Drools Guvnor

Business Logic integration Platform

Drools Guvnor

Centralised Knowledge Repository
Why and when to use
Browsing and controlling access
Graphical editors
Eclipse Synchronization
Integrated Testing
Notification and access
Learn more

Centralised Knowledge Repository

Drools Guvnor is a centralised repository for Drools Knowledge Bases, with rich web based GUIs, editors, and tools to aid in the management of large numbers of rules. As you know, Drools allows you to create executable knowledge bases. The repository component is where you can store versions of rules, models, functions, processes etc that all relate to these knowledge bases. Access is controlled, and it is possible to lock down access and restrict features so domain experts (non programmers) can view and edit rules without being exposed to all the features at once.

You would want to use Guvnor if

You have a need to control access to rules and other artifacts
Have a variety of non programmer users who could use graphical editors to edit rules
Need to manage versions and changes to the rules over time (and you probably have a lot of rules !).

Browsing content

Control access via user defined "categories": categories are user driven groupings of artifacts, to aid quick navigation (searching is also available of course). These can also be used to control visibility of items (and hide features from users that don't need access to them).

The repository stores items in a database, which you can access via the web interface, webdav, atom etc... Many GUI metaphores are provided, only some of which will be shown below.

Graphical editors

The guided editor provides a wizard like way to create and edit rules through a graphical interface.

The web based decision table editor is another guided/controlled way to edit many rules at once (of course XLS based decision tables can also be uploaded). The editor simplifies construction of decision tables and offers exciting features for merging and grouping of cells to make your data entry simple.