Building the Business Rule Engine using SQL SERVER

Question

Hi,

I have a requirement to build a Business Rule Engine. I use the SQL SERVER 2005. The business rules are massive, like 2000 pages long.

eg.

If col1 = 'xyz' then populate col2 otherwise not.
if col3 = 'abc' and col4 = 'def' then col5 = 'ghy'

etc. etc.

So, I think we can't just write all those rules in if else condition in a procedure. So, may be I can create a decision table and put all the condition on that table as a record. But I don't know how to do it.

Anyone has any idea, how to do it?

Thank you

Answer 1

I think you may want to look at existing 3rd party systems:

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=business+rules+engine

Someone is going to have to put these rules into a form understood by the engine and maintain the rules

If you write the engine yourselves, someone is going to have to maintain both the engine and the rules.

Remember, an engine or set of rules which is too complicated will require major programming for rule maintenance - which may defeat the purpose of having a rules engine so that "non-programmers can maintain the system"