A More Useful Example

For more complex rule sets, RuleDoc can help you:

navigate the dependencies between the rule classes in your rule set;
understand each rule attribute's derivation calculation; and
see which other rule attributes depend on a particular rule attribute.

Here is the XML for a more complex rule set:

Figure 1. A retirement-year calculator

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<RuleSet name="RetirementYearRuleSet"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation=
"http://www.curamsoftware.com/CreoleRulesSchema.xsd">
  <Class name="RetirementYear">

    <Attribute name="yearOfBirth">
      <type>
        <javaclass name="Number"/>
      </type>
      <derivation>
        <Number value="1970"/>
      </derivation>
    </Attribute>

    <Attribute name="ageAtRetirement">
      <type>
        <javaclass name="Number"/>
      </type>
      <derivation>
        <Number value="65"/>
      </derivation>
    </Attribute>

    <Attribute name="yearOfRetirement">
      <type>
        <javaclass name="Number"/>
      </type>
      <derivation>
        <arithmetic operation="+">
          <reference attribute="yearOfBirth"/>
          <reference attribute="ageAtRetirement"/>
        </arithmetic>
      </derivation>
    </Attribute>

  </Class>

</RuleSet>

Here is the generated RuleDoc for the above rule set:

Figure 2. RuleDoc showing derivation and usage The generated RuleDoc for the above rule set.

This example shows:

the derivation of the yearOfRetirement rule attribute (with links to the yearOfBirth and ageAtRetirement rule attributes on which it depends); and
the yearOfBirth rule attribute, with a link to the yearOfRetirement rule attribute which directly depends on it.