BRFplus—Business Rule Management for ABAP™ …

1 Carsten Ziegler and Thomas AlbrechtBRFplus business Rule Management for abap ApplicationsBonn Boston293 311/2/10 11:17:28 AMContents at a Glance1 About business rules .. 212 BRFplus a Brief Walk-Through .. 393 Tutorials .. 774 Object Management .. 1215 Objects .. 1696 Tools and Administration .. 2977 Advanced .. 3378 Deployment .. 3999 Methodology .. 399A Formula Functions .. 425B The Authors .. 431293 511/2/10 11:17:28 .. 1 3 Introduction .. 1 71 About business rules .. Definition .. 2 Ubiquity of business rules .. 2 business Rule Management Systems .. 2 Rule Authoring Environment .. 2 Rule Repository .. 2 Rule Engine .. 2 Rule Representation .. 2 rules and Rulesets.

2 2 Rule Flows .. 2 Decision Tables .. 2 Decision Trees .. 2 Formulas .. 2 Scorecards .. 2 Application Architecture .. 2 Traditional Application Design .. 2 Application Design with business rules Management .. 3 Usage Patterns .. 3 business rules at SAP .. 3 The Origin of BRFplus .. 3 BRFplus rules Authoring Features .. 3 BRFplus rules Engine Features .. 3 BRFplus rules Repository Features .. 3 SAP s business rules Strategy and Recommendations .. 3 Outlook .. 3 72 BRFplus a Brief Walk-Through .. BRFplus Workbench .. 3 Prerequisites .. 3 Starting the BRFplus Workbench .. 4 0293 711/2/10 11:17:28 UI Execution API .. 4 Layout .. 4 Help .. 4 Personalization.

3 4 Workflow .. 5 The Example .. 5 Application Container for BRFplus Objects .. 5 Function Interface Between Code and rules .. 5 Data Object Data Carriers .. 5 Ruleset Collection of rules .. 6 Rule Central Entity .. 6 Expressions Computational Units .. 6 Actions Performing Tasks Outside of BRFplus .. 6 Catalog Visualization and Navigation Help .. 6 Simulating and Testing rules .. 6 Function Processing and rules Evaluation .. 7 BRFplus Releases .. 7 33 Tutorials .. Creation of a Pricing Application with the BRFplus Workbench .. 7 Application .. 7 Function .. 7 Ruleset .. 8 Rule .. 9 Formula Expressions .. 9 Decision Tables .. 9 Activation .. Simulation.

4 Creation of a Pricing Application with the API .. Application .. Function .. Ruleset .. Ruleset Variables .. Decision Tables as Initialization Expressions .. Rule .. Formula Expressions .. Embedding the Function into abap Code .. 119293 811/2/10 11:17:28 Object Management .. Basic Object Handling .. Object Creation .. Object Selection .. Object Maintenance .. Basic Object API .. Naming Conventions .. Interface Hierarchy .. Types, Constants, and Messages .. The Factory Class: Central Point of Access .. Transactional Behavior .. Common Object Settings .. Attributes .. Names .. Versioning .. Texts and Documentation.

5 Access Level .. applications .. Application Creation .. Application Properties .. Application API .. Catalogs .. 1645 Objects .. Functions .. Mode of Operation .. Signature .. Simulation, Web Services, Code Generation, and Tracing .. Function API .. Data Objects .. Data Objects API .. Elements .. Structures .. Table .. Rulesets .. Ruleset Header .. 202293 911/2/10 11:17:28 rules in the Ruleset .. Deferred Ruleset Processing .. Ruleset API .. rules .. Expressions .. Expression API .. Constant Expressions .. Value Range Expressions .. Direct Values and Value Ranges .. Boolean Expressions .. BRMS Connector Expression.

6 Case Expressions .. DB Lookup Expressions .. Decision Table Expressions .. Decision Tree Expressions .. Dynamic Expressions .. Formula Expressions .. Function Call Expressions .. Loop Expressions .. Procedure Call Expressions .. Random Number Expressions .. Search Tree Expressions .. Table Operation Expressions .. XSL Transformation Expressions .. Actions .. Actions API .. Log Message Action .. Procedure Call Actions .. Send Email Action .. Start Workflow Actions .. Workflow Event Actions .. 2936 Tools and Administration .. Simulation Tool .. XML Export and Import .. XML Export Tool .. XML Import Tool .. Tracking of Imported Object Versions.

7 307293 1011/2/10 11:17:28 XML Format .. XML Export and Import API .. Web Service Generation Tool .. Application Usage Tool .. Application Administration Tool .. Deletion of Unused Objects .. Deletion of Marked Objects .. Discarding of Object Versions .. Cleanup Database .. Reorganization of Objects .. Transport Analysis Tool .. Transport in Detail .. Usage of the Tool .. 3337 Advanced .. Performance .. Performance Relevant Factors .. Performance Measurements .. Tracing .. Technical Trace .. Lean Trace .. Extending BRFplus .. Application Exits .. Custom Formula Functions .. User Interface Integration .. Object Manager.

8 Embedding the UI .. Object Manager Configuration .. Object Changes and Events .. 3948 Deployment .. Change and Transport System .. Local Scenarios .. Application Exit for Object Changeability .. Combination of Objects with Different Storage Types .. Creation of Objects with the API .. Remote Scenarios .. 405293 1111/2/10 11:17:28 Methodology .. Classic Approach to Software Development .. Classification of System Building Blocks .. Model for business rules .. Action Plan .. Team Setup .. Creation of Sketch .. Definition of business Rule Service .. Education in BRFplus .. Creation of Draft .. Refinement of business Rule Service.

9 Analysis for Extensions .. Creation of First Version .. Implementation of business Rule Service in business Process .. Testing .. Effort Estimation .. 423 Appendices .. 425A Formula Functions .. 4 25B The Authors .. 431 Index .. 433293 1211/2/10 11:17:28 Simulation Mode section we select the option Show also Results of Inter-mediate Steps. As depicted in Figure we can start the simulation by clicking on the Run Simulation the given test values, our function should compute a fi nal price of The result screen of the simulation tool should look similar to Figure It includes a detailed description of the processed steps to make the determination of the result value ResultFigure Creation of a Pricing Application with the The previous sections showed the idea of the pricing application and how it can be created with help of the user interface, the BRFplus Workbench.

10 This section shows how the same application can be created programmatically with the BRF-plus API. Package SFDT_DEMO_OBJECTSP ackage SFDT_DEMO_OBJECTS is part of the BRFplus shipment. It contains many other ex-ample and tutorial programs. The programs are a good source to copy code and development 10611/2/10 11:18:21 of a Pricing Application with the The approach with the API is very similar to that of the UI. First, an application has to be created as a container for all other BRFplus artifacts. Listing shows the code needed to create the : lo_factory TYPE REF TO if_fdt_factory, lo_application TYPE REF TO if_fdt_application, lt_message TYPE if_fdt_types=>t_message, lv_boolean TYPE : <ls_message> TYPE if_fdt_types=> = cl_fdt_factory=>if_fdt_factory~get_insta nce( ).