The amazing world of IBM ODM and more

The amazing world of IBM ODM blog - Angello Manrique Vigil
  • HOME
  • ABOUT ME
  • CONTACT ME

Populating Decision Tables with external data sources

by Angello Manrique Vigil / Thursday, 21 September 2017 / Published in Ant Tasks, Decision Table, Java, Rule Authoring, Rule Designer

One of the most used artifacts in IBM ODM is the decision table. In this post I will show how to populate your Decision Table in the Rule Designer with external data sources like a .txt file or an excel spreadsheet. Business users can have their logic in multiple sources (mostly in Excel files), that they need to dump in a decision table to create rules and business logic behavior in IBM ODM. We are going to achieve this by using a combination of Java, Ant builds and ilog rule designer-plug ins embedded in our suite. This is a very technical tutorial and it might be a little difficult to get it done quickly but feel free to contact me with any problems or if you get stuck at some point.


Steps:

  1. Setting up environment
    • Create a new folder (in my case “dt-populate”) in your Rule project with a “data” subfolder and with an Ant Build file.ant file creation sampleibm odm populate decision table folder structure sample
    • Tip: You can also create and manage the ant and data configuration in a new external Java project.
    • Create an environment variable ECLIPSE_HOME with the location of your IBM ODM installation.
    • Insert the txt or the excel file with the data you want to import in the data folder. In my example I am using both, please have this considerations:
      • Txt:
        • Separate each cell of the decision table by the semicolon “;”.
        • Separate each row of the decision table with a space.txt decision table structure sample
      • Excel:
        • Separate each cell of the decision table in each excel cell starting in A1.
        • Separate each row of the decision table in each excel row.decision table excel file sample
        • Tip: Remember the version of Excel and the file extension because you will need it later on.
  2. Creating the Ant Build file
    • Add the project tag with a name, basedir and a default target attributes.ant build sample ibm odm rule designer
    • Tip: For more about Ant Tasks review my previous post here.
    • Inside the project tag we are going to add the properties, conditions, echo messages, definitions and our targets. For each of you will be different depending in your environment and ODM installation.ant build file properties sample
    • Tip: Remember to change the values according to your workspace and installation folders.
    • Now let’s add the definitions the includes the properties and connection parameters.ant build macrodef sampleant build macrodef sample 2
    • Finally, we add the targets.ant build target sample
    • Remember to change the values according to your environment and also review the excel file extension.
  3. Running the Ant build file targets
    • Right click the build.xml file and select Run As –> Ant build…ant build running as sample
    • Select the target you want, in this sample I will run the Excel file target, and click Run.ant build running ant samples
    • You will see the console messages and at the end BUILD SUCCESSFUL.

Results:

Now you can refresh and open your Decision Table and visualize all the values!decision table ant populated sample

I hope you enjoy this tutorial, there are many more automation and integration to be done with Ant Tasks, please let me know what you wish to see next, and as always feel free to comment or contact me with any feedback or support! Thank you!

Tagged under: AntTasks, DecisionTable, Java, RuleDesigner

About Angello Manrique Vigil

IBM Certified ODM Consultant with 6+ years of experience in designing and developing end to end BRMS and BPM enterprise applications systems. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angello90/

What you can read next

Working with Lists in the XOM / BOM
Automating deployments with Ant tasks
Creating Dynamic Domains from an Excel file

2 Comments to “Populating Decision Tables with external data sources”

  1. Pramod says :Reply
    April 26, 2018 at 7:14 pm

    Hello ANGELLO MANRIQUE VIGIL,

    Thanks for the detailed explanation. Can I use excel sheet as an artifact?

    For instance, I have thousands of records and need to use them for decision making and those records can be in CSV format or Excel sheet. how to implement this in ODM?

    Please advice me

    Thanks!!

    1. Angello Manrique Vigil says :Reply
      June 9, 2018 at 11:05 am

      Hi Pramod, yes you can. Just add a separator for each row and use the guide to load them in the decision tables in ODM. After that you can create the BOM objects to use them in any rule.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • RPA – UiPath: Working with Excel

    In this blog post we will talk about working wi...
  • ODM on Docker!

    If you are a DevOps enthusiast like me you prob...
  • RPA: UiPath and ODM integration

    In this technical tutorial we will have a look ...
  • Decision Composer, integration with Rule Designer

    In this post I will show a new way to start you...
  • Connecting to external Database with ODM API

    The IBM ODM Decision Center and the Rule Execut...
  • Custom log file with ODM API

    Given the positive feedback from previous post ...
  • Working with the Decision Center API

    In many IBM ODM rules implementation projects w...
  • Automating deployments with Ant tasks

    To deploy RuleApps to Rule Execution Server, au...
  • Editing business rules in Microsoft Office

    IBM ODM Decision Center Business Console provid...
  • Monitoring ruleset execution with ODM RES Decision Warehouse

    After we finish developing and deploying a Rule...

Categories

  • Ant Tasks
  • Bluemix
  • Cloud
  • Database
  • Debug
  • Decision Center
  • Decision Operation
  • Decision Table
  • Decision Warehouse
  • Docker
  • Domains
  • Java
  • ODM API
  • RPA
  • Rule Authoring
  • Rule Designer
  • Rule Execution Server (RES)
  • Rule Solutions for Office
  • Ruleflow
  • UiPath

Recent Posts

  • RPA – UiPath: Working with Excel

    In this blog post we will talk about working wi...
  • ODM on Docker!

    If you are a DevOps enthusiast like me you prob...
  • RPA: UiPath and ODM integration

    In this technical tutorial we will have a look ...
  • Decision Composer, integration with Rule Designer

    In this post I will show a new way to start you...
  • Connecting to external Database with ODM API

    The IBM ODM Decision Center and the Rule Execut...

Recent Comments

  • Mastan on Debugging a simple Ruleflow in Rule Designer
  • Angello Manrique Vigil on ODM on Docker!
  • brian on ODM on Docker!
  • Angello Manrique Vigil on Populating Decision Tables with external data sources
  • Pramod on Populating Decision Tables with external data sources

Subscribe

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

All rights reserved. Made by Angello Manrique Vigil.

TOP