This session will get you started with JBoss BRMS. It will walk you through some of the capabilities, components and basic concepts that one needs to understand to start building process and rule-driven applications. Join us for an hour or two of Business Process Management (BPM) concepts, explanations of how to capture your enterprises logic in business rules and a demonstration or two from real live processes that bring these concepts to life.

1. JBoss BRMS Primer
Business Rules Management System (BRMS)
Eric D. Schabell
JBoss Technology Evangelist
t: @ericschabell / e: erics@redhat.com
1

2. Agenda
● Introduction
● JBoss BRMS
● Biz Rules
● Biz Process Management
● Biz Events
● Demo
●
Questions
2

3. Integrated Intelligent Business Platform
3

4. Product Support Configurations
4

5. Choice of Tools
Business User Friendly – Web Based Developer Friendly – IDE Based
5

6. Knowledge Management
6

7. Repository
 Central Knowledge / Asset Repository
 Store – Models, Process Def, Rule Def, Images, Anything
Else
 Can store and manage any kind of assets
 Based on JCR 2.0
 Version Control
 Can also be accessed by WebDAV and HTTP
 New – Access through REST
 Further persists to RDBMS
7

8. BRMS (+jBPM 5) Interoperability with SOA -P
 SOA-P is a certified Container
 Integration of jBPM 5 with ESB in 5.3
8

9. Operations Management
 Pluggable to JON
 Monitor long running sessions
 Monitor knowledgebase params for each KB
 View list of running sessions
 List of active rules in sessions
 For each rule session params
 Session params like
– No. of facts
– Total firing time
– Avg firing time
– Total activations
9

10. Embed Guvnor Editors in Custom Applications
 Embed Any editor in
your app
 Guvnor webapp should
be running
 BRL Editor mode – no
repo saving
 Existing Asset Editor
mode – save to repo
 New Asset Editor mode
 Use JavaScript to
interact with editor
 Use Http to interact with
Guvnor app
10

11. Agenda
● Introduction
● JBoss BRMS
● Biz Rules
● Biz Process Management
● Biz Events
● Demo
●
Questions
11

12. JBoss BRMS
What is a rule?
● In short, a rule is an premise and conclusion
● If it is raining, then the ground must be wet
● A rule is made of conditions and actions. When all the
conditions are met, a rule may “fire”.
● The conditions are collectively referred to as the LHS (left
hand side) and the actions are referred to as the RHS (right
hand side, or consequence).
● A rule operates on facts (data). In our case, these facts are
instances of objects in our application.
12

13. JBoss BRMS
What is inferencing?
● We want to take all of our data (facts) and combine it with our
knowledge (rules) and come up with some conclusions
(inferencing)
13

14. JBoss BRMS
What is inferencing?
● We want to take all of our data (facts) and combine it with our
knowledge (rules) and come up with some conclusions
(inferencing)
14

15. JBoss BRMS
What is inferencing?
● We want to take all of our data (facts) and combine it with our
knowledge (rules) and come up with some conclusions
(inferencing)
15

16. JBoss BRMS
What is inferencing?
● We want to take all of our data (facts) and combine it with our
knowledge (rules) and come up with some conclusions
(inferencing)
16

17. JBoss BRMS
What is inferencing?
● We want to take all of our data (facts) and combine it with our
knowledge (rules) and come up with some conclusions
(inferencing)
17

18. Golfing Configuration Example
Rules in action
18

19. Golfing Configuration Example
There are four Golfers standing at a tee, in a line from
left to right:
• The golfer to Fred’s immediate right is wearing blue pants
• Joe is second in line
• Bob is wearing plaid pants
• Tom isn’t in position one or four, and he isn’t wearing the orange
pants
19

20. Create all possible combinations
String[] names = new String[]{"Fred", "Joe", "Bob", "Tom"};
String[] colors = new String[]{"red", "blue", "plaid”,"orange" };
int[] positions = new int[] {00, 2, 3, 4};
for ( int n = 0; n < names.length; n++ ) {
for ( int c = 0; c < colors.length; c++ ) {
for ( int p = 0; p < positions.length; p++ ) {
new Golfer(names[n], colors[c], positions[p]);
}
}
}
20

21. Fred
• There is a golfer named Fred
// There is a golfer named Fred
fred : Golfer( name == "Fred" )
21

22. Joe
• Joe is second in line
// Joe is in position 2
joe : Golfer( name == "Joe”,
position == 2 && != fred.position,
color != fred.color )
22

23. Bob
• Bob is wearing plaid pants
// Bob is wearing plaid pants
bob : Golfer( name == "Bob",
position != fred.position &&
!= joe.position,
color == "plaid" &&
!= fred.color &&
!= joe.color )
23

24. Tom
• Tom isn’t in position one or four, and he isn’t wearing the orange
pants
// Tom isn't in position 1 or 4
// and isn't wearing orange
tom : Golfer( name == "Tom",
position not in (1, 4, fred.position,
joe.position, bob.position),
color not in ("orange", "blue",
fred.color, joe.color, bob.color))
24

25. Fred's neighbor
• The golfer to Fred's immediate right is wearing blue pants
// The golfer to Fred's immediate right
// is wearing blue pants
Golfer ( position == (fred.getPosition() + 1),
color == "blue",
this in ( joe, bob, tom )
)
25

26. Results
System.out.println( "Fred's position is " +
fred.getPosition() + " and his color is " +
fred.getColor() );
System.out.println( "Joe's position is " +
joe.getPosition() + " and his color is " +
joe.getColor() );
System.out.println( "Bob's position is " +
bob.getPosition() + " and his color is " +
bob.getColor() );
System.out.println( "Tom's position is " +
tom.getPosition() + " and his color is " +
tom.getColor() );
Fred 1 orange
Joe 2 blue
Bob 4 plaid
Tom 3 red
26

27. Conclusions
• Rules technology provides a new way to create
business applications, where business logic is
“declared” in a rule language, instead of a traditional
procedural language.
• Rule engines are good for solving complex problems
that don't have any other way to solve.
• Business Rule Management Systems can be used to
manage thousands of rules.
27

28. JBoss BRMS
Inference Engine
● The brain of a Production Rule System is an Inference Engine
which matches facts against Production Rules.
● When matches are found, the rules actions are fired.
● Actions most often change the state of the facts, or perform some
external action on the application.
28

29. Conceptual example
Stateful / Stateless
Knowledge Knowledge
Base Session
Rule package Agenda
(artifacts)
29

30. Example: real BPM
Stateful
Knowledge Knowledge
Base Session
Process Process
Definition Instance
30

31. JBoss BRMS
How it Works
Agenda
Rule Activation
Rule
Rule 1.Parse DRL RuleBase Rule Fact
Rule
Rule
Activation
Fact
2. Create
Rule Fact
Fact
Fact
Fact 3. Assert Facts WorkingMemory
Fact
Fact Fact
Fact
Fact
es
Fact
ul
Fact
R
ll
A
re
Fi Rule (5) activation
Rule -> consequence
4.
Rule
Rule
Rule
31

32. Rules Engine
 Support Inference
 Implements ReteOO algorithm
 Embeddable, lightweight
 Highly performant
 Scalable and most stable
 Supports Declarative Programming
32

33. Rule Authoring Choices
33

34. All new Decision Table: Business User Friendly
 Intuitive and powerful
interface for any users
 Ability to visually create
large set of business rules
 Quick validation of rules
 Verify coverage for all
conditions
34

35. Decision Tables – Supported Categorization
 Multi hit, all hit
 Conditions are not mutually
exclusive
 All matching rules executed
 Multi hit, first hit
 Conditions are not mutually
exclusive.
 First matching rule executes
 Single hit
 Exactly One rule fires
 No ambiguity
35

36. Rule Templates
Loading Template Data
36

37. BRMS 5.3 – Other New Features
 Backward Chaining – Full Support
 Lazy Truth Maintenance – enabled automagically when needed
 Free form expression in constraints: Enables writing complex
expressions and nested accessors
Person( age * 2 > $anotherPersonsAge + 2 ) // mathematical expressions
Person( addresses["home"].streetName.startsWith( "High Park" ) ) // method calls and collections simplified
syntax
Person( isAdult() ) // boolean expression without relational operator
Cheese( ) from [ $stilton, $brie, $provolone ] // inline list creation and
iteration
 Performance enhancements
● Optimized parser enhances
 Modularity enabled for OSGI set up
37

38. Developer Perspective
JBoss Developer Studio
Fact Model
DSL Template
Check-In Artifacts to
Repository
JBoss BRMS Web
Manager
Use Facts & DSL
to create Business Rules
J2SE
EAP-
WS,WAR,EAR
Deployment
SOA-P,
Mediated
Services
JBoss BRMS Web JBoss BRMS Web
Manager Manager
Create Test Scenarios Create Package
38

39. Eclipse – Developer Perspective
39

40. Debugging
Debug Views
● New rule “perspective” to configure IDE for rules as needed
40

41. Guided Rule Editor (Eclipse)
Eclipse Guided Editor
41

42. Agenda
● Introduction
● JBoss BRMS
● Biz Rules
● Biz Process Management
● Biz Events
● Demo
●
Questions
42

43. Process Management Functions and Roles
43

44. Typical Business Process Lifecycle
Improve
44

45. Process Modeling
Web Based Modeling Tools IDE Based Modeling Tools
 Create BPMN2 Process Definition
 Common Design Time Repository – Store, Manage, Version
 Create Process Definitions, Validate, Package, Deploy
 Develop User forms, integrate other Business Assets (rules etc)
 Import BPMN2 Definitions
45

46. Process Designer Highlights
 Fully Integrated with BRMS Guvnor – On-stop business modeling tool
 Rich set of BPMN2 elements – Drag and drop on canvas
 Domain Specific Nodes – Add your own tasks to the list
 Generate PDF or PNG documents of process definition
 Embeddable Designer – Allows adopting designer in your own tool
46

47. Process Designer Highlights – User Forms
 Create Task Forms and Process
Forms in the designer
 Forms necessary for Workflow
kick off and Human task inputs
 These forms are used when
process instance is created –
Business Central
 Inline editing within the process
definition
47

48. Process Designer Highlights – Visual Process Validation
 Visually validate the process definition before packaging
48

49. Process Deployment – Loading Process Definition
 Load Definitions through
Business Central
 Use Knowledge API to
programmatically load
49

50. Process Execution - Process Engine Highlights
 Lightweight, Embeddable, Extensible
 Manages State Transition
 Native BPMN2 Execution
 Use out of the box Persistence and Transaction
 Or Plugin your Own Persistence and Transaction
 Spring, Camel and OSGi Integration
50

51. Process Execution - Task Server Highlights
 Independent Task Management Server
 Manages Lifecycle of Human Tasks – Creation, Claim, Completion etc
 Support for Assignment, Delegation, deadlines, calendar integration,
internationalization etc.
 Manages its own state persistence – different from process data
persistence
 WS-HT Based
 Accessible both by Synchronous and Asynchronous communication
 HornetQ is the default transport.
 Works with Apache Mina
 Accessible through REST interface
51

52. Process Monitoring – Business Central
 One-stop Web Based Center for Managing
Business Operations
 Manage and Monitor Business Processes
 Manage Human Tasks
 Plug your own reporting tool and create reports
 Role based authentication – configurable to
any JaaS / LDAP
 REST Interface for programmatic access to
functions
52

53. Business Central – Monitoring Processes
 View all process definitions that are installed in knowledgebase
 Instantiate a process instance
– Inline input Process Input form
 Manage running processes – Start, Terminate, Delete, Signal
 Inspect State of a Process Instance and Execution Details
53

54. Business Central – Managing Tasks
 View Assigned (personal) tasks and Un-assigned (group) tasks
 Claim a Task, Execute a Task, Release a Task
 Complete inline user task forms
54

55. Process Monitoring – Reporting
 Powerful Knowledge APIs, REST
interface
 Leverage power of CEP for realtime
reporting

Easy to integrate popular 3rd party
reporting solutions
 Will supply how to guides
 Placeholder for dashboard. No out
of the box reporting in the product
55

56. Agenda
● Introduction
● JBoss BRMS
● Biz Rules
● Biz Process Management
● Biz Events
● Demo
●
Questions
56

57. Event Processor
 CEP Engine enables -
– Event Detection: Cloud mode and Stream mode
– Temporal Reasoning (correlation) – reason over
aggregation
– Abstraction – Compose complex events and reason over
them
 CEP Engine Supports:
– Event Semantics (point in time and interval) as first class
citizen analogous to rule semantics
– Support both point in time (as interval with zero duration)
and interval semantics
– Ability to apply temporal constraints
– Use Session clocks: Support Realtime (system) clock,
Psedo Clock (controlled by application)
– Sliding window support
– Ability to scale to high volume of events
57

58. CEP Modes
Cloud Mode Stream Mode
 Default Mode – All facts and events are loaded  Events must be time-ordered
before reasoning
 Engine synchronizes between streams
 Many to many pattern matching by the engine using session clock
 No notion of flow of time, no clock
synchronization
 Engine applies the notion of flow
 Ordering is not required
 Engine manages the event lifecycle
 Event lifecycle managed by user  Sliding window option could be used
 Sliding window is not needed  Negative patterns could be used. Ex. Fire
detected, no sprinkler turned on in 10 sec
sound alarm
58

59. Temporal Relationships
when
when
Shipment( $pickupTime :: scheduledPickupTime ))
Shipment( $pickupTime scheduledPickupTime Temporal
Relationship
not ShipmentPickup( this before $pickupTime ))
not ShipmentPickup( this before $pickupTime
then
then
// shipment not picked up... Action required.
// shipment not picked up... Action required.
end
end
rule “Shipment not picked up in time”
rule “Shipment not picked up in time”
13 Operators are Supported
 Event A before Event B  Event A coincides Event B
 Event A meets Event B  Event A after Event B
 Event A overlaps Event B  Event A metBy Event B
 Event A finishes Event B  Event A overlapedBy Event B
 Event A includes Event B  Event A finishedBy Event B
 Event A starts Event B  Event A during Event B
 Event A finishes Event B
59

60. CEP – Sliding Windows
Sliding window 1
Sliding window 2
Joined window
Sliding Time Window Sliding Length Window
- Reason Over events occurring next set time duration - Reason Over set number of events occuring
Example: Raise alarm if avg temp reading from Example: Raise alarm if avg temp from last 100
sensor over last 10m is above the threshold sensor readings is above the threshold
rule "Sound the alarm in case temperature rises above rule "Sound the alarm in case temperature rises above
threshold" threshold"
when when
TemperatureThreshold( $max : max ) TemperatureThreshold( $max : max )
Number( doubleValue > $max ) from accumulate( Number( doubleValue > $max ) from accumulate(
SensorReading( $temp : temperature ) over SensorReading( $temp : temperature ) over
window:time( 10m ), window:length( 100 ),
average( $temp ) ) average( $temp ) )
then then
// sound the alarm // sound the alarm
end end
60

61. Apply CEP operators for Rules
 Apply 13 operators available
 Define sliding time window or length
61

62. Demo
https://github.com/eschabell/brms-customer-evaluation-demo
https://github.com/eschabell/brms-rewards-demo
62

63. JBoss BRMS, the future is now