Diapositive 1

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A DSL-mapping approach to Business Rule
Management using AMMA
ANAS ABOUZAHRA Presentation
May 2006, 2nd AMMA/ATL Workshop on Model
Engineering
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Needs

• Rules are being used for many related purposes
• Engineering (Diagnosis rules)
• Commerce (Business rules)
• Law (Legal reasoning)
• Internet (Access authentication)
• multiple ways to model rules which differ
• From one vendor to another
• From one usage context to another
• According to the level of abstraction

Interoperability between existing rules languages
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Bridging rule languages and standards
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The approach

• Global approach to implement the
  interoperability between several rules languages
  and standards
• Using multiple Domain Specific Languages (DSLs)
• Using AMMA (ATLAS Model Management Architecture)
  to demonstrate the practical feasibility of the
  approach

• An example of mapping to illustrate the proposed
  approach
• Mapping the OMG PRR proposal (Production Rule
  Representation) and the proprietary ILOG Rule
  language (IRL)

• Using a similar approach, one can build other
• vertical mappings between two levels of
  abstraction
• Or horizontal mappings between similar levels

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Domain Specific Languages

• A DSL is a language dedicated to a particular
  domain, problem, or task
• A DSL may be associated to a given metamodel

If we describe each rule language with a
specific DSL
Interoperability problem
DSL-mapping problem
OMG MDA approach (Model Driven Architecture)

• To meet the integration challenges caused by the
  diversity of platforms

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AMMA A DSL building platform (1/2)

• ATLAS, an INRIA team in Nantes, has developed a
  DSL-building framework named AMMA
• Offering basic facilities to create and
  manipulate metamodels and their conforming models
  
• ATL a model transformation language
• KM3 a simple proprietary textual concrete
• syntax to type metamodels in.
• TCS eases the definition and the
• management of models for which
• metamodels are already defined

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AMMA A DSL building platform (2/2)
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Bridging PRR to IRL (1/6)

• A work realized in ILOG with the PRR team and
  the collaboration of the ATLAS team
• To design a prototype tool that allows
• transforming PRR (Production Rule Representation)
  models, in conformance with the PRR metamodel, to
  IRL (ILOG Rule Language) files which can be
  directly used by an IRL resolution engine

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Bridging PRR to IRL (2/6)
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Bridging PRR to IRL (3/6)

• Define a KM3 metamodel conforming to the PRR 1.0
  metamodel
• Define a concrete syntax using TCS to eases the
  creation of PRR models
• Define an IRL accommodate metamodel for the
  application in compliant with the IRL syntax

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Bridging PRR to IRL (3/6)

• Implement the IRL language syntax with TCS
• Define an ATL transformation to translate PRR
  models to IRL ones
• Optional use AM3 to eases the injection and
  extraction of models

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Bridging PRR to IRL (4/6)
PRR 1.0 Metamodel
(PRR OCL) OCL expression language
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Bridging PRR to IRL (5/6)

• High level mappings

PRRRuleCondition
IRLCondition
PRRRuleVariables
IRLBindings
PRRRuleActions
IRLActions

• Expressions mappings

OCLOCLExpression
IRLIRLExpressions
OCL subset mappable to IRL
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Bridging PRR to IRL (6/6)

• High level mappings example

rule Condition from p
PRR!RuleCondition to r IRL!Condition
(
irlConditionExp lt- p.conditionExp )

• Expressions mappings example

OCLIteratorExp   select ? IRL collect
PRR OCL ?items ?shoppingCart1.getItems()-gtselec
t(e Item e.type ?itemType1 and
e.valuegt 30)-gtsize() gt3 IRL ?items collect
Item(type ?itemType1 valuegt30) in
?shoppingCart1.getItems() where (size gt 3)
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Generalization (1/2)
XX File
XX metamodel
XX XMI Model
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Generalization (2/2)
PRRRuleCondition
XXCondition
PRRRuleVariables
XXBindings
PRRRuleActions
XXActions
OCLOCLExpression
XXXXExpressions
OCL subset mappable to XX
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Conclusion
Lessons

• Representing several rule languages/or standards
  by DSLs and bridging those DSLs to get mapping
  interoperability between them
• Using an MDE approach to implement a wide
  support in the business rules domain
• The architecture adopted in the realization of
  the PRR to IRL mapping tool can be used and
  adapted to build mapping bridges between the
  other rule languages and standards

Companies feedback

• Surprised by the maturity level of MDE developed
  tools like AMMA

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End of the Presentation

• Thanks
• Questions?
• Comments?