12Implementing the Business Rules Framework

Business Rules Framework Overview

Using the Business Rules Framework, your agency can define, execute, and maintain business rules for communications automation.

Business Rules Framework is a customizable action framework that helps you execute communications based on the criteria you define. Your agency has the ability to configure business rules by defining rules with conditions for the events in your system. The event-driven architecture triggers system automation of communications, with content based on communication templates.

Oracle Public Sector Compliance and Regulation delivers a registry of resources, or business objects, for each offering, with events that take place when transactions and processes occur within the application. The resources contain the events and data required for the events, which your agency uses when defining rules with the conditions for sending out communications. The resources and events are system-defined, whereas your agency defines the rules and conditions. Resources must first be enabled for use with the Business Rules Framework before you can implement rules for the events.

Element	Defined by System or Agency	Description
Offering	System	Offerings are the applications your agency uses. They contain the resources with the data for business operations. For example, Permits.
Resource	System	Resources are the business objects in the application. For example, Inspection.
Event	System	The events are categorized by business object and indicate occurrences in the system. For example, Inspection Canceled Inspection Rescheduled Inspection Requested Inspection Scheduled
Rule	Agency	Rules constrain the actions associated with events and are based on business requirements. See Setting Up Business Rules.
Conditions	Agency	Conditions are logical statements that, if satisfied or evaluate to be true on the whole, cause the action to be carried out or stopped. See Setting Up Business Rules.

The communication actions are preassigned to specific events. For example, the Plan Review business object in the Permits offering contains events where a notification is sent when the plan review is ready to finalize. However, the Business Rules Framework enables you to create conditions around the requirements for sending the notification.

Setting Up Business Rules

Using the Business Rules Framework, your agency can set up business rules to manage communications.

When you define a business rule, you first select the offering and business object that’s part of the offering. Then you identify and select an event that’s associated with the business object. The rule you define on the event determines whether a communication action will be carried out or stopped in the system based on the specified conditions or criteria.

The conditions are expression statements consisting of a field to evaluate, an operator, and a comparison value. You can create up to 10 conditions for a rule. The conditions can be joined and grouped to indicate an order of operations, including up to three levels of nesting.

The Business Rules Framework also gives you the ability to manage business rules by turning them on or off as needed.

Before You Begin

Resources must first be enabled for use with the Business Rules Framework before you can implement rules for the events. The Inspections and Plan Review resources and their events are delivered as enabled. For descriptions of the events, see Delivered Communication Events.

You must also set up the communication templates for the notifications that the system sends, before you roll out your business rules in the framework. For more information about setting up communication templates, see Setting Up Communication Templates.

Adding or Modifying Business Rules

Let’s take a look at how to add or modify business rules in the framework:

1. Navigate to the Business Rules Framework in the Navigator: Common Setup > Business Rules Framework.

2. Select an offering, resource, and event. For example, select the Permits offering, the Plan Review resource, and the Plan Review Finalized event. The selections are system-defined.

3. In the event details, select the rule name to manage a rule or Add to create a new business rule for the event.

4. When you add a new rule, you enter a business rule name that you can’t change after saving.

5. Add or modify the values for the event rule details:

   Page Element	Description
   Rule Description	Enter a description to further identify the rule.
   Enabled	Turn on the switch to enable the rule to be executed in the system. Turn off the switch to disable the rule.

6. If you’re adding a new rule, click Save to enter conditions.

   You can update conditions in the Manage Conditions section.

Managing Conditions

Let’s take a look at the elements used to create an expression statement for conditions in a rule.

Element	Description
Condition Sequence	Select the order in which the condition executes within the business rule. For example, 1 means that the condition in the row is executed first, 2 is executed second, and so on. You can have up to 10 sequential conditions in a business rule.
Opening Grouping	Use the opening parentheses to capture the beginning of a grouping of one or more conditions in the business rule expression. You can nest groupings up to three levels using (, ((, and (((. Make sure to balance (pair) the opening and closing groupings.
Condition Field	Select the source field from the event.
Condition Operator	Select from the available operators to specify how each value in a condition must relate to the source field from the event. Starts with Contains Equals Not equal to Greater than Less than Greater than or equal to Less than or equal to In Not in
Condition Value	Enter the comparison value to the source field from the event.
Closing Grouping	Use the closing parentheses to capture the end of a grouping of one or more conditions in the business rule expression. You can nest groupings up to three levels using ), )), and ))). Make sure to balance (pair) the opening and closing groupings.
Grouping Verb	Select AND or OR to include a logical operator. All condition rows except for the last row require a grouping verb.
Add or Delete	Select to add or delete a level in the expression.