Class Attribute

This topic only applies to self-managed Intelligent Advisor edition

java.lang.Object

com.oracle.determinations.engine.Attribute

public final class Attribute
extends java.lang.Object

Represents an Attribute of a Rulebase as an in-memory object model. An Attribute is a property or field, such as someone's date of birth or surname, and is defined by the developer of the rulebase.

Attributes, Entities, and Relationships belong to the static view of a Rulebase. This is available outside of any Session of a Rulebase.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
`void`	`backwardChain(EntityInstance instance, com.oracle.determinations.engine.eval.BackwardChainReporter reporter, com.oracle.determinations.engine.eval.Relevance attributeRelevance)` Entry point for performing backward chaining.
`java.lang.Object`	`evaluate(EntityInstance instance)` Get the value of this attribute instance as an Object.
`void`	`generateRelevanceData(EntityInstance instance, com.oracle.determinations.engine.RelevanceReport report)` Generates relevance data for the instance of this attribute, adding it to the specified report.
`DecisionReportNode`	`getDecisionReport(EntityInstance instance)` Generates a DecisionReport for the Attribute instance, explaining why the Attribute instance has the value it does.
`DecisionReportNode`	`getDecisionReport(EntityInstance instance, DecisionReportOptions options)` Generates a DecisionReport for the Attribute instance, explaining why the Attribute instance has the value it does.
`Entity`	`getEntity()` Get the Entity which contains this Attribute.
`AttributeEnumeration`	`getEnumeration()` Return an attribute enumeration in the default rulebase locale.
`AttributeEnumeration`	`getEnumeration(java.lang.String locale)` Returns an attribute enumeration in the specified locale
`Attribute`	`getEnumFilterAttribute()` If this attribute is filtered by some other attribute, return the filtering attribute.
`java.lang.String`	`getFormattedValue(EntityInstance instance)` Get the formatted value of this attribute instance using the current formatter.
`InferencingType`	`getInferencingType()` Return the inferencing effect this attribute has on the rulebase.
`java.lang.Object`	`getMaxValue()` Gets the Maximum allowable value or `null` if unrestricted.
`java.lang.Object`	`getMinValue()` Gets the Minimum allowable value or `null` if unrestricted.
`java.lang.String`	`getName()` Get the name of this Attribute.
`com.oracle.determinations.engine.AbstractRule`	`getProvingRule()` Return the proving rule of this attribute.
`java.lang.String`	`getRawText(EntityInstance instance, SentenceForm sentenceForm)` Returns the raw text for this attribute, in the form specified, with substitution symbols left as-is.
`java.lang.String`	`getRawText(java.lang.String locale, SentenceForm sentenceForm)` Returns the raw text for this attribute, in the form specified, with substitution symbols left as-is.
`java.lang.String`	`getRegExp()` Gets the regular expression the value must conform to, or `null` if unrestricted.
`com.oracle.determinations.engine.RelevanceReport`	`getRelevanceReport(EntityInstance instance)` Generates a relevance report for the attribute instance, describing the intermediate and base-level attributes that are required to get a value for the attribute.
`java.lang.String`	`getStaticText(Session session, SentenceForm sentenceForm)` Returns the static text for this attribute, in the form specified, with static text substitutions performed.
`java.lang.String`	`getStaticText(java.lang.String locale, SentenceForm sentenceForm)` Returns the static text for this attribute, in the form specified, with static text substitutions performed.
`java.lang.String`	`getSubstitutedText(EntityInstance instance, SentenceForm sentenceForm)` Returns the text in the desired form for the instance of this attribute stored within the specified entity instance.
`java.lang.Object`	`getUserData(EntityInstance instance)` Returns the user data associated with this Attribute instance.
`java.lang.String`	`getUserValidationMessage(EntityInstance entityInstance)` Returns the user defined error message for failed min/max/regexp validation.
`java.lang.Object`	`getValue(EntityInstance instance)` Get the value of this attribute instance as its appropriate Object value.
`byte`	`getValueType()` Get the type of this Attribute as a `AttributeType` value.
`boolean`	`hasEnumeration()` Returns true if the attribute has an attribute enumeration.
`boolean`	`hasPublicName()` Returns true if the name of the attribute is a public name.
`boolean`	`isDisplayUnformatted()` Returns true if the value should be unformatted by default.
`boolean`	`isEverUnknown(EntityInstance instance)` For non-temporal values, this is equivalent to isUnknown.
`boolean`	`isInferred(EntityInstance instance)` Returns true when the (non-unknown) attribute value has been inferred by the engine.
`boolean`	`isIntegerOnly()` Indicates whether the value must be an integer.
`boolean`	`isSeedableByQueryParameter()` Determine whether the attribute may be seeded from a URL parameter.
`boolean`	`isUncertain(EntityInstance instance)` Is the current value of an attribute instance uncertain.
`boolean`	`isUnknown(EntityInstance instance)` Is the current value of an attribute instance unknown.
`boolean`	`isUserSet(EntityInstance instance)` Has this attribute value been set by a user or inferred by the rulebase.
`void`	`setUserData(EntityInstance instance, java.lang.Object data)` Sets the user data that is associated with this Attribute instance.
`void`	`setValue(EntityInstance instance, java.lang.Object value)` Allow the user to set a value represented by the given Object.
`java.lang.String`	`toString()` Returns a simple String indicating the public name of the Attribute, the type, and its corresponding entity.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Method Detail

backwardChain

public void backwardChain(EntityInstance instance,
                 com.oracle.determinations.engine.eval.BackwardChainReporter reporter,
                 com.oracle.determinations.engine.eval.Relevance attributeRelevance)

Entry point for performing backward chaining. Backward chains perform tasks such as decision reports, the get next question loop, and the get all questions report.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance to be used as initial context for the backward chain; reporter - the report accumulator object

evaluate

public java.lang.Object evaluate(EntityInstance instance)

Get the value of this attribute instance as an Object. This includes unknown and uncertain values.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance to be used as context for evaluating this attribute
Returns:: the Object representation of this attribute instance

generateRelevanceData

public void generateRelevanceData(EntityInstance instance,
                         com.oracle.determinations.engine.RelevanceReport report)

Generates relevance data for the instance of this attribute, adding it to the specified report.

getDecisionReport

public DecisionReportNode getDecisionReport(EntityInstance instance)

Generates a DecisionReport for the Attribute instance, explaining why the Attribute instance has the value it does.

Parameters:: instance - an EntityInstance object defining the entity context within which to assess the decision for this attribute
Returns:: the root decision report node for the decision report

getDecisionReport

public DecisionReportNode getDecisionReport(EntityInstance instance,
                                   DecisionReportOptions options)

Generates a DecisionReport for the Attribute instance, explaining why the Attribute instance has the value it does.

Parameters:: instance - an EntityInstance object defining the entity context within which to assess the decision for this attribute; options - parameters to use when generating the decision report.
Returns:: the root decision report node for the decision report

getEntity

public Entity getEntity()

Get the Entity which contains this Attribute.

Returns:: the owning Entity of this Attribute

getEnumeration

public AttributeEnumeration getEnumeration()

Return an attribute enumeration in the default rulebase locale.

Returns:: an AttributeEnumeration, or null if no enumeration exists

getEnumeration

public AttributeEnumeration getEnumeration(java.lang.String locale)

Returns an attribute enumeration in the specified locale

Parameters:: locale - the locale for the enumeration
Returns:: an AttributeEnumeration, or null if no enumeration exists for the given locale

getEnumFilterAttribute

public Attribute getEnumFilterAttribute()

If this attribute is filtered by some other attribute, return the filtering attribute.

Returns:: the filtering attribute, or null if there is no filtering attribute

getFormattedValue

public java.lang.String getFormattedValue(EntityInstance instance)

Get the formatted value of this attribute instance using the current formatter.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance to be used as context for evaluating this attribute
Returns:: a String representation of this attribute instance

getInferencingType

public InferencingType getInferencingType()

Return the inferencing effect this attribute has on the rulebase.

Returns:: one of the InferencingType constants

getMaxValue

public java.lang.Object getMaxValue()

Gets the Maximum allowable value or null if unrestricted. Not applicable to String or Boolean types.

Returns:: the maximum allowable value, or null if not applicable

getMinValue

public java.lang.Object getMinValue()

Gets the Minimum allowable value or null if unrestricted. Not applicable to String or Boolean types.

Returns:: the minimum allowable value, or null if not applicable

getName

public java.lang.String getName()

Get the name of this Attribute.

Returns:: the name of this Attribute

getProvingRule

public com.oracle.determinations.engine.AbstractRule getProvingRule()

Return the proving rule of this attribute. Public solely for the benefit of ExpressionAttributeRef, which is in the expression package. Should not be used outside the engine.

Returns:: the proving rule for this attribute, if any

getRawText

public java.lang.String getRawText(EntityInstance instance,
                          SentenceForm sentenceForm)
                            throws java.lang.IllegalStateException,
                                   java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

Returns the raw text for this attribute, in the form specified, with substitution symbols left as-is. This is for backward compatibility with the RuleBurst 8 engine, and allows substitutions to be deferred.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance that contains useful information such the language/locale of the session and whether or not this sentence should use second person forms; sentenceForm - the desired sentence form as a constant from the SentenceForm class
Returns:: the static text for this attribute, or null if no text is available
Throws:: java.lang.IllegalStateException - the rulebase does not contain any sentence text information; java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - the sentence form was inappropriate for this attribute or an invalid sentence form constant was passed in
Since:: 11.0

getRawText

public java.lang.String getRawText(java.lang.String locale,
                          SentenceForm sentenceForm)
                            throws java.lang.IllegalStateException,
                                   java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

Parameters:: locale - the locale of the text to be returned. The locale must be of the rulebase's supported locales as specified by Rulebase.getAvailableLocales(); sentenceForm - the desired sentence form as a constant from the SentenceForm class
Returns:: the static text for this attribute, or null if no text is available
Throws:: java.lang.IllegalStateException - the rulebase does not contain any sentence text information; java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - the sentence form was inappropriate for this attribute, or an invalid sentence form constant was passed in
Since:: 10.2

getRegExp

public java.lang.String getRegExp()

Gets the regular expression the value must conform to, or null if unrestricted. Only applicable to String types

Returns:: the regular expression as a String, or null if unrestricted

getRelevanceReport

public com.oracle.determinations.engine.RelevanceReport getRelevanceReport(EntityInstance instance)

Generates a relevance report for the attribute instance, describing the intermediate and base-level attributes that are required to get a value for the attribute. This is essentially a decision report that mirrors the data-model structure rather than the rule structure.

Parameters:: instance - an EntityInstance object defining the context within which to assess the decision for this attribute
Returns:: a relevance report for the attribute

getStaticText

public java.lang.String getStaticText(Session session,
                             SentenceForm sentenceForm)
                               throws java.lang.IllegalStateException,
                                      java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

Returns the static text for this attribute, in the form specified, with static text substitutions performed.

Parameters:: session - the session, this contains useful information, like the language/locale; sentenceForm - the desired sentence form as a constant from the SentenceForm class
Returns:: the static text for this attribute, or null if no text is available
Throws:: java.lang.IllegalStateException - the rulebase does not contain any sentence text information; java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - the sentence form was inappropriate for this attribute, or an invalid sentence form constant was passed in
Since:: 10.1

getStaticText

public java.lang.String getStaticText(java.lang.String locale,
                             SentenceForm sentenceForm)
                               throws java.lang.IllegalStateException,
                                      java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

Returns the static text for this attribute, in the form specified, with static text substitutions performed.

Parameters:: locale - the locale of the text to be returned. The locale must be of the rulebase's supported locales as specified by Rulebase.getAvailableLocales(); sentenceForm - the desired sentence form as a constant from the SentenceForm class
Returns:: the static text for this attribute, or null if no text is available
Throws:: java.lang.IllegalStateException - the rulebase does not contain any sentence text information; java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - the sentence form was inappropriate for this attribute, or an invalid sentence form constant was passed in
Since:: 10.2

getSubstitutedText

public java.lang.String getSubstitutedText(EntityInstance instance,
                                  SentenceForm sentenceForm)
                                    throws java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

Returns the text in the desired form for the instance of this attribute stored within the specified entity instance. Substitution will be carried out if required.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance for attribute text substitution; sentenceForm - the desired sentence form as a constant from the SentenceForm class
Returns:: the static text for this attribute, or null if no text is available
Throws:: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - the sentence form was inappropriate for this attribute, or an invalid sentence form constant was passed in

getUserData

public java.lang.Object getUserData(EntityInstance instance)

Returns the user data associated with this Attribute instance. The user data is an Object of an application-defined format.

Regardless of whether or not an Attribute instance is unknown, uncertain, or inferred all data associated with it (user data, classes and grammatical person) persist for the life time of its housing EntityInstance.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance used to resolve the attribute instance

getUserValidationMessage

public java.lang.String getUserValidationMessage(EntityInstance entityInstance)

Returns the user defined error message for failed min/max/regexp validation.

Parameters:: entityInstance - the current entity instance
Returns:: the validation message set by user. If no message was specified in Policy Modeling, method returns null.

getValue

public java.lang.Object getValue(EntityInstance instance)

Get the value of this attribute instance as its appropriate Object value. This includes unknown and uncertain values. Note that Date values are always translated into the local timezone before being returned to the caller.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance to be used as context for evaluating this attribute
Returns:: a String representation of this attribute instance

getValueType

public byte getValueType()

Get the type of this Attribute as a AttributeType value.

Returns:: one of the types in AttributeType

hasEnumeration

public boolean hasEnumeration()

Returns true if the attribute has an attribute enumeration.

Returns:: whether the attribute has an attribute enumeration

hasPublicName

public boolean hasPublicName()

Returns true if the name of the attribute is a public name.

Returns:: true if the name of the attribute is a public name, otherwise false

isDisplayUnformatted

public boolean isDisplayUnformatted()

Returns true if the value should be unformatted by default.

Returns:: whether the value should be unformatted

isEverUnknown

public boolean isEverUnknown(EntityInstance instance)

For non-temporal values, this is equivalent to isUnknown. Where the attribute has a temporal value, this is a test to see if the attribute is unknown at any point in time.

Parameters:: instance -
Returns:: true if the attribute is unknown, or is unknown at some point in time.

isInferred

public boolean isInferred(EntityInstance instance)

Returns true when the (non-unknown) attribute value has been inferred by the engine. Returns false if the value is user set, or if the value is unknown.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance used to resolve the attribute value
Returns:: true if the value is inferred by the engine and is known, otherwise false

isIntegerOnly

public boolean isIntegerOnly()

Indicates whether the value must be an integer. Only applicable to Number or Currency types.

Returns:: true if the specified value must be an integer, otherwise false

isSeedableByQueryParameter

public boolean isSeedableByQueryParameter()

Determine whether the attribute may be seeded from a URL parameter. Applicable to Intelligent Advisor interviews.

Returns:: true if the attribute may be seeded from a URL parameter, otherwise false
Since:: 12.2.2

isUncertain

public boolean isUncertain(EntityInstance instance)

Is the current value of an attribute instance uncertain.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance to be used as context for evaluating this attribute
Returns:: true if the evaluated value is uncertain, otherwise false

isUnknown

public boolean isUnknown(EntityInstance instance)

Is the current value of an attribute instance unknown.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance to be used as context for evaluating this attribute
Returns:: true if the evaluated value is unknown, otherwise false

isUserSet

public boolean isUserSet(EntityInstance instance)

Has this attribute value been set by a user or inferred by the rulebase.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance used to resolve the attribute value
Returns:: true if the value is set by a user, otherwise false if the value is inferred by the engine or is unknown

setUserData

public void setUserData(EntityInstance instance,
               java.lang.Object data)

Sets the user data that is associated with this Attribute instance. The user data is an Object of an application-defined format.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance used to resolve the attribute instance; data - the user data to associate with this Attribute instance

setValue

public void setValue(EntityInstance instance,
            java.lang.Object value)

Allow the user to set a value represented by the given Object. The Object should be of the correct type for this Attribute type. String values are always defensively copied in order to prevent excessive character buffer storage in certain cases.

Parameters:: instance - the entity instance in which the attribute instance value should be set; value - the value to be set
Throws:: java.lang.ClassCastException - the object value is of an unexpected type; java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - if either: the instance passed is not an instance of the entity to which this attribute belongs; any of the validations specified in the attribute's proeprties are of an invalid format; or he value fails the maximum, minimum or regular expression validations specifed in the attribute's properties.

toString

public java.lang.String toString()

Returns a simple String indicating the public name of the Attribute, the type, and its corresponding entity.

Overrides:: toString in class java.lang.Object
Returns:: a String representation of this Attribute