fixed set of data in a rule unit class, as shown in the following example:

DataSource<Person> persons = DataSource.create( new Person( "John", 42 ),
                                                new Person( "Jane", 44 ),
                                                new Person( "Sally", 4 ) );

Because a data source represents the entry point of the rule unit, you can insert, update, or delete facts in a rule unit:

// Insert a fact:
Person john = new Person( "John", 42 );
FactHandle johnFh = persons.insert( john );

// Modify the fact and optionally specify modified properties (for property reactivity):
john.setAge( 43 );
persons.update( johnFh, john, "age" );

// Delete the fact:
persons.delete( johnFh );

Rule units are helpful when you want to coordinate rule execution so that the execution of one rule unit triggers the start of another rule unit and so on.

To facilitate rule unit execution control, the decision engine supports the following rule unit methods that you can use in DRL rule actions to coordinate the execution of rule units:

As an example of the drools.run() method, consider the following DRL rules that each belong to a specified rule unit. The NotAdult rule uses the drools.run( AdultUnit.class ) method to trigger the execution of the AdultUnit rule unit:

package org.mypackage.myunit
unit AdultUnit

rule Adult
  when
    Person(age >= 18, $name : name) from persons
  then
    System.out.println($name + " is adult");
end

package org.mypackage.myunit
unit NotAdultUnit

rule NotAdult
  when
    $p : Person(age < 18, $name : name) from persons
  then
    System.out.println($name + " is NOT adult");
    modify($p) { setAge(18); }
    drools.run( AdultUnit.class );
end

The example also uses a RuleUnitExecutor class created from the KIE base that was built from these rules and a DataSource definition of persons bound to it:

RuleUnitExecutor executor = RuleUnitExecutor.create().bind( kbase );
DataSource<Person> persons = executor.newDataSource( "persons",
                                                     new Person( "John", 42 ),
                                                     new Person( "Jane", 44 ),
                                                     new Person( "Sally", 4 ) );

In this case, the example creates the DataSource definition directly from the RuleUnitExecutor class and binds it to the "persons" variable in a single statement.

The example execution code produces the following output when the relevant Person facts are inserted in the persons data source:

Sally is NOT adult
John is adult
Jane is adult
Sally is adult

The NotAdult rule detects a match when evaluating the person "Sally", who is under 18 years old. The rule then modifies her age to 18 and uses the drools.run( AdultUnit.class ) method to trigger the execution of the AdultUnit rule unit. The AdultUnit rule unit contains a rule that can now be executed for all of the 3 persons in the DataSource definition.

As an example of the drools.guard() method, consider the following BoxOffice class and BoxOfficeUnit rule unit class:

public class BoxOffice {
    private boolean open;

    public BoxOffice( boolean open ) {
        this.open = open;
    }

    public boolean isOpen() {
        return open;
    }

    public void setOpen( boolean open ) {
        this.open = open;
    }
}

public class BoxOfficeUnit implements RuleUnit {
    private DataSource<BoxOffice> boxOffices;

    public DataSource<BoxOffice> getBoxOffices() {
        return boxOffices;
    }
}

The example also uses the following TicketIssuerUnit rule unit class to keep selling box office tickets for the event as long as at least one box office is open. This rule unit uses DataSource definitions of persons and tickets:

public class TicketIssuerUnit implements RuleUnit {
    private DataSource<Person> persons;
    private DataSource<AdultTicket> tickets;

    private List<String> results;

    public TicketIssuerUnit() { }

    public TicketIssuerUnit( DataSource<Person> persons, DataSource<AdultTicket> tickets ) {
        this.persons = persons;
        this.tickets = tickets;
    }

    public DataSource<Person> getPersons() {
        return persons;
    }

    public DataSource<AdultTicket> getTickets() {
        return tickets;
    }

    public List<String> getResults() {
        return results;
    }
}

The BoxOfficeUnit rule unit contains a BoxOfficeIsOpen DRL rule that uses the drools.guard( TicketIssuerUnit.class ) method to guard the execution of the TicketIssuerUnit rule unit that distributes the event tickets, as shown in the following DRL rule examples:

package org.mypackage.myunit;
unit TicketIssuerUnit;

rule IssueAdultTicket when
    $p: /persons[ age >= 18 ]
then
    tickets.insert(new AdultTicket($p));
end
rule RegisterAdultTicket when
    $t: /tickets
then
    results.add( $t.getPerson().getName() );
end

package org.mypackage.myunit;
unit BoxOfficeUnit;

rule BoxOfficeIsOpen
  when
    $box: /boxOffices[ open ]
  then
    drools.guard( TicketIssuerUnit.class );
end

In this example, so long as at least one box office is open, the guarded TicketIssuerUnit rule unit is active and distributes event tickets. When no more box offices are in open state, the guarded TicketIssuerUnit rule unit is prevented from being executed.

The following example class illustrates a more complete box office scenario:

DataSource<Person> persons = executor.newDataSource( "persons" );
DataSource<BoxOffice> boxOffices = executor.newDataSource( "boxOffices" );
DataSource<AdultTicket> tickets = executor.newDataSource( "tickets" );

List<String> list = new ArrayList<>();
executor.bindVariable( "results", list );

// Two box offices are open:
BoxOffice office1 = new BoxOffice(true);
FactHandle officeFH1 = boxOffices.insert( office1 );
BoxOffice office2 = new BoxOffice(true);
FactHandle officeFH2 = boxOffices.insert( office2 );

persons.insert(new Person("John", 40));

// Execute `BoxOfficeIsOpen` rule, run `TicketIssuerUnit` rule unit, and execute `RegisterAdultTicket` rule:
executor.run(BoxOfficeUnit.class);

assertEquals( 1, list.size() );
assertEquals( "John", list.get(0) );
list.clear();

persons.insert(new Person("Matteo", 30));

// Execute `RegisterAdultTicket` rule:
executor.run(BoxOfficeUnit.class);

assertEquals( 1, list.size() );
assertEquals( "Matteo", list.get(0) );
list.clear();

// One box office is closed, the other is open:
office1.setOpen(false);
boxOffices.update(officeFH1, office1);
persons.insert(new Person("Mark", 35));
executor.run(BoxOfficeUnit.class);

assertEquals( 1, list.size() );
assertEquals( "Mark", list.get(0) );
list.clear();

// All box offices are closed:
office2.setOpen(false);
boxOffices.update(officeFH2, office2); // Guarding rule is no longer true.
persons.insert(new Person("Edson", 35));
executor.run(BoxOfficeUnit.class); // No execution

assertEquals( 0, list.size() );

In rule unit execution scenarios with guarded rule units, a rule can guard multiple rule units and at the same time a rule unit can be guarded and then activated by multiple rules. For these two-way guarding scenarios, rule units must have a clearly defined identity to avoid identity conflicts.

By default, the identity of a rule unit is the rule unit class name and is treated as a singleton class by the RuleUnitExecutor. This identification behavior is encoded in the getUnitIdentity() default method of the RuleUnit interface:

default Identity getUnitIdentity() {
    return new Identity( getClass() );
}

In some cases, you may need to override this default identification behavior to avoid conflicting identities between rule units.

For example, the following RuleUnit class contains a DataSource definition that accepts any kind of object:

public class Unit0 implements RuleUnit {
    private DataSource<Object> input;

    public DataSource<Object> getInput() {
        return input;
    }
}

This rule unit contains the following DRL rule that guards another rule unit based on two conditions (in OOPath notation):

package org.mypackage.myunit
unit Unit0

rule GuardAgeCheck
  when
    $i: /input#Integer
    $s: /input#String
  then
    drools.guard( new AgeCheckUnit($i) );
    drools.guard( new AgeCheckUnit($s.length()) );
end

The guarded AgeCheckUnit rule unit verifies the age of a set of persons. The AgeCheckUnit contains a DataSource definition of the persons to check, a minAge variable that it verifies against, and a List for gathering the results:

public class AgeCheckUnit implements RuleUnit {
    private final int minAge;
    private DataSource<Person> persons;
    private List<String> results;

    public AgeCheckUnit( int minAge ) {
        this.minAge = minAge;
    }

    public DataSource<Person> getPersons() {
        return persons;
    }

    public int getMinAge() {
        return minAge;
    }

    public List<String> getResults() {
        return results;
    }
}

The AgeCheckUnit rule unit contains the following DRL rule that performs the verification of the persons in the data source:

package org.mypackage.myunit
unit AgeCheckUnit

rule CheckAge
  when
    $p : /persons{ age > minAge }
  then
    results.add($p.getName() + ">" + minAge);
end

This example creates a RuleUnitExecutor class, binds the class to the KIE base that contains these two rule units, and creates the two DataSource definitions for the same rule units:

RuleUnitExecutor executor = RuleUnitExecutor.create().bind( kbase );

DataSource<Object> input = executor.newDataSource( "input" );
DataSource<Person> persons = executor.newDataSource( "persons",
                                                     new Person( "John", 42 ),
                                                     new Person( "Sally", 4 ) );

List<String> results = new ArrayList<>();
executor.bindVariable( "results", results );

You can now insert some objects into the input data source and execute the Unit0 rule unit:

ds.insert("test");
ds.insert(3);
ds.insert(4);
executor.run(Unit0.class);

[Sally>3, John>3]

In this example, the rule unit named AgeCheckUnit is considered a singleton class and then executed only once, with the minAge variable set to 3. Both the String "test" and the Integer 4 inserted into the input data source can also trigger a second execution with the minAge variable set to 4. However, the second execution does not occur because another rule unit with the same identity has already been evaluated.

To resolve this rule unit identity conflict, override the getUnitIdentity() method in the AgeCheckUnit class to include also the minAge variable in the rule unit identity:

public class AgeCheckUnit implements RuleUnit {

    ...

    @Override
    public Identity getUnitIdentity() {
        return new Identity(getClass(), minAge);
    }
}

With this override in place, the previous example rule unit execution produces the following output:

[John>4, Sally>3, John>3]

The rule units with minAge set to 3 and 4 are now considered two different rule units and both are executed.