Testing facilities

Test decision models with business-owned data.

OpenRules provides the tools to build, test, and debug business decision models. Subject-matter experts can define test cases in familiar Excel tables or JSON, then run them in batch mode or inspect execution in the graphical Rule Debugger.

01 · DecisionTest

Test cases in Excel

Use predefined OpenRules tables of the types DecisionTest and DecisionData to create executable test cases for decision models. The Patient Therapy decision model, included in openrules.samples, contains a DecisionTest table describing three test cases.

Blue Define columns provide test values for input decision variables. Reddish Expect columns provide expected values for output decision variables. If an expected value does not match the actual value produced during execution, OpenRules reports the mismatch.

The “Patient Allergies” column defines a text array of type String[]. Enter each allergy on a new line in Excel with Alt+Enter, or list the values separated by commas.

You are not limited to one DecisionTest table. A project may contain multiple uniquely named DecisionTest tables, and OpenRules executes all of them.

Excel DecisionTest table for the Patient Therapy model with Define and Expect columns — Patient Therapy DecisionTest tableOpen full size ↗

OpenRules test output showing an expected and actual medication mismatch — A reported expected-result mismatchOpen full size ↗

Patient allergies entered on separate lines in one Excel cell — Array values on separate linesOpen full size ↗

Patient allergies entered as comma-separated values in one Excel cell — Comma-separated array valuesOpen full size ↗

02 · DecisionData

Organize complex test data

When test data has a more complex structure, define separate data tables for each business concept. In the Patient Therapy example, one DecisionData table creates the patients array and another creates the visits array for the DoctorVisit concept.

The DecisionTest table can then use compact UseObject columns. Cells refer to array elements using zero-based indexes: patients[0] is the first patient, while visits[2] is the third doctor visit.

Note: the keywords Define, Expect, and UseObject are case-sensitive.

DecisionData table defining an array of patients — The patients DecisionData tableOpen full size ↗

DecisionData table defining an array of doctor visits — The visits DecisionData tableOpen full size ↗

Compact DecisionTest table using patients and visits by index — Test cases that reuse DecisionData objectsOpen full size ↗

03 · References

Connect DecisionData tables

The Order Promotion example defines one DecisionData array for order items and another for orders. The reference >orderItems tells OpenRules that values such as AAA-1112 and BBB-2639 are primary keys that identify rows in the orderItems array.

Order item IDs can begin on separate lines in the same cell. Alternatively, place them in individual sub-rows and merge the associated order cell.

DecisionData table defining order items and their identifiers — Order item test dataOpen full size ↗

Orders table referencing multiple items in the orderItems array — References from orders to order itemsOpen full size ↗

Alternative orders table with item IDs in separate sub-rows — Alternative layout using sub-rowsOpen full size ↗

04 · Test selection

Activate only the cases you need

Use a column of type Active to select the test cases that should run. In this Credit Card Application example, only the first test case is marked with an X, so only that case is executed. If every cell in the Active column is empty, OpenRules executes all test cases.

DecisionTest table with an Active column and only the first case selected — Selecting an active test caseOpen full size ↗

05 · JSON

Use existing JSON test data

When test data already exists in JSON, it can be used directly. The Patient Therapy model includes a data folder with Test1.json, Test2.json, and Test3.json.

A DecisionTest table with a UseJson column refers to each JSON file. The data folder is located beside the project’s rules folder.

JSON test data for a Patient Therapy decision model — A Patient Therapy test case in JSONOpen full size ↗

DecisionTest table using a UseJson column to load JSON test files — Loading JSON files with UseJsonOpen full size ↗

06 · Execution

Build and execute the test suite

After defining test cases, specify the test workbook in the standard project.properties file. The test.file property identifies the file containing the tests.

Double-click test.bat to execute the test cases. When the model is new or has changed, OpenRules first builds it and then runs the generated code against the tests.

Analyze the decision model for errors and consistency.
Generate the Java code used for testing and execution when the model is valid.
Report design errors in red in the execution protocol.
Run the generated code against the selected test cases.

When all tests pass, the execution protocol shows the actions and results. test.bat also creates explanation reports in target/reports, using a readable HTML format that records executed rules and the values of relevant decision variables. Learn more about logging, reporting, and explainability.

Project properties setting that specifies the test file — The test.file setting in project.propertiesOpen full size ↗

Try the examples

Build and test a working decision model.

The free evaluation includes Patient Therapy and other ready-to-run examples with test data you can inspect and adapt.

Free Evaluation Decision Models