2.5. Type declarations and metadata in DRL


Declarations in DRL files define new fact types or metadata for fact types to be used by rules in the DRL file:

  • New fact types: The default fact type in the java.lang package of Red Hat Decision Manager is Object, but you can declare other types in DRL files as needed. Declaring fact types in DRL files enables you to define a new fact model directly in the decision engine, without creating models in a lower-level language like Java. You can also declare a new type when a domain model is already built and you want to complement this model with additional entities that are used mainly during the reasoning process.
  • Metadata for fact types: You can associate metadata in the format @key(value) with new or existing facts. 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.

2.5.1. Type declarations without metadata in DRL

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:

Example declaration of a new fact type with a rule

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
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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:

Example type declaration with the fully qualified class name in the import

import java.util.Date

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

Generated Java class for the Person fact 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`
}
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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:

Example rule that uses the declared Person fact type

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
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