Working with Code Libraries - 4.1 Externalizing Business Rules with NxBRE
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Hard-coded business rules can lead to inflexible applications that are hard to maintain. NxBRE is an open source business rules engine that helps you build more agile systems by externalizing the processing of these rules.
NxBRE started as a C# conversion of Sloan Seaman’s JxBRE and has since been vastly extended. Mainly written by David Dossot, NxBRE is available on Source-Forge, where it benefits from the functional and technical feedback of a vibrant community.
NxBRE offers two different engine flavors to better fit the skills and knowledge of developers: the Flow Engine suits the procedural-minded, while the Inference Engine is more oriented toward expert system connoisseurs. All rule files are expressed in XML, which allows for easy editing, validation, and transformation. The Inference Engine also supports rules written in a Prolog-like syntax and comes with a dedicated Stencil for Microsoft Visio 2003 that allows graphical editing of rule bases.
NxBRE at a Glance
Tool | NxBRE |
Version covered | 2.5.1 |
Home page | http://www.agilepartner.net/oss/nxbre/ |
Power Tools page | http://www.windevpowertools.com/tools/142 |
Summary | Software component for executing business rules expressed in XML. Usable in standalone or multithreaded systems. |
License type | LGPL |
Online resources | Documentation, online knowledge base (Wiki), forums |
Supported Frameworks | .NET 1.1, 2.0 |
Getting Started
NxBRE is distributed for .NET 1.1 but can be recompiled on .NET 2.0. You can download the distribution from the tool’s SourceForge page (http://sourceforge.net/ projects/nxbre/). NxBRE’s distribution contains the DLL built-in debug and release modes, which you can directly reference in your projects.
NUnit 2.2 (available from http://www.nunit.org) is required for running the test suite.
NxBRE has primarily been developed with the open source IDE SharpDevelop, but it is distributed with project files for Visual Studio .NET 2003 and XML build files for NAnt.
A command-line console is available for easily testing rule bases designed for the Inference Engine. It is distributed as an independent package in the same SourceForge project.
Next: Using NxBRE >>
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 This article is excerpted from chapter four of Windows Developer Power Tools, written by James Avery and Jim Holmes (O'Reilly, 2006; ISBN: 0596527543). Check it out today at your favorite bookstore. Buy this book now.
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