A business rule is a rule that defines or constrains an aspect of your business. It is intended to create a business structure or to influence the behavior of the business.

A condition is the left hand side part of a rule: IF Condition THEN Result.

A condition value determines a condition. It can consist of:

Business rules must be able to interact with application data from other systems. This external application data is mapped to a data model, which is then stored in your workspace as part of the rule project.

A data model element is an entity of a data model. For example, a customer data model can contain the data model elements name and age.

A decision entity is a way to display one or more rules. Decision tables, decision trees, and event rules are different decision entities, even though they can contain the very same rule. Some decision entities are more suited for displaying certain kinds of rules than others.

A decision table is a decision entity. In the decision table, the conditions and corresponding results are sorted into rows and columns. A column can either represent a condition (the IF part) or a result (the THEN part) of a rule. Each row in a decision table represents one individual rule.

A decision tree is a decision entity. In a decision tree, the conditions and corresponding results are displayed in a tree-like structure that consists of nodes that are linked to each other. A node can either represent the root, a condition (the IF part) or a result (the THEN part) of a rule. A link can be a root link or a condition link. A root node can be linked to one or more condition nodes, and a condition node can be linked to one or more condition nodes or result nodes.

Event rules can operate on the basis of predefined event types. This event type is mapped to an event model, which is then stored in your workspace as part of the rule project.

An event rule is a decision entity that specifies the reaction to an event. There are two types of events:

Internal events are triggered by other event rules and decision tables during rule execution. External events are predefined event types that were created with the Event Type Editor, see webMethods Event Processing Help.

An expression may contain function calls, literals, parameter references, the mathematical operators +, -, *, /, groups of parentheses, or combinations of all of these. You can assign an expression to a decision table condition, a decision table assignment result, a decision tree condition, a decision tree assignment result or an event rule assignment result.

A new data action is an action that was mapped from a data model. It creates a new instance of this data model in the rules engine. In this way, a new output parameter that was mapped from this data model is introduced to webMethods Rules Engine. It can then trigger other decision entities within one rule set that use this output parameter as an input.

A parameter is an instance of a data model or an event model.

A parameter element is an entity of a parameter.

A process action is an action that was mapped from an existing process and can be used in a decision entity to:

A result is the right hand side part of a rule: IF Condition THEN Result. There are two types of results:

A result value determines a result. There are two types:

An assignment result value can consist of:

An action result value determines the action status:

A rule is a single element that specifies a decision in a IF Condition THEN Result syntax.

A rule set is a grouping of logically related decision entities. Every rule set belongs to a rule project.

A rule project is used as a container for different rule sets and other elements, such as data models, event models, decision entities, actions, etc. In a rule project, these different elements can be defined and used by all parts of the rule project.

A service action is an action that was mapped from an existing Integration Server service (IS service). Then you can execute this service from a decision entity, or use an output value from the service in a decision entity.