OpenRules Installation Instructions

The OpenRules^TM Tutorials Home TOC

Installation Guide

Download and Installation

        Installation of Standalone OpenRules
          Installation of Eclipse-based OpenRules
                    Step 1. Downloading OpenRules Plugin
                    Step 2. Installing OpenRules Configuration Projects
                    Step 3. Installing OpenRules Sample Projects
                    Step 4. Creating New OpenRules Projects

We assume that you have already installed Java 2 Standard Edition: J2SE SDK 1.4, 1.5 or higher and the environment variable JAVA_HOME is properly set (for example, for Windows it is typically set as JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_xx). You also should have Apache Ant 1.6 or higher installed and the ANT_HOME variable set.

Installation of Standalone OpenRules

You may download a standalone version of OpenRules from http://www.openrules.com/download.htm. It contains one zip file "openrules.decisions.zip" that should be unzipped into your working directory, for example into c:\openrules. A subdirectory openrules.decisions will be created. It includes a subdirectory for every configuration or sample project included into the current OpenRules installation.

Note. You cannot have spaces in the path where OpenRules is installed under Windows. So, instead of the installation path such as "c:\Program Files\openrules" you will want to use something like "c:\openrules".

You are ready to start working with OpenRules' sample projects using just the Windows Explorer ("file manager"). If you are not familiar with Eclipse and if you do not want to install it at this point, just start with this straight-forward version of OpenRules. To begin, open any subdirectory like "DecisionHello" and double-click to run.bat to execute the rules. Look at the Excel file "DecisionHello.xls" to see how the rules are organized. Continue with the Getting Started document.

Feel free to contact OpenRules support at support@openrules.com with any questions or issues you may have.

Installation of Eclipse-based OpenRules

OpenRules includes a powerful Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that enables software developers to support and integrate complex rule projects. OpenRules Graphical IDE is implemented as a Plug-In for the de-facto standard Eclipse IDE . If you have not yet installed the free Eclipse, before proceeding install it from here.

Step 1. Downloading OpenRules Plugin

Start your Eclipse IDE and turn off the mode "Build Automatically" in you Project menu.

Choose Help + Install New Software + Find and Install.

In the Install window, type http://openrules.com/downloads/protected/eclipse in the for filed "Work with:"

You will be asked ID and Password your are supposed to already receive from OpenRules Inc. If you unable to access this URL, you should probably check your Eclipse HTTP Proxy settings using Windows+Preferences+Install/Update.
If you do not see any OpenRules version, uncheck "Group items by category"

Expand OpenRules site and choose the latest release OpenRules x.x.x. In the "Search Results" window, select "OpenRules x.x.x", and click "Next".

In the "Feature License" window, accept the GPL license agreement and click "Next"

In the "Install Location" window, click "Finish" and then in the "Feature Verification" window click "Install". Wait for Eclipse to download all OpenRules plugins and features. When the download is complete, answer "Yes" to the suggestion to restart your Eclipse workbench.

OpenRules plug-in installation adds the following files to your Eclipse directories:

features/com.openrules_x.x.x.jar

plugins/com.openrules.core_x.x.x.jar

plugins/com.openrules.wizard_x.x.x.jar

Upgrade. If you have already installed a previous release of OpenRules, here is the simplest way to upgrade:

Close Eclipse.

Using a file manager delete all subdirectories that start with the words "com.openrules" from your Eclipse directories "features" and "plugins"

Inside your Eclipse workspace delete the old OpenRules configuration project "openrules.config" (just in case you may first copy it to a safe place)

Start Eclipse and follow the download instructions described in Step 1 and Step 2.

Please note that Sample OpenRules projects in the latest release may be different from ones in the evaluation version and should be also updated.

Step 2. Installing OpenRules Configuration Projects ►top

Now you have to add different OpenRules configuration project(s) to your Eclipse workspace. Initially you will need only one configuration project "openrules.config" described here. Here are the installation steps:

Select the Eclipse menu File + New + Project

Select an OpenRules + Configuration Projects + Main Configuration Project -openrules.config.

Click "Next" and then "Finish". Do not change the project name "openrules.config".

You do not need to add other configuration projects until you want to make changes in the standard OpenRules Tools library "com.openrules.tools" or start working with a Web-based application that uses Forms library "openrules.forms.lib".

Step 3. Installing OpenRules Sample Projects ►top

Now you may want to import different OpenRules sample projects from stand-alone installations to your Eclipse workspace. For example, to import the sample project "DecisionPatientTherapy" from your directory c:/openrules.decisions follow these steps:

Select the Eclipse menu File + Import+Existing Projects into Workspace

Select root directory: c:/openrules.decisions and the project "DecisionPatientTherapy"

Click "Finish"

Step 4. Creating New OpenRules Projects ►top

To add a new project, you can copy one of the provided sample projects or you can use project templates. From the Eclipse menu File + New + Project you can choose a project type from 3 options:

Basic Decision Project

Basic Rule Project - rules only

Web Application Project - rules and forms deployed as a web application

Read the Getting Started section to learn how to work with the provided sample projects.

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