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Chapter 2. Release Notes

2.1. New and Noteworthy in KIE API 6.0.0
2.1.1. New KIE name
2.1.2. Maven aligned projects and modules and Maven Deployment
2.1.3. Configuration and convention based projects
2.1.4. KieBase Inclusion
2.1.5. KieModules, KieContainer and KIE-CI
2.1.6. KieScanner
2.1.7. Hierarchical ClassLoader
2.1.8. Legacy API Adapter
2.1.9. KIE Documentation
2.2. What is New and Noteworthy in Drools 6.0.0
2.2.1. PHREAK - Lazy rule matching algorithm
2.2.2. Automatically firing timed rule in passive mode
2.2.3. Expression Timers
2.2.4. RuleFowGroup and AgendaGroups are merged
2.3. New and Noteworthy in KIE Workbench 6.0.0
2.4. New and Noteworthy in Integration 6.0.0
2.4.1. CDI
2.4.2. Spring
2.4.3. Aries Blueprints
2.4.4. OSGi Ready
2.5. What is New and Noteworthy in Drools 6.1.0
2.5.1. JMX support for KieScanner
2.6. New and Noteworthy in KIE Workbench 6.1.0
2.6.1. Data Modeler - round trip and source code preservation
2.6.2. Data Modeler - improved annotations
2.6.3. Standardization of the display of tabular data
2.6.4. Generation of modify(x) {...} blocks

It is now possible to define both the delay and interval of an interval timer as an expression instead of a fixed value. To do that it is necessary to declare the timer as an expression one (indicated by "expr:") as in the following example:


The expressions, $d and $p in this case, can use any variable defined in the pattern matching part of the rule and can be any String that can be parsed in a time duration or any numeric value that will be internally converted in a long representing a duration expressed in milliseconds.

Both interval and expression timers can have 3 optional parameters named "start", "end" and "repeat-limit". When one or more of these parameters are used the first part of the timer definition must be followed by a semicolon ';' and the parameters have to be separated by a comma ',' as in the following example:


The value for start and end parameters can be a Date, a String representing a Date or a long, or more in general any Number, that will be transformed in a Java Date applying the following conversion:

new Date( ((Number) n).longValue() )

Conversely the repeat-limit can be only an integer and it defines the maximum number of repetitions allowed by the timer. If both the end and the repeat-limit parameters are set the timer will stop when the first of the two will be matched.

The using of the start parameter implies the definition of a phase for the timer, where the beginning of the phase is given by the start itself plus the eventual delay. In other words in this case the timed rule will then be scheduled at times:

start + delay + n*period

for up to repeat-limit times and no later than the end timestamp (whichever first). For instance the rule having the following interval timer

timer ( int: 301m; start="3-JAN-2010" )

will be scheduled at the 30th second of every minute after the midnight of the 3-JAN-2010. This also means that if for example you turn the system on at midnight of the 3-FEB-2010 it won't be scheduled immediately but will preserve the phase defined by the timer and so it will be scheduled for the first time 30 seconds after the midnight. If for some reason the system is paused (e.g. the session is serialized and then deserialized after a while) the rule will be scheduled only once to recover from missing activations (regardless of how many activations we missed) and subsequently it will be scheduled again in phase with the timer.

The workbench has had a big overhaul using a new base project called UberFire. UberFire is inspired by Eclipse and provides a clean, extensible and flexible framework for the workbench. The end result is not only a richer experience for our end users, but we can now develop more rapidly with a clean component based architecture. If you like he Workbench experience you can use UberFire today to build your own web based dashboard and console efforts.

As well as the move to a UberFire the other biggest change is the move from JCR to Git; there is an utility project to help with migration. Git is the most scalable and powerful source repository bar none. JGit provides a solid OSS implementation for Git. This addresses the continued performance problems with the various JCR implementations, which would slow down once the number of files and number of versions become too high. There has been a big "low tech" drive, to remove complexity. Everything is now stored as a file, including meta data. The database is only there to provide fast indexing and search. So importing and exporting is all standard Git and external sites, like GitHub, can be used to exchange repositories.

In 5.x developers would work with their own source repository and then push JCR, via the team provider. This team provider was not full featured and not available outside Eclipse. Git enables our repository to work any existing Git tool or team provider. While not yet supported in the UI, this will be added over time, it is possible to connect to the repo and tag and branch and restore things.


The Guvnor brand leaked too much from its intended role; such as the authoring metaphors, like Decision Tables, being considered Guvnor components instead of Drools components. This wasn't helped by the monolithic projects structure used in 5.x for Guvnor. In 6.0 Guvnor 's focus has been narrowed to encapsulates the set of UberFire plugins that provide the basis for building a web based IDE. Such as Maven integration for building and deploying, management of Maven repositories and activity notifications via inboxes. Drools and jBPM build workbench distributions using Uberfire as the base and including a set of plugins, such as Guvnor, along with their own plugins for things like decision tables, guided editors, BPMN2 designer, human tasks.

The "Model Structure" diagram outlines the new project anatomy. The Drools workbench is called KIE-Drools-WB. KIE-WB is the uber workbench that combines all the Guvnor, Drools and jBPM plugins. The jBPM-WB is ghosted out, as it doesn't actually exist, being made redundant by KIE-WB.


Important

KIE Drools Workbench and KIE Workbench share a common set of components for generic workbench functionality such as Project navigation, Project definitions, Maven based Projects, Maven Artifact Repository. These common features are described in more detail throughout this documentation.

The two primary distributions consist of:

  • KIE Drools Workbench

    • Drools Editors, for rules and supporting assets.

    • jBPM Designer, for Rule Flow and supporting assets.

  • KIE Workbench

    • Drools Editors, for rules and supporting assets.

    • jBPM Designer, for BPMN2 and supporting assets.

    • jBPM Console, runtime and Human Task support.

    • jBPM Form Builder.

    • BAM.

Workbench highlights:

  • New flexible Workbench environment, with perspectives and panels.

  • New packaging and build system following KIE API.

    • Maven based projects.

    • Maven Artifact Repository replaces Global Area, with full dependency support.

  • New Data Modeller replaces the declarative Fact Model Editor; bringing authoring of Java classes to the authoring environment. Java classes are packaged into the project and can be used within rules, processes etc and externally in your own applications.

  • Virtual File System replaces JCR with a default Git based implementation.

    • Default Git based implementation supports remote operations.

    • External modifications appear within the Workbench.

  • Incremental Build system showing, near real-time validation results of your project and assets.

The editors themselves are largely unchanged; however of note imports have moved from the package definition to individual editors so you need only import types used for an asset and not the package as a whole.