Author Rules Once, Deploy Rules Anywhere

September 10, 2021 Digital Experience, Corticon

Progress Corticon is a no-code business rules management solution that enables organizations to rapidly execute such changes to keep apps fresh and compliant. With a spreadsheet-like interface, it is an easy-to-use solution that enables business users to execute rules changes with little reliance on IT resources.

Author Rules Once

Corticon Studio is a standalone desktop environment to model, analyze, test, and save business rules as executable decision services. Corticon Studio is easy to learn and easy to use. With an intuitive spreadsheet-like interface, anyone can quickly learn how to model even the most sophisticated rules—with no programming. Key aspects of Corticon Studio include:

  • Sophisticated, intuitive rule modelling, no coding required. Rule authoring environment designed to be used by business analysts (domain experts).
  • Document all your rules in natural text for full transparency and business understanding. Generate decision traces in natural text with variable substitution to provide context, in multiple languages of your choice (depending on decision service locale in the request message).
  • Advanced analysis tools for decision logic validation (eliminate all technical inconsistencies like rule conflicts, rule over/underlap, looping) during rule design.
  • Comprehensive scenario-based model (use case) testing.
  • Template-based reporting for documentation and audit.
  • Includes code-free connectivity to external relational databases and REST endpoints made possible by embedded Progress DataDirect drivers.
  • Comprehensive service callout & extended operator framework to write your own decision service extensions (such as data service binding service callouts, special mathematical operators (functions), etc.

Deploy Rules Anywhere

Corticon rules can be deployed as decision services to either:

  • Progress Corticon Server—the runtime environment that hosts deployed rule models (created in Corticon Studio), exposing them as Decision Services to the external world. Decision Services can be exposed as Web services (SOAP or REST), Java services, or .NET services.
  • Serverless Environments- Corticon is able to package business rules as executable JavaScript bundles (created in Corticon.js Studio), without any external dependencies. These bundles include both the business rules and the rule engine and can be run in any browser application client-side.

Serverless Decision Services

Corticon is able to package business rules as executable JavaScript bundles (without any external dependencies). These bundles include both the business rules and the rule engine and can be run in any browser application client-side. This has the potential to save hundreds of programming hours for web developers, as validations, data transformation, UI behavioral logic, calculations, conditionally setting defaults, complex validations, etc. etc. can all be delegated to Corticon under business analyst control.

From Corticon.js Studio, in one click, you can get a deployment package for various JavaScript platforms.

When you package rules for deployment, you select the target platform. Corticon will generate a JavaScript bundle with your rules and a wrapper specific to the target platform. The available target platforms are:

Selecting AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, or Google Cloud Functions as the target platform generates the rules and a wrapper ready for deployment as a serverless function. After the rules are deployed, you can use them on your cloud platform—for example, to expose the decision service through a REST endpoint, to respond to a database update, or to integrate into a cloud vendor workflow system such as AWS step functions.

The Node.js target can be used for running decision services in Node server and as well to run them in mobile applications created with NativeScript and ReactNative.

Selecting Browser generates the decision service and simple example code that demonstrates how to integrate the rules into your application.

Note: See the Corticon.js Supported Platforms Matrix to review the supported JavaScript and web platforms, and mobile apps. You are not limited to these JavaScript platforms. The API for integrating rules in your JavaScript application allows you to develop your own wrapper or integration code that calls rules.

Decision Services on Corticon Server

Corticon Server processes the rules modeled, verified and tested in Corticon Studio. Corticon Server is a natural fit for today's deployment architectures, supporting on-premise and cloud deployment, web service deployment in popular application servers, in-process deployment for real-time applications, and application containers.

Minimize Integration Effort, Maximize Integration Flexibility

Corticon Server takes advantage of industry standards to provide flexible options for integration with applications running on Java or .NET platforms. You can embed Corticon Server in any layer of an application’s architecture, from the presentation layer on the desktop to the shared-service layer distributed across back-end servers. By design, Corticon Server integrates easily with composite or packaged applications through service-oriented architecture (SOA) or business process management (BPM) systems.

Corticon’s Java Server

The Corticon Server for Java provides the necessary components to deploy Corticon as a REST or SOAP service on a Java application server or to deploy Corticon in-process in your custom Java application. Corticon Server provides installers for both Windows and Linux. The actual deployment artifacts—the JAR and WAR files—are platform independent.

Tutorial: Deploying a Progress Corticon Decision Service as a Web Service for Java

Corticon’s .NET Server

The Corticon Server for .NET provides the necessary components to deploy Corticon as a REST or SOAP service to Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) or to deploy Corticon in-process in your custom .NET application. Corticon Server .NET install is only available on Windows. Corticon uses a high-performance bridging technology to call from .NET languages such as C# to Corticon Server.

Seth Meldon

Seth Meldon is a Pre-Sales Engineer with a primary product focus area of Progress Corticon Business Rules Engine. His work is focused on educating and demoing Corticon’s expansive functionalities, use cases, and architectural strategies to internal and external audiences. You can follow Seth on LinkedIn.

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