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Chapter 3. Concepts

3.1. Rules are assets
3.2. Packages are assets
3.3. Perspectives
3.4. The business user perspective
3.4.1. Creating a business user view

As the Guvnor can manage many different types of rules (and more), they are all classed as "assets". An asset is anything that can be stored as a version in the repository. This includes decision tables, models, DSLs and more. Sometimes the word "rule" will be used to really mean "asset" (i.e. the things you can do also apply to the other asset types). You can think of asset as a lot like a file in a folder. Assets are grouped together for viewing, or to make a package for deployment etc.

A package is a logical container for assets.

Packages form a deployable unit containing assets and once a package has been built it itself becomes an asset.

The Global Area is a special type of package that contains assets that can be shared in other packages. Shared assets are linked to those in the Global Area.

TODO

You can see from this manual, that some expertise and practice is required to use Guvnor. In fact any software system in some sense requires that people be "technical" even if it has a nice looking GUI. Having said that, in the right hands Guvnor can be setup to provide a suitable environment for non technical users.

The most appropriate rule formats for this use are using the Guided editor, Decision tables and DSL rules. You can use some DSL expressions also in the guided editor (so it provides "forms" for people to enter values).

You can use categories to isolate rules and assets from non technical users. Only assets which have a category assigned will appear in the "categories" view.

The initial setup of Guvnor will need to be done by a developer/technical person who will set the foundations for all the rules. They may also create "templates" which are rules which may be copied (they would typically live in a "dummy" package, and have a category of "template" - this can also help ease the way).

Deployment should also not be done by non technical users (as mentioned previously this happens from the "Package" feature).