Release 8.1.0

February 1, 2020. Release 8.1.0 essentially enhances OpenRules Decision Manager and makes it faster and easier to integrate with any existing decision-making applications. It includes the following improvements:

    • Installation Workspace. The standard installation comes as a new workspace called “openrules.samples“. After download, double-click on “openrules.config/install.bat“. (on Mac or Linux use “install). It’ll automatically install all necessary components into your local Maven’s repository (.m2) – an internet connection is required.
    • Mavenized Decision Projects. All sample projects in the workspace “openrules.samples” have been completely mavenized and you can build and run them by clicking on “test.bat“. It will automatically re-build the project for the very first time or when it recognizes any changes. Business users who don’t have to know anything about Maven, but it essentially simplify integration for software developers. The sample “VacationDays” shows a typical decision model with basic properties described in the file “project.properties“. All automatically generated files have been placed in the folder “target” which a user doesn’t have even to open; you may clean up all generated files by double-click on “clean.bat” and re-build them by double-clicking on “test.bat“.
      • One-Click AWS Lambda Deployment. The standard project “VacationDaysLambda” demonstrates how to deploy the tested business decision model on Amazon Cloud as AWS Lambda function. It can be done by adding several AWS deployment properties to the file “project.properties” and clicking on “deployLambda.bat“. The deployed decision model can be tested using “testLambda.bat“, or using a provided Java client, or from POSTMAN.
      • One-Click Deployment as RESTful Web Services. The standard project “VacationDaysSpringBoot” demonstrates how to deploy the tested business decision model on a locat Tomcat server as a RESTful Web Service. It can be done by adding the property “spring=On” to the file “project.properties” and clicking on “runLocalServer.bat“. For the first time, it will install the necessary software (including SpringBoot jar-files). Then it will build your model in such a way that it can be deployed as a RESTful web service on your local server. After a successful start of the server, you may test your RESTful web service by double-clicking on the file “testLocalServer.bat”. You also may test your model with the commonly used POSTMAN. If you click on “package.bat“, it will pack your web service in one independent jar-file that can be used to start this service on your local or remote server.

      • One-Click Creation of Docker Images. After converting your business decision models to a RESTful web service, you can package it as a Docker image. To do this, simply double-click on the standard batch file “buildDocker.bat”. Now you are ready to deploy this image as a Docker container using the majority of the popular container registries provided by Amazom, Goodle, Docker, or Asure.

    • Rules Debugging. Business analysts may now debug their decision models using a new Rule Debugger by setting the property “debug=On” in the file “project.properties” – read more here.

    • Advanced Testing facilities include:

        • Simplified test-case representation in new tables of the type “DecisionTest” with no needs for “:=” anymore.
        • Integration with JUnit tests while comparing the expected and actually produced results;
        • An ability to do Regressions Testing that validates not one but all included decision models;
    • Glossary now can include the column “Type” that can be used instead of Datatype tables to specify types of decision variables. We also added optional columns “Description”, “Domain”, and “UsedAs”.
    • OpenRules Templates are now hidden and Environment tables now don’t need to include a reference “DecisionTemplates.xls”.
    • Creating Custom Decision Projects. A business user may create a new OpenRules project by a double-click on the file “openrules.config/createProject.bat” and entering only the name of the new project. A basic prototype project (similar to the standard project “Hello”) will be created, and the user may customize it by modifying xls-files in the folder “rules” and modifying settings in the file “project.properties”.

    • Simplified OpenRules API. The standard project “VacationDays” demonstrates how to invoke the tested business decision model from Java:

    • User Manual. OpenRules Decision Manager 8.1.0 comes with a new User Manual for a Business Analyst that describes in detail how to create, test, deploy and integrate business decision models. You can download the latest release 8.1.0 of OpenRules Decision Manager from here.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please post them at the Google Discussion Group or send them directly to support@openrules.com.