IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Administer applications and processes in the runtime environment > Administer business rules and selectors

Considerations for modules containing business rules and selectors

Here is some information to consider when install or delete modules that contain business rules and selectors.

Business rules and selectors add flexibility to your modules. The added flexibility affects how install or delete a module because the server saves business rules and selectors in a central repository.

Considerations for changing business rules or selectors

You can change business rules and selectors in your production environment without reassembling and reinstalling the affected modules. These changes are made directly to the repository and are not copied into any of the files that contain the business rules or the selectors. After making a change to business rules or selectors, export the business rules or selectors and import them into your development environment.

If you are unfamiliar with exporting and importing business rules and selectors, see the topics that describe those tasks.

Considerations for replacing a module containing business rules or selectors

When you replace a module that contains business rules or selectors, the server overwrites the copies of the business rules and selectors in the repository. When you replace a module, any changes made dynamically are lost. To prevent that loss, export the business rules and selectors used by the module, re-import them into your development environment, and rebuild the module before replacing the module on your production system.

If you have made changes to the business rules or selectors implemented by one module, other modules running in the server may need the current copies of the business rules or selectors. If this is the case, you will have to configure different repositories so that the updated module has no effect on the other modules when install that module in the server. The topic "Configure the environment" describes configuring the databases.

Considerations for deleting a module containing business rules or selectors

When you delete a module that contains business rules or selectors from the server, the server does not remove the business rules and selectors from the repository. It keeps these artifacts because it cannot determine if another application or module requires the rules.

If you determine that there is no requirement for a business rule or selector, remove it from the repository. "Removing business rule and selector data from the repository" describes how to clear out unneeded business rules or selectors.

Considerations for database configuration

The dynamic artifact repository for business rule and selector artifacts uses the target name space/name/type to form the primary key. DB2 for z/OS version 7 limits the size of the primary key to 255 bytes.

If you configured your system to use DB2 for z/OS version, you must limit the names as follows:

• target name space = 170 bytes
• maximum name = 75 bytes
• maximum type = 10 bytes

DB2 for z/OS version 8 does not share this limitation.

• Remove business rule and selector data from the repository
  When you uninstall an application that uses business rules or selectors, the server does not remove these artifacts from the repository. Delete the unused artifacts from the database manually after you uninstall applications that use them. Remove the artifacts using the tools supplied by the database platform of your repository. The reason this is done is that business rules and selectors contain business logic which may have been updated when the application was installed, and we do not want to delete this important business data when the application is removed.

Administer business rules and selectors

Related concepts:
Overview of business rules
Business process rules manager
Overview of selector components

Related information:
Business Rules