irWord is an add-in for Microsoft Word. irWord allows a rule author to formalize decision logic contained in Word documents that can be executed in InRule. irWord provides the ability to embed InRule calculations, business language rules and decision tables (hereafter collectively referred to as "rules") and incorporate them into your documentation.
Rules are stored within a content control that separates the rule from the adjacent text.
To highlight a specific rule in the Word document
Click or move your cursor over the different rule constructs.
Sample rules inside of irWord are displayed below:
Example One: Business Language Rule
Example Two: Decision Table
InRule Ribbon
The InRule Ribbon provides the buttons that are needed to complete a task. Each button is organized in a logical group and relates to a specific activity, such as associating a rule application or inserting a calculation.
Buttons are disabled when not in use. For example, the Associate button is disabled when a rule application becomes associated with a Word document.
The ribbon is organized into five groups, each with specific buttons used in irWord.
- Rule Application Group in irWord
- View Group in irWord
- Insert Group in irWord
- Rule Text Group in irWord
- Miscellaneous Group in irWord
Rule Application Group
The options in the Rule Application menu allow you to associate, remove associations, and save your rules to either irCatalog or the local file system.
Associate
Click the Associate button to associate a rule application from irCatalog or your file system.
What is a Rule Application Association?
A Rule Application Association is an invisible link made between a Microsoft Word document and an InRule Rule Application. When a Rule Application Association is made, the location of the rule application is stored in the Word document. At that point, rules may be added, edited, and removed from the rule application via the Rules and Schema task panes.
Once a Word document is associated with a Rule Application, its rules may be inserted into a Word document. These inserted rules are referred to as Rule Text. Users that do not have irWord installed may view documents containing rules because Rule Text is simply read-only text.
- Open from Catalog is an association with a rule application that is stored in irCatalog, there will NOT be any changes to the rule application/word document.
- Check Out from Catalog an association with a rule application that is stored in irCatalog, there WILL be changes to the rule application/word document.
- File System is an association with a rule application that is stored on the local file system.
Open from Catalog/Check Out from Catalog:
To associate a rule application from irCatalog the following information is needed:
- URI – the location where irCatalog is installed
- Authentication - Option of irCatalog or Windows Authentication
- Username
- Password
After the login screen, you may access your rule applications that are stored in irCatalog.
To close a cached catalog connection, click here
File System
To associate a rule application from your file system, navigate to the local folder location and select the rule application that you want to associate to irWord.
Remove Association
Click the Remove Association button to remove the rule application from irWord. The Remove Association feature removes the information about the location of the associated rule application from the document.
- Click Remove rule text from the document to remove the rule application association from irWord and remove all of the rules that have been inserted into the document.
- Click Keep rule text in the document to remove the rule application association from irWord, but keep all of the rules that have been inserted into the document.
Catalog
The Catalog button will provide all of the same functionality and access to rule applications stored in available irCatalog installations. Catalog operations are as follows:
If you do not have the rule application checked out, but someone else has the rule application checked out, you will see this warning:
If you add, edit or delete rules from irWord and exit the document WITHOUT saving, you will see the following message:
File
The File button on the irWord Ribbon provides access to opening/saving rule applications with the file system.
Open in irAuthor
The associated rule application will open inside of irAuthor for editing.
Test in irVerify
Launch irVerify to test rules, calculations, and decision tables from irWord.
View Group
Use the buttons in the View group to show/hide the Schema Task pane and Rules Task pane.
Schema
The Schema Task pane displays the schema of your rule application that is associated with your Word document; view the Schema Task Pane for more details.
Rules
The Rules Task pane displays the rules of your rule application that is associated with your Word document; view the Rules Task Pane for more details.
Vocabulary
The Vocabulary button toggles the display of the Vocabulary pop-up window.
Insert Group
The buttons in the Insert group are used to insert calculations and rules that are associated with your rule application. You can also insert new business language rules and decision tables into your Word document.
Multiple
Select and insert multiple rules, rule sets, and/or calculations.
Calculation
Select a calculation from the Schema task pane and the calculation will be inserted at the cursor position in the document.
Rule
Select a rule from the Rules task pane and the rule will be inserted at the cursor position in the document.
New Business Language Rule
A new Business Language Rule will be inserted into the selected rule set and at the cursor position in the document.
New Decision Table
A new Decision Table will be inserted into the selected rule set and at the cursor position in the document.
Remove Elements
The Remove button is located in the Rule Text group and can be used to remove selected rule elements from the Word document.
If a rule element is not selected, the Remove button will be disabled.
Miscellaneous Group
The options in the Miscellaneous group allow you to open irAuthor, change different options, and refresh these changes so they reflect throughout irWord.
Options
There are a number of options that you can control and change that apply to irWord. The Options button opens the following window:
To format the Style fonts, see Formatting Font in irWord.
Log Out
The existing catalog connection will be terminated.
Association Information
View the type and location of the rule application that's associated with this document.
Refresh
The Refresh button will update all changes to Options and update all of the rules in the document to reflect the current state of the rule application.
Task Panes
Task Panes
The two task panes inside of irWord allow the user to view properties of fields and calculations and view and edit rules.
Schema task pane
The Schema task pane displays the entity structure that defines the schema for the associated rule application. You can view the properties of each field, as well as viewing and editing the calculations. To display the Schema Task pane, toggle the Schema button under the View group. The Schema Task pane has three sections:
- Entity Structure
- Properties
- Property description
Rules Task Pane
The Rules task pane displays and stores the rule sets that have been authored in the associated rule application. You can view the properties of each field, as well as viewing and editing the calculations. To display the Rules task pane, toggle the Rules button under the View group. The Rules task pane has two sections:
- Rule Sets
- Rules
Formatting Font
Font formats for rule parts in irWord are designated by the styles defined in the Options dialog for irWord.
To Modify Rule Part Styles:
- Place the cursor on a section in the Word document that is not populated by an irWord rule part (select a blank line or normal paragraph).
- On the Home tab, click the arrow to expand the area underneath the Change Styles button.
InRule rule parts are all represented by one of three existing styles in the Styles pane:
- InRule Comments
- InRule Name
- and InRule business language (which also controls the font style for decision tables and syntax calculations as well).
- Select the drop-down next to a style and choose Modify.
- The Modify Style dialog allows the user to control all of the font formatting for irWord rule parts.
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