Cloning CER Rule Sets

This section describes the process you must follow to clone rule sets included with the application so that you can customize the cloned rule sets to meet your product's needs.

If you need to customize any rules element in a rule set included with the application, or if you rely on the current functionality of the version of a rule set included with the application, then you must clone the rule set and all of its dependencies, in terms of application derived data/business logic rules classes (but not infrastructure rule classes).

CAUTION:

The application does not support the modification of any application-included rule sets "in place".

See the compliancy statement in CER Rule Sets Included with the Application.

The documentation includes a dependency map of all the rule sets included with the application. Please refer to the CER Rule Set Interdependencies.svg in the README directory of your installation. The map shows application (clone-able) rule sets in white and infrastructure (not clone-able) rule sets in gray. This map may serve as a useful artifact in identifying exactly which rule sets you will need to clone and update.

Follow these steps to clone rule sets:

Identify the rule set(s) that is your entry point into the rules (typically from a rule class).
For each of these rule sets, follow the arrows on the dependency diagram, to find any other Application rule sets on which those to customize depend. Repeat this step recursively until there are no more arrows or to Application rule sets.
For each of the Application rule sets found in the above steps, follow the arrows backwards to pick up any additional Application rule sets that depend on the rule sets found so far. Repeat this step recursively until there are no more arrows to follow backwards.
Each of the Application rule sets found during the above steps must now be cloned and any references to other cloned rule sets updated. Follow the steps below.
- For each rule set to be cloned, create a new name for the rule set (e.g. the original name of the rule set, suffixed with "Custom", or the name of your project - we recommend you use a consistent renaming pattern).
- For each rule set to be cloned, copy its rule set source XML file from EJBServer/components/ component name /CREOLE_Rule_Sets/ someruleset.xml to EJBServer/components/custom/CREOLE_Rule_Sets/ someruleset Custom.xml . Open each rule set file in a text or XML editor and change the name of the rule set to your custom name. XPath for the node to change is: /RuleSet/@name.
- For each cloned rule set, open it and find all references to other rule sets, and for each reference found, see if the rule set is one of those that you have cloned; if so, change the name of the rule set reference to be the name of the rule set now in your custom folder. Use the following XPath expressions to find rule class references:
  - A class that extends a class from another rule set:
    /RuleSet/Class/@extendsRuleSet
  - Attribute types that are rule classes in another rule set (or a collection thereof):
    /RuleSet/Class//Attribute/type//ruleclass/@ruleset
  - Expressions that include rule class type specifiers, such as <fixedlist> / <listof>, <create> or <readall>:
    /RuleSet/Class/@extendsRuleSet
- For each cloned rule set, create an entry in EJBServer/components/custom/data/initial/CREOLERuleSet.dmx (which you must create if it does not already exist).
  Assign IDs in your custom ID range - do not reuse the original IDs for the rule sets. See the Cúram Express Rules Reference Manual for suitable initial values of attributes in CREOLERuleSet.dmx.

Additional steps may be required to update propagator configuration and rule class links. Once you have completed cloning your rule sets, you must follow these steps:

Some of the rule sets you have cloned may have had rule object instances created automatically by the configurable rule object propagators. If so, you must identify the propagator configurations and create a custom configuration to also populate rule object instances for your cloned rule sets. Follow the steps below:
- Inspect the propagator configurations included with the application (i.e. those referenced from EJBServer/components/ component name /data/ directory /RuleObjectProapgatorConfig.dmx ) to see if any propagator configurations target the rule sets that you have cloned.
- Search the propagator configuration XML files (in the blob/clob directories within the component data directories) using the XPath //ruleset/@name to find the targeted rule sets.
- If any targeted rule set is one that you have cloned, then you need to write your own propagator configuration to target the cloned version of the rule class (i.e. the rule class in your cloned rule set). Create a propagator configuration in your custom component to do so.
Some of the rule sets you have cloned may have been referenced in rule class links from CER-based Products. If so, you must identify the rule class links and update them to point to your cloned rule sets.
- Find the original database IDs of the rule sets you have cloned.
- Inspect all the EJBServer/components/ component name /data/ directory /CREOLERuleClassLink.dmx files to find any rows where creoleRuleSetID = the original database ID of any of the rule sets you have cloned.
- For any entries found, create an entry in your EJBServer/components/custom/data/initial/CREOLERuleClassLink.dmx file to override entry included with the application; change the creoleRuleSetID to be the new ID for your cloned version of the rule set.