Check Rules feature

[yevhenii-pazii]

Hi guys,

I found yours project very interesting for me, but I have some suggestions for you.

1. Sometimes it may be useful to not fire rules, but only check them like:
   boolean allRulesApplicable = ruleEngine.checkRules();
   Or return some rules result which can contain simple map (String, Boolean), where key is a Rule name and values is a "evaluate" method result. "fireRules" should return boolean or rules status.
2. Also it may be useful in conjunction with feature above to have rules evaluator to be able check rules like:
   (RuleA and RuleB) or RuleC
3. Maybe it will be a good idea to separate execute method from Rule itself to give additional level of abstraction. For example, if I use a CompositeRule it is possible that I want to execute a single "Job" for all contained rules. It can possibly give more flexibility with features 1 and 2.

P.S. It is possible that I understand project use cases wrong :)

Thanks in advance.

[fmbenhassine]

Hi @thecederick

Thank you for these suggestions!

Sometimes it may be useful to not fire rules, but only check them

Good idea indeed. This will allow the user to do some kind of "simulation" before firing rules. I've added a method checkRules in version 2.3.0-SNAPSHOT. You can give it a try, here is an example.

Also it may be useful in conjunction with feature above to have rules evaluator to be able check rules

You can already do this: ( ruleA.evaluate() && ruleB.evaluate() ) || ruleC.evaluate() . Do you believe Easy Rules should provide a RuleEvaluator API?

Maybe it will be a good idea to separate execute method from Rule itself to give additional level of abstraction.

That was the case in the early stages of the project. We've got a separate concepts for Condition, Action and Rule. But we have decided to make a rule encapsulate the BOM, conditions and actions together as a unit.. That's easier 😉

Kind regards
Mahmoud

[yevhenii-pazii]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response!

Good idea indeed. This will allow the user to do some kind of "simulation" before firing rules. I've added a method checkRules in version 2.3.0-SNAPSHOT. You can give it a try, here is an example.

Looks pretty good for me)

You can already do this: ( ruleA.evaluate() && ruleB.evaluate() ) || ruleC.evaluate() . Do you believe Easy Rules should provide a RuleEvaluator API?

It is not always possible do it like you described, for example @Condition annotation and you do it outside of Engine.

Thank you for your project, hope to use it soon!

[fmbenhassine]

Hi,

I've merged in the master branch the addition of the checkRules method in the RulesEngine API. It will be released soon in the 2.3 version.

In regards to the RulesEvaluator API, I've created a separate issue ( #42 ) and I planned to add it to the library too. Keep tuned 😄

Kind regards
Mahmoud