Terminologies used in OPA

Rule: A rule is an assertion that a conclusion can be drawn from a particular state of affairs.

Eg: If you leave the ice cream in the sun, then the ice cream will melt.

Each rule must have a conclusion (the state of affairs that can be determined) and usually has at least one condition (the conditions upon which that determination may be made). A conclusion is the "Then" part of an "If... Then..." statement. A condition is the "If" part of an "If... Then..." statement.

Eg:

Conclusion: the ice cream will melt

Condition: If you leave the ice cream in the sun

Attribute: An attribute is a single unit of data or fact.

          Eg:    the ice cream will melt

you leave the ice cream in the sun

Connecting conditions: When a rule contains multiple conditions they can be connected using and And or and Or operator. 

            Eg: A or B and C

Grouping Conditions: Conditions can also be grouped with grouping attributes like All or Any

Eg: A is true if

          B or

          All

          C and D

Which means: A is true if B or (C and D)

How Oracle Policy Modelling works

Oracle Policy Modeling is an integrated development environment for developing rules and rule-based applications. It is used to build rulebases and screens for use by the Oracle Policy.

How does OPM works?

Using OPM, create a new project. In a project you can create a new Rule, Screen Definitions, Properties files, screen flow (will get into detail on how to define each of the following). Once all these are defined compile the Rulebase. Finally Oracle Policy Automation will run these rules either by using Web determination or Determination Server. 

Oracle Web-Determination can be defined as a UI Interface developed to run the rulebased defined using OPM.

Oracle Determination-server can be defined as a web service which provides the ability for remote client applications to send assessment data, perform inferencing based on the chosen rulebase and that data, and return the outcomes back to the requesting client. In Short this can be used when we are intending to integrate OPA with different Application.

NOTE: All the above given information is as per my understanding. if you have any suggestions or correction please post comment.

Oracle Policy Automation Installation Guide Consolidated(10.4.4)

This consolidated installation guide shows how to setup Oracle Web Determinations  and Oracle Determinations Server  for .NET in IIS 7.x in Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit . Same methods can be followed for the Windows 7 platform.

As a pre-requisite, keep the IIS 7.x enabled.

To Install IIS 7.5 on Windows Server® 2008 R2

You can perform this procedure using the user interface (UI) or a script..

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools and then click Server Manager.
2. In Roles Summary, click Add Roles.
3. Use the Add Roles Wizard to add the Web server role.

Note:- If you use the Add Roles Wizard to install IIS, you get the default installation, which has a minimum set of role services. If you need additional IIS role services, such as Application Development or Health and Diagnostics, make sure to select the check boxes associated with those features in the Select Role Services page of the wizard

Deploy Oracle Web Determinations

Oracle Determinations Server can be deployed on various platforms such as for Java on Tomcat , Java on Jboss , Java on Oracle WebLogic Server , Java on IBM WebSphere , Java on Sun Web Server 7.0 , and for .NET on IIS etc.

The following topics describe the methods for deploying this in IIS 7.x.

Deploy Oracle Web Determinations for .NET on IIS 7.x

Step 1 - Download the Oracle Policy Automation Runtime Dotnet <version> file :

You can get the complete installer - Oracle Policy Automation for .NET v10.4.4.21.0 -  here :

Oracle Policy Automation (10.4.4) Media Pack

Unzip the installers, and you will get the folder structure similar to:

Step 2 - Copy the .NET Template to the Required Location

Copy the web-determinations folder to the location from where you want to run Web Determinations – for e.g. in the C:\ drive

Step 3 - Create a New Application in IIS

To create a new application in IIS, do the following:

1. Select the Web Site from which you want to run the Oracle Web Determinations for .NET, right click to present the context menu and select the Add Application… option:

2. On the presented Add Application dialog, enter an Alias of "web-determinations" and the path for the .NET Web Determinations directory (in this example, c:\web-determinations).

3. Click OK and the new application is added.

Step 4 - Test Web Determinations

To test that the Oracle Web Determinations is successfully installed do the following:

Start up a web browser and type in the URL for the Web Determinations Server WSDL; in this example the Oracle Web Determinations is running locally, so the URL is:

http://localhost/web-determinations/.

For official documentation on the above topic, go to Section : Deploy Oracle Web Determinations for .NET on IIS 7.x in the Oracle Policy Automation Installation Guide Release 10.4.4

Deploy Oracle Determinations Server

Oracle Determinations Server can be deployed on various platforms such as on a Java Application Server, Java on Tomcat, .NET on IIS etc.

The following topics describe the methods for deploying this in IIS 7.x.

Deploy Oracle Determinations Server for .NET on IIS 7.x

Step 1 - Download the Oracle Policy Automation Runtime Dotnet <version> file :

You can get the complete installer - Oracle Policy Automation for .NET v10.4.4.21.0 -  here :

Oracle Policy Automation (10.4.4) Media Pack

Unzip the installers, and you will get the folder structure similar to:

Step 2 - Copy the .NET Template to the Required Location

Copy the determinations-server folder to the location from where you want to run Web Determinations – for e.g. in the C:\ drive

Step 3 - Create a New Application in IIS

To create a new application in IIS, do the following:

1. Select the Web Site from which you want to run the Oracle Determinations Server for .NET, right click to present the context menu and select the Add Application… option:

2. On the presented Add Application dialog, enter an Alias of "determinations-server" and the path for the NET Determinations Server directory (in this example, c:\determinations-server).

3. Click OK and the new application is added.

Step 4 - Secure the Rulebases Directory

Once you have created the determinations-server directory in IIS, you will want to make sure that any rulebases you deploy cannot be downloaded from the Oracle Determinations Server via an HTTP call.

To do this:

1. Find and highlight the ‘rulebases’ directory in the left hand side navigation pane and then locate the Authentication icon in the IIS section of the right hand pane and double click on it.

2. Ensure that everything has a status of Disabled; this is done by right clicking on the Status and

selecting Disabled from the presented context menu.

Step 5 - Test the Oracle Determinations Server

To test that the Oracle Determinations Server is successfully installed do the following:

1. Start up a web browser and type in the URL for the Oracle Determinations Server WSDL; in this example the Oracle Determinations Server is running locally, so the URL is:

http://localhost/determinations-server/server/soap.asmx?wsdl

2. Confirm that the Server WSDL is returned:

  
These installation details are consolidated by one of my colleague. Next is to install Oracle Policy Modelling. Follow the wizard and the installation is complete. 

Oracle Policy Modeling is an integrated development environment for developing rules and rule-based applications. It is also used to compile rulebases and screens for use by the Oracle Determinations Engine and Web Determinations. Further details follow in next post...