Building a Decision Table

This topic describes the procedure to build a decision table.

Decision Tables present a simple way to model complex business logic (rules) by offering a simple user interface. This provides a concise, easy-to-read, and logically organized way of representing and querying data. Decision tables, which constitute business cases, associate conditions with actions to be performed.

1. Depending on how you access a document, creating a decision table and accessing the business object can be done in various ways. Refer to Accessing the Decision Table Editor for more information. The Conditions, Actions, and Attributes matrix appears.
   
2. Click to set the properties of the decision table. For more information, refer to Properties of a Decision Table. Alternatively, you can set these properties before publishing the decision table.
   
3. Drag the required attributes from Select Attributes section to the Attributes column of the Conditions section.
   
4. Click the attributes and set the properties, such as name of the attribute and how it should be displayed in the Name and Display As fields, of the Properties pane.
   
5. Click on the toolbar. The Select Actions pane is appears, displaying the Repository Actions.
   
6. Drag the required actions from the Select Actions pane to the Actions section. The Actions section is populated with the selected actions.
   Note: Only external actions, abort transaction, and assignment actions are supported for a decision table.
   
7. Click the selected <action> in the Actions section and set the parameters for the actions in the Properties pane that is displayed on the right side.
   Note: Refer to Rule Actions, for more information on the various actions that can be defined.
   
8. To define a rule, click the rule header and set the properties, such as name of the rule and how it should be displayed in the Name and Display As fields, of the Properties pane that is displayed on the far right of the window.
   
9. Click the condition cell in the Rule column to set the condition and fill the Properties pane with the appropriate details for each rule. For more information on the fields of the properties pane, refer to Setting Properties of Conditions in a Decision Table.
   
10. Click the action cell in the rule column and set the properties of the actions in the Properties pane.

    
    Important: Ensure that you have selected the Enable Action check box to trigger the specified action.

    Refer to Rule Actions, for more information on the various actions that can be defined.
    
11. If required, click Namespaces tab. The prefix and namespace of the elements are displayed in the Prefix and Namespace columns.
    
12. Click .
    Note:
    

• To add another rule to the decision table, click on the toolbar and repeat steps 5 through 11.
  
• To remove empty attributes and rules, click on the toolbar.
  
• To rearrange the conditions or rules, click the rule header and use the , , , and icons on the toolbar. Alternatively, you can right-click the required rule header and select Insert Before and Insert After options as required.
  
• You can also duplicate a rule. Right-click the required rule header and select Duplicate from the context-menu. A copy of the rule is displayed in the adjacent column. Click the rule header and change the name of the rule.
  
• Click to show/hide the Properties pane.

The conditions and actions are set for the template, and the decision table is built. You can view this decision table in the Workspace Documents (Explorer), under the rule group to which it is linked.