Visual Rules Distribution Platform
Visual Rules Distribution Platform provides a service-oriented, robust infrastructure. It enables communication between backend systems and business services, e.g. for distributing business rules.
It is designed for secure data exchange at high frequency and for large service and user volumes. The platform offers expansive functionalities for both client-server operation and mass data processing.
Distribution Platform applies the principles of separation of concerns, contract first, and inversion of control. Along with multi-container and multi-protocol capabilities, Visual Rules Distribution Platform encompasses central aspects such as security, tracing, monitoring, exception handling, failover, and delegation.
Contents Distribution Platform
Separation of Concerns
Visual Rules Distribution Platform complies with the "separation of concerns" principle, meaning that business functions are considered separately from infrastructure requirements.
Business facades strictly separate service users from service providers. That means implementations can be distributed with full location transparency. Single resources are accessed consistently throughout the entire network - regardless of where they are located.
At the same time – and this is truly unique – the end-to-end view of the entire business process is given at the application level.
Contract First
With Distribution Platform, services are implemented according to the "contract first" principle. At first, a formal interface specification or contract is defined including type descriptions which have to be platform independent. The next step is to generate skeleton code based on the contract which is completed with business logic implemented as Visual Rules rule artifacts. These are your benefits:
- Independence of interface contract and implementation language
- Compatibility (forward and backward) of interfaces ensured
- No unintended changes of the interface as it is defined instead of generated in contrary to code first approach
100% Java build, using industry standards like web services, REST, HTTP, FTP
Open, modular, and light-weight architecture featuring small footprint 
and integrated Spring framework that can be extended with custom implementations
Flexible integration in any running environment (Java EE, OSGi, Java VM)
Core principle: loose coupling using inversion of control and 
dependency injection
Transport of metadata for end-to-end monitoring
Technical ping for accessibility testing and tracing of data packages
Retry and failover strategies in the event of transmission interruptions and errors
Security
Secure data transmission, using transport layer security (TLS) and secure sockets layers (SSL)
Certified authentication (X.509)
Payload encryption
Dynamic service discovery
Service call delegation and cascading
Support for bulk data and batch processing
Standardized exception handling on the originator's side (fault barriers)
Supports event management with escalation and routing
Data transformation and multiple version capability
Sensitive to environment and context
Quick Facts
- End-to-end view at application level - across systems
- Decouples domain logic from communication technology
- Virtualizes the development environment
- Implementation independent of users-to-be, purpose, and place
- Based on industry standards
- Open for extensions and simple to use
- Supports mass data processing
- Supports the most common communication patterns
- Supports Service Discovery
