how to store a single rule?

414 views Asked by At

My software needs to have some sort of rules library. Is there anyway I can serialize a single rule?

Why a single rule? Because prior to actual rule engine execution, I'd want to be able to add some specific rules into my RuleSet, and execute that RuleSet through a windows workflow rule engine.

As per the example given here, I know I can serialize a RuleSet?

Here is a brief of how its done:

1. Creating reference to the discount property this.Discount

CodePropertyReferenceExpression discountProperty =  
    new CodePropertyReferenceExpression( 
    new CodeThisReferenceExpression(),  
    "Discount"); 

2. Creating reference to the orderValue property

CodePropertyReferenceExpression orderValueProperty = 
    new CodePropertyReferenceExpression( 
        new CodeThisReferenceExpression(),  
        "OrderValue"); 

3. Defining condition on orderValue object

// if this.OrderValue > 500
RuleCondition discountCondition = new RuleExpressionCondition( 
    new CodeBinaryOperatorExpression( 
        orderValueProperty, 
        CodeBinaryOperatorType.GreaterThan, 
        new CodePrimitiveExpression(500))); 

4. Defining the rule action

// Create an action that sets the property Discount to 5% 
RuleStatementAction setDiscountAction = new RuleStatementAction( 
    new CodeAssignStatement(discountProperty,  
        new CodePrimitiveExpression(5))); 

5. Creating the RuleSet

Rule discountRule = new Rule("CalculateDiscount"); 
discountRule.Condition = discountCondition; 
discountRule.ThenActions.Add(setDiscountAction); 
ruleSet = new RuleSet("DiscountRuleSet"); 
ruleSet.Rules.Add(discountRule); 

6. Seralizing the ruleset

RuleDefinitions ruleDefinitions = new RuleDefinitions(); 
ruleDefinitions.RuleSets.Add(ruleSet); 
WorkflowMarkupSerializer serializer = new WorkflowMarkupSerializer(); 
XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter("MyRules.rules", System.Text.Encoding.Unicode); 
serializer.Serialize(writer, ruleDefinitions); 
writer.Close();

7. Executing the ruleset

RuleEngine engine = new RuleEngine(ruleSet, typeof(Shopping));  
// execute the rule on a shopping object where OrderValue = 100 
// expect rule action to be not fired 
Shopping shoppingUnder500 = new Shopping(100); 
engine.Execute(shoppingUnder500); 
Console.WriteLine("shoppingUnder500 - Discount evaluated: " + shoppingUnder500.Discount); 

You can get a full example at the link mentioned in the beginning. Pt 6 describes how you can persist a rule set. But I want to know if we can serialize a rule, which is nothing but a codedom condition expression & a set of statements (actions) (again represented by codedom).

Or what is a better way to store a single rule somewhere?

0

There are 0 answers