The following terms describe the various components that apply to an integrated development environment of OpenEdge and Corticon:
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
|
ProDataSet |
A predefined view of data usually from multiple data sources (such as temp tables and database buffers) that are related to each other through data relationships. It is a potentially complex in-memory data structure that can be passed as a single parameter with a single handle from one procedure to another, within a single OpenEdge session or between sessions. |
|
Vocabulary |
A structured dictionary containing all necessary business terms and relationships between them used by the Business Rules. It is an eCore model that defines a relational data structure against which rules are applied. The relational data structure contains domains, entities, attributes and relationships (including cardinality), and maps to the ABL file’s ProDataSet and temp-tables. A Vocabulary is used to build rule models in a Rulesheet or test cases in a Ruletest. |
|
Rulesheet |
A set of rules (conditions and actions and plain language statements) written from a common business Vocabulary. By organizing these rules, it becomes a self-contained, independent unit of automated decision-making. |
|
Ruleflow |
A set of one or more Rulesheets organized for sequential execution. A Ruleflow aggregates and organizes Rulesheets into a single unit of automated decision-making. It may be assembled from multiple Rulesheets, provided that all the Rulesheets use the same Vocabulary file. In other words, a Ruleflow can have only one associated Vocabulary. After a Ruleflow has been saved and deployed to the Corticon Server, it is called a Decision Service. |
|
Ruletest |
A mechanism within Corticon Studio for creating use cases or test scenarios of sample data and sending them to a Rulesheet or Ruleflow for processing. Ruletests consist of one or more Testsheets which test independent Rulesheets or Ruleflows, or can be linked together to test a succession of Rulesheets or Ruleflows to simulate a process sequence. Like Rulesheets, Ruletests also use a common Vocabulary model. |
|
Decision Service |
Automates a discrete decision-making task. A Decision Service is implemented as a set of Business Rules and exposed as a web service or a Java service. By definition, the rules within a Decision Service are complete and unambiguous. For a given set of inputs, a Decision Service addresses every logical possibility uniquely, ensuring decision integrity. After they are deployed to the Corticon server, Ruleflows become Decision Services. Multiple versions of a single Decision Services can be deployed concurrently. |
|
Business Rules server |
A high-performance and scalable system resource that manages pools of Decision Services and executes their rules against incoming requests. It can be easily configured as a Web Services server that exposes Decision Services as true Web Services. |