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Struts & Hibernate
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| | | Configurable application | Configurable application 2003-10-30 - By Sam Fancourt
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Hi there,
Thanks for the extra details. If you don't mind, I want to go over a few
things to make sure I understand the problem correctly. Am I right in
understanding that these Audits are something a person carries out, and then
puts the results into the system? ie: Your application is used to allow
users to input data for a particular audit and then makes an evaluation, but
it is not designed to carry out automated audits on data that is already in
the system.
If this is so, then, as I understand it, the two criteria you mentioned in
your first email are as follows:
1. Each category (and individual audits) can have a set of rules. These
rules represent evaluation of the data from the audit, eg: "Value of <some
data> must be between 0 and 10" or "Supplier must use machines less then 10
years old" for the audit to pass.
2. The types of data (ie: attributes) that are collected for each audit can
be completely different.
Assuming that these things are correct, I think your application shouldn't
require too much complexity.
The problem of having different attributes for a particular category can be
solved by keeping your data schema flexible (please excuse my tendency to
look at things from the DB point of view)
The categories, audit types, and attribute types to be used for any audit
could be depicted by a schema like this:
-- ---- ---- -- ---- ----- -- ---- ---- ----
| | 1 M | | M M | |
| Categories |-- ---- --| Audit_Types |-- ------| Attribute_Types |
| | | | | |
-- ---- ---- -- ---- ----- -- ---- ---- ----
(although possibly the Audits-Attributes relationship could be 1:M)
Then you would have an Audit object, for any particular Audit+Customer+Date
combination. I don't know if there's a pattern that represents this, but it
may be something like a "DTO using HashMap" mentioned in this post:
http://archives.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0309&L=j2eepatterns-interest&D
=0&P=8300
(I haven't seen anything about this pattern so I'm making an assumption
here).
Of more interest is the rules thing. I'm developing software for a
different area of the manufacturing industry, and have found some eccentric
requirements when it comes to "rules". Most of them can be represented by
combinations of otherwise simple operations. Going on what experience, I
think you have one of two options:
1. Use a rules engine like http://www.mandarax.org/
2. Create a set of classes which represent the basic functional operations
you require. If you use a Factory object to get these classes then they
could easily be added to and updated at any time. You then need a simple
way to represent (and process) the joining of these operations (for criteria
like "less than 45 AND greater than 30"). Perhaps read them from an XML
string? (makes it easy to generate back to the UI). The advantage of
supplying your own operations is that you can easily add things which are
particular to your business (this is something our system needed to do).
I'm sure others may disagree with me on this option :-)
Which option is best for you depends on exactly what sort of rules you have
in your system, and what sort of processing they need to do.
Well, that was a very long email... I don't know if I've hit the mark as far
as your requirements goes, but hopefully it's ok.
Sam :-)
-- --Original Message-- --
From: vidyod kumar [mailto:vidyod@(protected)]
Sent: Friday, 31 October 2003 00:54
To: J2EEPATTERNS-INTEREST@(protected)
Subject: Re: Configurable application
All-
Thanks for your quick reply. Here is the business
case in details
Our's is a manufacturing organization dealing with
automobile parts. We give sub-contract to suppliers
for parts manufacturing. On an annual basis we audit
them.
We have different categories of audit like Auditing
The process followed by the suppliers and actual
building process. Within each category we sets up
different type of audits. Take an example, the typical
auidts can be in the Actual building process category
will be audit for the welding, the different types of
machines they are using.
Every year, new type category can be introduced and
new audit types within that category. Each category
different set of rules . Along with that each audit
within the cateogy may have it's own individual rules.
We are planning to develop a system where in future we
should be able to add new audit types and Audit
cateogries with no code changes or minimal code
changes.
Hope this will give more information .
Thanks again for the input.
--- Sam Fancourt <sfancourt@(protected)> wrote:
> Can you be a little more specific?
>
> In particular:
> Am I correct in assuming that the categories
> represent data (ie: they are
> not simply logical items)?
> What sort of rules are we talking about? It could
> be that you need to use a
> rules engine, or it could just be that the
> configuration settings need to be
> well specified. Or that you need some sort of
> factory object to get logic
> for a particular instance...
>
> Sam :-)
>
>
> PS:
> Some of the discussion from last month might be
> helpful to you:
>
http://archives.java.sun.com/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind0309&L=j2eepatterns-interest#1
> 1
> but that will only be applicable if you want adjust
> the data storage to
> handle diverse attributes - it doesn't go over the
> "rules" issue.
>
>
> -- --Original Message-- --
> From: vidyod kumar [mailto:vidyod@(protected)]
> Sent: Thursday, 30 October 2003 13:42
> To: J2EEPATTERNS-INTEREST@(protected)
> Subject: Configurable application
>
>
> Hi All-
> I am developing an application with following
> features
>
> There are certain functionalities need to be
> performed
> for each category identified. Within the
> functionality, it has following differences
>
> 1) Each category has different set of rules
>
> 2)The attributes that should be displayed for each
> category are different
>
> Pl. let me know what is the best way to do this
>
> -
>
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