Generating Excel scenario files for the decision engine

You must set certain properties to enable Excel file generation for decision services that use the decision engine.

You can generate Excel scenario files for tests and simulations in the Decision Center Business console. However, the following limitations can prevent the creation of these files for decision services that use the decision engine:
  • Empty cells in Excel scenario files can be treated as null. To format the empty cells as empty collections, follow the instructions in Using empty collections in test suites.
  • The decision engine does not support the deprecated property IlrDataIOProperties.FORCONVERSION. You must change the property to IlrDataIOProperties.DEFAULT in any business object model (BOM) that still uses the deprecated property (see IlrDataIOProperties).
  • The decision engine does not support classes that extend collections.
  • If the default constructor that is used to create an object has arguments, the arguments must correspond to attributes in the class of the object or its superclasses. The default constructor is the sole constructor of the class if there is only one constructor. If there are several constructors, the default constructor is the constructor flagged with the IlrDataIOProperties.DEFAULT property.

    If the default constructor has arguments that do not correspond to attributes, you can do one of the following to fix the issue:

    • Rename the arguments by reusing the names of the corresponding attributes.
    • Create virtual attributes that correspond to the arguments in the BOM.
    • Use a different constructor.
  • You cannot use a BOM constructor to create an instance of an abstract class. You can instantiate only concrete classes.

Creating a scenario file in the Business console

To create a scenario file:

  1. In your decision service branch, open the Data subtab in the Simulations tab.
  2. Click the Generate Scenario File button "" .
  3. Enter a file name, and leave the default settings, which are taken from the decision operation.
  4. Click Download, and save the file to a directory on your computer.
  5. Open the file in Excel or OpenOffice, and populate its cells.

Uploading a scenario file

To upload the scenario file for use in tests and simulations:

  1. Return to the Data subtab, and click the Create button "".
  2. Enter the name for the dataset, and select the operation for the decision services.
  3. Click Choose, navigate to your scenario file, and then click Open.
  4. Click Create to add the data file to the Data tab.