Has any one used WF Rules engine outside workflow activities WITHOUT using Rules Editor or CodeDOM?
Scenario
I am trying to use the Rule engine that ships with Workflow foundation classes with .Net Framework for a web based application. We evaluate hundreds of Validation Rules before proceeding towards a calculation engine for a complex calculation.
I have gone through many blogs which state how to use Rules engine without having to have Workflow Activities including https://github.com/geersch/WorkflowRulesEngine.
However they all eventually end up using a Rule Set Editor for defining rules. I want to declaratively define rules in an XML file
What I am looking for
I need to be able to specify Rules in simple XML without dealing with CODEDOM. CodeDOM seems to be very complex to write.
I should not be dependent on RuleSet Editor for defining rules.
Any thoughts any one ?
Don't know what kind of rules you are evaluating, but if you search a good open source rule engine, here is one.
Have a look at the following article for a strategy (not a solution) to approach the problem.
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsdesktop/Creating-Rules-Using-the-23c5d561
The serialization format for WF Rules is CodeDom.
It does not have another serialization format built-in.
If you want an alternate XML representation, you would need to create a tool to map between the representations.
Related
I am using coverity for java static code analysis, I need to add some custom rules so that scan happens according to the custom rule set.
Yes, you can write custom rules with Coverity. There are two APIs you can use:
"Extend" is the older API. Extend rules are written in C++ (regardless of what language you are scanning).
"CodeXM" is the newer API. CodeXM is a domain-specific language designed for writing static analysis rules.
Both APIs are explained in the product documentation, although that is not publicly available. My recollection is both APIs support the same set of scanned languages, specifically, C, C++, Java, and Javascript.
There are a couple Synopsys blog posts about CodeXM that might help you get started:
Getting started with writing checkers using CodeXM
Let’s write a CodeXM checker (it’s not rocket science!)
Additionally, as noted in an answer to How can we add custom rules for coverity tool?, sometimes the customization you want to do can be accomplished simply by changing the options to existing checkers. (I do not consider this question to be a duplicate of that one because the other question seems to be more about adjusting the behavior of existing checkers, despite its title.)
Disclosure: I'm a former Coverity/Synopsys employee.
I'm not an ASP.NET programmer, but, as it happens in life, I had to do some minor projects using it. Now came another one in which I have to implement some custom solutions and I haven't figured it out yet - I need some tip or maybe a piece of advice like "don't go that way" ;)
Previously it was simple - there was a table in DB, there was an adequate model and a view that worked with it - worked like charm. Now it's a little bit more complicated.
The "site" is going to contain, shortly and generally speaking, a survey - but a fully configurable one, unfortunately. In another product there's gonna be a configuration manager that will allow user to define pages, block types, questions, steps and so on and will generate an XML.
For the time being, in accordance with the specification, in the site's database I'm going to have only one table which will contain just a key and the XML generated by the configurator (and maybe some additional, not important information). Now - I need to parse this XML and build the site containing pages and other elements corresponding to it.
And that WOULD not be a problem, but I don't really know how to work that way using asp.net + mvc and can't find any piece of advice that would help me anyhow. Should I create an object that would somehow fake being a model and allow me to work for example on a dataset generated from XML? Or just create a model of the mentioned table and work with the XML directly on the view (I don't like even such an idea itself)? Or - having to do something like that - just give up on MVC and use only "clear" ASP.NET? Or maybe something else?
I'll be very grateful for any help.
And I hope I described what I need understandably ;)
If the XML documents have a schema defined then you can easily generate a class that matches the document using the xsd.exe tool. The document can then be deserialized into an instance of that class using existing functionality in the .Net framework. Just google .Net Xml serialization :-)
Now, if you don't have a schema you could create one if you are sure that you know the format of the Xml. Alternatively you could create a class that matches the format you expect to get and then parse the Xml manually. This last option is much more work, so I wouldn't recommend it.
In any case, the class you end up with should contain all the data you need from the Xml document and can then be used as the Model in your MVC page. As long as you can use the standard Xml deserialization technique then this should be quite easy and painless.
Does ColdFusion offer a mechanism for splitting CFCs into multiple files? I am NOT talking about extension, I am talking about splitting the SAME CFC into multiple files; the same way C# allows for "partial" classes. The reason for this is because I am using T4 to generate a bunch of CFCs and I want to be able to tag functionality onto the generated CFC by doing so in another file. I want to do this in a way that doesn't violate the Open-Closed Principle.
<cfinclude> will work as far as basic functionality is concerned, however the following will not work correctly:
Metadata functions - only the functions within the inspect CFC will be shown - not the cfincluded functions
<cfajaxproxy cfc="your.cfc"> will not allow the included methods to be called through javascript
Calling included functions as a web service call will not be possible
(all these cases basically boild down to the metadata only seeing the functions etc. which are within the base cfc)
It might be worth you googling Coldfusion Mixins for more detail on this and other related techniques.
No, sorry. A limitation of the language, I'm afraid. A CFC is a single file.
I mean, of course, you could bastardize it somehow. You could have fragments that are wrapped in a cfcomponent tag as part of some kind of build process, but I'm pretty sure that's not what you're looking for here.
Is it possible to programmatically generate an info path 2007 form template (xsn file=form definition) ?
I know that there is no object model for the infopath 2007 form designer, but does anyone know of any third party libraries?
The form view itself is a xsl file so it should be possible. I would have thought that its a common use case also.
It is possible to generate the manifest.xsf, xsl and xml files from a structured source (let's say an xml) and then pack this (as .cab) with the extension .xsn
(The .xsn file is nothing but a renemed .cab!)
This is only a raw concept - it could be refined if the purpose was a bit more explicit. Why generate? Are you going to create a bunch of different files? What for?
There are no libraries or API's to do this. While generating a template is possible you will need to write it all yourself. Obviously this will not be an easy task and will be prone to errors. I would recommend reviewing your requirements to ensure this is truly necessary. InfoPath is quite flexible, without knowing the details of your project, there is a good chance you can get the functionality you need with a single template.
I am working on a design spec for a new application that will be heavily workflow driven.
Before I re-invent the wheel, is there a decent lightweight workflow engine that plugs into ASP.NET already around?
Basically, I'm looking for something that handles moving through a defined set of workflow pages while handling state management automatically.
If this isn't around already, I'll definitely try to abstract the engine from my app and put it on codeplex, as it would be really handy.
Any suggestions?
Note: .NET 2.0, so no WWF, though I think WWF is overkill for my needs.
EDIT: Seems like there is a legitimate need for this, and there isn't a product out there...So I might build this.
Here is what I'm picturing:
Custom Page class called WebFlowPage
All WebFlowPage's are registered in a Workflow mapper.
Each WebFlowPage has some form of state object.
A HttpHandler handles picking the appropriate WebFlowPage based upon the workflow, and populating it from the state object.
Is the workflow dynamic, or static?
If the workflows are simple, you could roll your own workflow engine.
In certain situations, it can be fairly simple, and just a couple of data tables to handle the rules, processing and state.
Alot of workflow engines are built for large scale processing (credit card applications, for example). For small scale, you should at least consider your own, which would eliminate the overhead and dependency of/on an engine.
Not sure exactly what you wish to do here, but Ra-Ajax can easily keep state at least if you want your solution ajaxified...
For reference purposes you might want to check out the Ajax Calendar sample or even the (banalistically implemented) Ajax Wizard sample. It surely beats the hell out of doing it with JavaScript...
And every time you "do something" you're in "server-land" which means you can store temporaries all the time as you wish...
The project is LGPL
(PS!
Yes I do work with it)
Building a custom workflow engine is not trivial, although it may seem simple at first. We've tried that. It depends a lot on the complexity of the logic you need it to cover.
Given the current state of the Windows Workflow Foundation and the lack of another framework that abstracts the workflow concepts, I would choose WF if you need complex logic, asynchronous handling or branches in your workflows.
Tracking your state through the workflow can be accomplished by carrying some kind of xml payload or storing the state in a database,
If your workflow is actually a sequential set of forms that need to be filled in by the user, tracking the steps and guiding the user to the next step can be accomplished with some simple custom solution.
You could take a look at the InRule engine too.
Also, there is nxBRE.
These too are mostly used for business rules.
InRule is proprietary, whereas nxBRE supports RuleML (the defacto standard).
You might need to make your own implementation for the pages, and use the rule engine as the "structure".
At this moment, I know that Sharepoint 2007 supports page workflows (using WF), but this would imply using .NET Framework 3 and deployng sharepoint.
My suggestion would be to use whatever you find more light and easier to use.
I think the term "workflow" is very open to interpretation. I have been working lately with a type of workflow that is very different from what you seem to be describing. Mine is a state machine based workflow where the state of a particular record determines what actions a user can take to move the record to the next step in the business process. So "workflow" in this instance means how the record flows from one state to another until it is finally completed.
Your usage of workflow seems to have more to do with moving a user from one page to another in a linear multi-step process, which is a completely different use case (correct me if I'm wrong). So before coming up with a general purpose "workflow" engine that anyone could use, I would recommend defining a little bit better exactly what types of situations this system would handle.
I've been using this for a few months http://objectflow.codeplex.com. Not asp specific but it may fit your needs
While browsing the web for some workflow & BPM resources, I found the following project: NetBPM. Unfortunately, the project seems to be stopped.
I don't think there is a workflow engine that will automatically handle state for you, but if you are moving through a set of pages like a process such as checkout on an ecommerce site, perhaps the ASP.NET wizard control could help you?
There are few workflow options. "Aspose" and "Skelta" are the offers I´m evaluating.
Fábio
you can use WorkFlow Engine, just read the document and run the Demo.
all of the features you need for a dynamic workflow engine they added in there.