Storing Rules in pureXML

Rules can be expressed in XML. One of the rules notations is called RIF (Rule Interchange Format). The XML notations for rules are for interchanging rules between systems. Increasingly XML interchange notations are used for storage too providing:

Agile development of systems -
- More people understand the storage model as it matches the external message exchange model
- The internals of the system match the externals more closely
- The designs are quicker to implement
Development of agile systems -
- Schema evolution of the rules and other changes are much easier to handle
- There are plenty of XML tools that can be applied to the stored data

In particular, being able to store and query RIF rules in XML, makes it easier to build systems that manage collections of rules.

Storing and Querying RIF in pureXML

For a presentation on storing RIF Basic Logic Dialect rules in an XML database (as XML documents in a single column of type XML), please see these charts

For a live demonstration of RIF Basic Logic Dialect rules stored in an XML database (as XML documents in a single column of type XML), please follow the following steps:

go to Industry Formats and Services with pureXML
select View Demo
select RIFBLD after scrolling down.
select Query in the Data Management section of the demonstration
view the rules stored in an XML database - in particular the car dealer scenario rules, by highlighting the rule and clicking retrieve
select here in the text Click here for a list of sample queries and try executing some of the provided queries (they are XQueries)
- the first query asks about the car dealer rules (who can buy a car at less than 100% of its price)
- there are other queries to try
- the final query illustrates the use of dublin core_ style metadata in conjunction with the stored rules
- you can type your own queries
select Insert in the Data Management section of the demonstration to insert your own RIF rules
select Query in the Data Management section of the demonstration to view and query your rules stored in the XML database

As well as supporting the insertion and querying of RIF rules, the demonstration also does the following:

Exposes Atom Feeds - so users of the system can watch out for new rules being added to the system, or simply view the stored rules through a regular feed reader. Exposing the rules as feeds also means they can be used in mashups more easily.
Exposes a set of RESTful Services and Web Services enabling access from a variety of clients to the stored rules.

More Information

For more information on the demonstrations - see:
- Get started with Industry Formats and Services with pureXML

To create similar Web and RESTful services on your own stored XML rules data - see:
- Universal Services for pureXML using Data Web Services

For information on pureXML - see:
- Getting Started with pureXML

Contact malaika at us dot ibm dot com, if you'd like a pureXML industry bundle for RIF, to help you get started with storing, indexing and querying RIF.