The BOM is the basis of the vocabulary that is used in business rules.
You use the ObjectModelBuilder in Business Rules Embedded to generate a BOM from XML Schemas (XSDs). The BOM simplifies business rule editing by providing a natural language vocabulary. Policy managers use this language to write their business logic in business rules.
Rule artifacts act on the classes and methods in a BOM. As an object model, the BOM is similar to a Java™ object model. It consists of classes that are grouped into packages, and each class has a set of attributes and methods, and possibly other nested classes.
BOM-to-XOM mapping defines the correspondence between the BOM and the execution object model (XOM) that is used at run time.
By default, a BOM always includes classes that map to specific Java Development Kit (JDK) classes, and basic date and time-related classes. These classes form a set that is called the System BOM. For example, to compare the parts of a date, the System BOM contains the following classes, which map to parts of java.util.Date and value editors:
ilog.rules.brl.SimpleDate
ilog.rules.brl.Time
ilog.rules.brl.DayOfWeek
ilog.rules.brl.Month
ilog.rules.brl.Year
If you have a BOM member of type java.util.Date, you can change that type to one of the System BOM date types. The mapping is carried out automatically.
A business object model comprises one or more BOM entries. A BOM entry defines a set of business elements in the business object model.
You can organize BOM entries so that when two business elements have the same name in two BOM entries, the first BOM entry overrides the other element.
The following files make up a BOM entry:
BOM file: Describes the structure of the BOM.
VOC file: Describes the vocabulary for a locale, and associates the vocabulary with the BOM.
B2X file: Describes the mapping between the BOM and the XOM.