Rule project items

A rule project is a container for organizing rule artifacts and setting up the business object model (BOM) and rule authoring vocabulary. Each rule project item is associated with a folder.

You implement a rule project in Rule Designer as an Eclipse project, which serves as a container for organizing rule-related items. A rule project can contain different types of folders:

Source folder (rules): A root container for the rule packages and artifacts.
BOM folder (bom): Contains the files that are related to the business object model (BOM). A BOM file that is stored in the BOM folder is part of the BOM path.
Deployment folder (deployment): Contains the deployment configuration for a decision service.
Query folder (queries): Contains query files.
Resource folder (resources): Contains resource files, that is, files or folders that are not part of the rule model.
Template folder (templates): Contains template files.
Reports folder (reports): Contains the reports that are created by different operations, including deployment.

The folders are registered in the project properties, and must be located directly under the rule project. The source folder contains rule packages that contain rule artifacts. It is also the root package, so it can contain rule artifacts.

Note:

If you rename a folder or subfolder in Rule Designer and synchronize with Decision Center, you obtain a new version in Decision Center for every artifact in that folder.

Each rule project item is associated with a folder, a file, or both. The following table describes these associations. The Decision Center column indicates which project items synchronize with Decision Center. The SCC column indicates which project items must be committed when you use a source code control system.

Item	Associated with	Comments
Rule project	The root folder
	.project file	XML file that stores the general Eclipse project information, such as the nature of the project or the launch configuration.
	.ruleproject file	XML file that stores the project properties that are specific to a rule project: Categories BOM path XOM path Output location Relative path of the source, BOM, query, template, and resources folders. Displayed with the “Project properties” label in the Synchronize view.
Rule package	A rule package folder	Called a folder in Decision Center.
Rule package	.rulepackage file	XML file that stores the information for the rule package. Displayed with the “Package properties” label in the Synchronize view.
Action rule	.brl file	XML file that stores the properties and the definition of an action rule.
Decision table	.dta file	XML file that stores the properties and the definition of a decision table.
Decision tree	.dtr file	XML file that stores the properties and the definition of a decision tree.
Function	.fct file	XML file that stores the properties and the definition of a function.
Ruleflow	.rfl file	XML file that stores the properties, the task definitions, and the description of a ruleflow diagram.
Technical rule	.trl file	XML file that stores the properties and the definition of a technical rule.
Deployment configuration	.dep file	The manner in which decision operations are packaged into RuleApps, managed, and then deployed.
Decision operation	.dop file	A function that defines the decision-making logic, and the input and output data for a decision. A decision operation is implemented as a ruleset.
Variable set	.var file	XML file that stores a list of variables.
Action rule template	.brt file	XML file that stores the template properties, and the properties and the definition of the action rule to instantiate.
Query	.qry file	XML file that stores the properties and the definition of a query.
BOM entry	.bom file	Plain text file that stores the structure of a BOM entry.
	_<locale>.voc file	Key-value property file that stores the verbalization information that is attached to BOM elements. The first part of the keys corresponds to the fully qualified name of the BOM elements. The second part defines the verbalization of the BOM elements.
	.b2x file	XML file that stores the functions that map the BOM to the XOM.
Source folder	The source folder	The source folder is not a project item as such, but a container for the rule artifacts.
BOM folder	The bom folder	The BOM folder is not a project item as such, but a container for the BOM entries. All the BOM entries that are directly under the BOM folder or under folders in the BOM folder are part of the BOM and are referred to as the BOM path.
Deployment folder	The deployment folder	The deployment folder contains the deployment configuration for deploying a decision service.
Query folder	The queries folder	The queries folder is a container for the queries that can be used in the project.
Resource folder	The resources folder	The resource folder is a container for files that are not part of the rule model. (See Defining a structure for rule project items). The deployment.xml is created in the META-INF resource folder, and used with the managed XOM feature. If you selected the decision engine as rule engine, a B2X folder is created under the resources folder. The files in the B2X folder are taken into account during the synchronization with Decision Center and are required for the generation of ruleset archives from Decision Center.
Template folder	The templates folder	The template folder is a container for the templates that can be used in the project and any dependent projects. The complete list of templates is computed by gathering the templates that are stored directly under the template folder or any of its subfolders.
Output folder	The output folder	The output folder stores compiled files that are generated when you build the project.
Reports folder	The reports folder	The reports folder holds the reports that are generated by different operations.
Decision Center connection entry	The .syncEntries file	File used to share the synchronization state between Rule Designer and Decision Center. Committing this file to SCC lets you work on the same project in a different workspace without generating conflicts.