Endpoints

End Points are connections to external services within the enterprise environment in which InRule is installed. The InRule end point model is structured to provide a common architecture for communicating with services such as database, email, message queue, enterprise application integration (EAI), and web services, and to synchronize with external schema definitions.

InRule supports the following End Point types:

• .NET Assembly Function Library
• Database Connection
• Send Mail Server
• Web Service
• REST Service
• Workflow End Point
• XML Document Path

Creating an EndPoint

An EndPoint can be created using the following procedure:

1. Click on End Points in the left-hand navigation Pane.
2. Click the Add button and select the type of End Point.

The navigation pane and edit pane will update to reflect the added End Point.

.NET Assembly Function Library

A .NET Assembly endpoint is used to specify an assembly external to InRule, whose static methods may subsequently be used from within rule expressions, or using the Execute Method action.

(If the static functions contain custom types, prior to the above steps, you need to load that assembly to the schema.)

The following is a description of the .NET Assembly Function Library Edit form:

Name

Name of the endpoint. Derived from Assembly name on first assembly load.

Assembly

Specifies the assembly. At runtime, this assembly is searched for in the "EndPointAssemblies/" subdirectory (unless otherwise configured) of the host application's binaries directory. (The host application is either irAuthor / irVerify or a custom application using irSDK).

The "…" selection prompts for an Assembly to load from the above directory by default. It's best to copy your assemblies to this directory in order to use irVerify, which looks for them there.

Settings

Allows you to enable/disable the following options:

• "Show All Classes" specifies whether to show all classes or only selected ones. Note that a "Reload" is required to update the list of unselected classes when this screen is re-entered (indicated when "From working set" is displayed).
• "Show All Methods" specifies whether to show all methods or only the usable ones.

Reload

Reloads the assembly information from the directory location described above. Use this to resynchronize the rule app with updated assembly information.

Classes

Each public class in the specified assembly having one or more usable public static methods is shown.

The "Alias" column defines the prefix to use when referring to a static "Function Library" method. Note this "Alias" name may be changed by clicking on it.

The "Function Lib" column, enabled only for classes having one or more usable public static methods, specifies whether these static methods will be enabled for use within the rule app.

Methods

Each public "static" method in the selected class is shown.

"Usable" indicates whether the method is usable by the rule app (only methods having return types and parameters readily converted to rule app intrinsic types are usable).

"Static" indicates whether this is a "static" or "instance" method.

"Run in Isolated AppDomain" - Causes the assembly to be loaded in an appdomain separate from the rule engine.

Edit Template

In certain situations, references to imported functions may be better represented with a different name or set of parameters.

To change the template text for an imported function, follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to the .NET assembly function library.
2. Click on the Edit Template button.
   The default signature text for the method will be displayed.
   
   
   
3. Make adjustments and click OK.
   
   
   
4. The end result following a modification when using the function reference in a language rule is as follows:
   

The text template for each imported .NET assembly function can be changed to make the function reference more friendly.

As with imported instance methods, the state refresh options for a static method library can be adjusted for performance considerations.

Database Connection

A Database Connection endpoint is used to create a globally named connection to a database server that can subsequently be used across any number of Database Tables, SQL Query definitions and Execute SQL Query Actions.

The following is a description of the Database Connection Edit form:

Name

Specifies the logical name of the Database Connection that Database Table, SQL Query definitions and Execute SQL Query Actions will refer to within the rule application

Provider

Specifies the provider chosen for the database connection. It can be OLEDB, SqlServer, Oracle, etc. More details for selecting a provider are described below.

Connection String

Specifies the parameters the rule engine should use when connecting to this database such as the type of database server, the computer name or IP address, the database name, the user id, etc. This must be an "OLEDB" format connection string at authoring time. Note that this connection string may be overridden via the SDK at runtime, with any connection string type (OLEDB, Sql Server, Oracle etc.) or an open transaction or connection object.

The ellipses button launches the data-provided form shown below, which assists with constructing a valid connection string.

You can choose the desired provider and click Configure.... The configure button opens a pop-up that allows you to enter the settings required to build a valid connection string.

If OLE DB is selected as the provider, clicking on the Configure button brings up the "Data Link Properties" screen, as shown below. The Provider tab on the screen gives a detailed list of all the providers you can choose from.

Selecting Other from the Data Provider List and clicking on the Configure... button brings up the custom provider form. Below is an example of configuring an ODBC connection using the Custom Provider form.

Send Mail Server

A Send Mail Server endpoint is used to create a globally named connection to a SMTP send mail server that can subsequently be used across any number of Send Mail Actions.

The following is a description of the Send Mail Server endpoint form:

Name

Specifies the logical name of the Send Mail Server that Send Mail Actions will refer to within the rule application.

SMTP Server Address

Specifies TCP/IP address (hostname or numeric IP) of the SMTP Send Mail Server.

Web Service

A Web Service endpoint is used to specify a web service which may be called from one or more Execute Web Service actions.

The following is a description of the Web Service endpoint form:

Name

Specifies the logical name of the Web Service endpoint that Execute Web Service Actions will refer to within the rule application.

WSDL URI

Specifies the URI of the WSDL defining the web service. Click Reload after entering a URI for the first time, or to refresh the list of operations available from an updated WSDL.

This WSDL URI and/or the service URI may be overridden via the SDK at runtime.

TimeOut

Specifies the duration( in milliseconds) to try connecting to the WSDL URI before timeout.

Retry

Specifies the number of retries. It the connection is not established even after the specified timeout and retries an error is thrown indicating the WSDL URI is not reachable.

X.509 certificate

Allows you to provide the full file-system path for X509 Certificate for the purpose of web service authentication.

Web Service

Specifies the actual service name.

Web Port

Specifies the port available on the specified service containing available web methods

Operations

Lists the web methods available from this web service, as populated by specifying a valid combination of WSDL URI, Web Service, and Web Port. An X509 Certificate may be specified by full file-system path, for use to authenticate a web method call at runtime.

Generate Schema

Provides a means to import schema elements that correspond to headers, parameters, and return values applicable to the web methods selected.

REST Service

A REST Service endpoint specifies the location of a REST resource that may be called from an Execute REST Service action.

The following is a description of the Web Service endpoint form:

Name

Specify the logical name of the REST Service endpoint to which Execute REST resource will refer within the rule application.

Root URL

The base URL used to make the REST call

Authentication Type

Authentication type is the protocol used to authenticate a user.

Available Authentication Types currently supported:

• None - No authentication is required by the service.
• Basic - The service uses HTTP Basic Authentication
• NTLM - The service is using pre-Windows Server 2003 Windows Authentication or is not domain joined.
• Windows (Kerberos) - The service is using post-Windows Server 2003 Windows Authentication.
• Custom - Use this option when you want to manually provide authentication headers via the REST Operation.

Username

The username used to authenticate against the REST Service. Required when Authentication Type is Basic or NTLM.

Password

The password used to authenticate against the REST Service. Required when Authentication Type is Basic or NTLM.

Domain

The Domain used by the user is required when the Authentication Type is Basic, NTLM, or Windows (Kerberos).

X.509 Certificate

Allows you to provide the full file-system path for X.509 Certificate for the purpose of REST service authentication.

X.509 Password

Needed when the X.509 Certificate contains a private key.

Allow Untrusted Certificates

Check this box to allow InRule to use HTTPS with self-signed or unverified certificates. This setting is not recommended for production environments.

Workflow

Often, enterprises may have significant investments in proprietary applications that contain workflows. In many situations, users may wish to call InRule from a Workflow Foundation workflow for complex decision management of workflow process instance data. Users may also need to have InRule execute one or more workflows as a result of rule execution in other situations. For more technical information, please refer to the Developer Help file.

A workflow endpoint can be configured in a rule application to give InRule the ability to call the Execute Workflow action. Entity state from the rule application calling the action can be passed to the workflow from the rule engine.

Although the Def classes for the runtime rule application will be available via workflows, Property Setters, along with any methods that modify the runtime object, will not be permitted.

The following is a description of the Workflow endpoint form:

Name

The name of the workflow endpoint to be referred to from other elements of the rule application.

Assembly

When you select a workflow from an assembly, the name(s) of the available workflows in the assembly will be displayed in the Workflow Type drop-down list.

XOML file

Select the workflow from an XOML file.

Inline XOML

Build the workflow XOML inside the endpoint.

Custom Workflow Configuration

Allows you to define getting and setting properties or services configuration required for successful execution of the workflow.

Bind Context Object

Allows the binding of the InRule execution context to a named property on the root workflow instance.

XML Document Path

An XML Document is a link to an external XML Document on your file system. Rules can use functions in conjunction with XML Documents in their associated expressions to access data in XML Documents.

The XML Document Path is used by Linked XML Documents and XPath Queries to allow rules to inspect XML documents for relevant data for rules. See the section, Linked XML Document for more information.

The following is a description of the XML Document Path pane:

Name

Specifies the logical name to use when referring to this document within a rule expression.

XML Path/URI

Specifies the location of the XML Document on the file system.

Show XML

Displays the document's XML in a browser.