第80章 KIE sessions

A stateless KIE session is a session that does not use inference to make iterative changes to facts over time. In a stateless KIE session, data from a previous invocation of the KIE session (the previous session state) is discarded between session invocations, whereas in a stateful KIE session, that data is retained. A stateless KIE session behaves similarly to a function in that the results that it produces are determined by the contents of the KIE base and by the data that is passed into the KIE session for execution at a specific point in time. The KIE session has no memory of any data that was passed into the KIE session previously.

Stateless KIE sessions are commonly used for the following use cases:

For example, consider the following driver’s license data model and sample DRL rule:

public class Applicant {
  private String name;
  private int age;
  private boolean valid;
  // Getter and setter methods
}

package com.company.license

rule "Is of valid age"
when
  $a : Applicant(age < 18)
then
  $a.setValid(false);
end

The Is of valid age rule disqualifies any applicant younger than 18 years old. When the Applicant object is inserted into the decision engine, the decision engine evaluates the constraints for each rule and searches for a match. The "objectType" constraint is always implied, after which any number of explicit field constraints are evaluated. The variable $a is a binding variable that references the matched object in the rule consequence.

In this example, the sample rule and all other files in the ~/resources folder of the Red Hat Decision Manager project are built with the following code:

KieServices kieServices = KieServices.Factory.get();

KieContainer kContainer = kieServices.getKieClasspathContainer();

This code compiles all the rule files found on the class path and adds the result of this compilation, a KieModule object, in the KieContainer.

Finally, the StatelessKieSession object is instantiated from the KieContainer and is executed against specified data:

StatelessKieSession kSession = kContainer.newStatelessKieSession();

Applicant applicant = new Applicant("Mr John Smith", 16);

assertTrue(applicant.isValid());

ksession.execute(applicant);

assertFalse(applicant.isValid());

In a stateless KIE session configuration, the execute() call acts as a combination method that instantiates the KieSession object, adds all the user data and executes user commands, calls fireAllRules(), and then calls dispose(). Therefore, with a stateless KIE session, you do not need to call fireAllRules() or call dispose() after session invocation as you do with a stateful KIE session.

In this case, the specified applicant is under the age of 18, so the application is declined.

For a more complex use case, see the following example. This example uses a stateless KIE session and executes rules against an iterable list of objects, such as a collection.

public class Applicant {
  private String name;
  private int age;
  // Getter and setter methods
}

public class Application {
  private Date dateApplied;
  private boolean valid;
  // Getter and setter methods
}

package com.company.license

rule "Is of valid age"
when
  Applicant(age < 18)
  $a : Application()
then
  $a.setValid(false);
end

rule "Application was made this year"
when
  $a : Application(dateApplied > "01-jan-2009")
then
  $a.setValid(false);
end

StatelessKieSession ksession = kbase.newStatelessKnowledgeSession();
Applicant applicant = new Applicant("Mr John Smith", 16);
Application application = new Application();

assertTrue(application.isValid());
ksession.execute(Arrays.asList(new Object[] { application, applicant }));  

assertFalse(application.isValid());

ksession.execute
  (CommandFactory.newInsertIterable(new Object[] { application, applicant }));  

List<Command> cmds = new ArrayList<Command>();  

cmds.add(CommandFactory.newInsert(new Person("Mr John Smith"), "mrSmith"));
cmds.add(CommandFactory.newInsert(new Person("Mr John Doe"), "mrDoe"));

BatchExecutionResults results = ksession.execute(CommandFactory.newBatchExecution(cmds));
assertEquals(new Person("Mr John Smith"), results.getValue("mrSmith"));

import org.kie.api.runtime.ExecutionResults;

// Set up a list of commands.
List cmds = new ArrayList();
cmds.add(CommandFactory.newSetGlobal("list1", new ArrayList(), true));
cmds.add(CommandFactory.newInsert(new Person("jon", 102), "person"));
cmds.add(CommandFactory.newQuery("Get People" "getPeople"));

// Execute the list.
ExecutionResults results = ksession.execute(CommandFactory.newBatchExecution(cmds));

// Retrieve the `ArrayList`.
results.getValue("list1");
// Retrieve the inserted `Person` fact.
results.getValue("person");
// Retrieve the query as a `QueryResults` instance.
results.getValue("Get People");