1. Developing SOA Applications with Oracle SOA Suite
  2. Using the Business Rules Service Component
  3. Getting Started with Oracle Business Rules
  4. Adding Business Rules to a BPEL Process

Adding Business Rules to a BPEL Process

You can use a decision component, also called a business rule service component, to execute business rules in a BPEL process.

You add business rules to a BPEL process using a Business Rule component. When you add a business rule component to a BPEL process, you must include input and output variables to provide input to the rules and obtain results back from the business rules.

A business rule component enables you to execute business rules and make business decisions based on the rules. To create a business rule component, also called a decision component, you drag-and-drop a Business Rule from the Components window into the BPEL process.

To add a business rule to a BPEL process:

  1. Create a BPEL process service component. For more information, see Introduction to the BPEL Process Service Component.
  2. Expand the BPEL process by double-clicking the process item. For example, expand the BPEL process to view receiveInput and callbackClient as shown in Figure 25-4.

    Figure 25-4 Adding A Business Rule to a BPEL Process

    Description of Figure 25-4 follows
    Description of "Figure 25-4 Adding A Business Rule to a BPEL Process"
  3. Select Business Rule from the SOA Components section of the Components window and drag-and-drop a Business Rule into the position where the business rules are needed. For example, drag-and-drop a Business Rule between receiveInput and callbackClient, as shown in Figure 25-5.

    Figure 25-5 Drag-and-drop a Business Rule into a BPEL Process

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    Description of "Figure 25-5 Drag-and-drop a Business Rule into a BPEL Process"
  4. Oracle JDeveloper displays the business rule in the diagram. Double-click the business rule component to display the Rule dialog box.

    The Rule dialog box provides tabs, such as General, Dictionary, Correlation Sets, and so on, where you can select an existing Oracle Business Rules dictionary or enter the name of a new dictionary to create. Under the General tab, in the Name field enter a name for the business rule. For example, enter GetCreditRating, as shown in Figure 25-6. If you previously created a dictionary, under the Dictionary tab, in the Dictionary field, select an existing dictionary.

    Figure 25-6 Business Rule Added to Auto Loan BPEL Process

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    Description of "Figure 25-6 Business Rule Added to Auto Loan BPEL Process"
  5. In the Business Rule area for the Business Rule Dictionary, click the Create Dictionary icon to display the Create Business Rules dialog.
  6. In the Create Business Rules dialog you do the following:

    • Specify a name for the Oracle Business Rules dictionary and a package name.

    • Specify the input and output data elements for the business rule. For example, for a sample decision component named GetCreditRating, the input is a rating request document. The output is generated when you run the business rules, and for this example is a rating document. For example, in BPEL you can create two new variables, RatingRequest and Rating that carry the input and output data for the GetCreditRating rules.

    Enter a name for the Oracle Business Rules dictionary. For example, enter GetCreditRating, as shown in Figure 25-7.

    Figure 25-7 Adding GetCreditRating Business Rule Dictionary

    Description of Figure 25-7 follows
    Description of "Figure 25-7 Adding GetCreditRating Business Rule Dictionary"