With recently introduced
Google Spreadsheets™, a Rules
Administrator can invite interested parties to share business rules
spreadsheet. This includes collaborative making simultaneous changes
with immediate viewing of the results. Here is a
generic schema how OpenRules-based repository is maintained with Google:
Shared Rules Editing Scenario:
1. A Business
Rules Administrator loads a selected rules spreadsheet from a
Business Rules Repository using a Version Control system (e.g.
Subversion).
2. She uploads the selected rules to
Google and chooses who can access these rules. She enters the email
addresses of the people with whom she wishes to share the document, and
informs them with a message.
3. The people with whom the administrator
shares a given rules spreadsheet can access it as soon as they sign in.
4. Multiple people can enter the
rules spreadsheet all at the same time - their names will appear in an
on-screen chat window. They all can discuss possible changes, make
changes and/or view them instantly, and temporarily save the
changes to the Google server for later discussion and action.
5. When everybody is in agreement,
the administrator can then download the modified (or newly created) rules
spreadsheet into the rules repository using the version control system.
Here is an example of a rules editing session with
Google Spreadsheets:
