Chapter 2. Business Central

Business Central is the web based user interface used for both Red Hat JBoss BRMS 6 and Red Hat JBoss BPM Suite 6.
It is the user interface for the business rules manager and has been combined with the core drools engine and other tools. It allows a business user to manage rules in a multi user environment and implement changes in a controlled fashion.
The Business Central is used when:
  • Users need to manage versions/deployment of rules.
  • Multiple users of different skill levels need to access and edit rules.
  • You need an infrastructure to manage rules.
Business Central is managed by the Business Analysts, Rule experts, Developers and Administrators (rule administrators).
The main features of the Business Central are:
  • Multiple types of rule editors (GUI, text) including:-
    • Guided Rule Editor
    • Rule Templates
    • Decision Tables
  • Store multiple rule "assets" together as a package
  • Domain Specific Language support
  • Complex Event Processing support
  • Version control (historical assets)
  • Testing of rules
  • Validation and verification of rules
  • Categorization
  • Build and deploy including:-
    • Assembly of assets into a binary package for use with a ChangeSet or KnowledgeBuilder.
  • REST API to manipulate assets.

2.1. Perspectives

Business Central provides the following groups of perspectives accessible from the main menu:
  • Authoring group:
    • Project Authoring perspective contains the Project Explorer view (by default on the left) with the overview of available repository structure, and information on available resources, such as, business process definitions, form definitions, etc.; the editor area on the right, where the respective editor appears when a resource is opened; and the Messages view with validation messages.
    • Artifact Repository perspective contains a list of jars which can be added as dependencies. The available operations in this perspective are upload/download artifact and open (view) the pom.xml file.
    • Administration perspective (available only for users with the ADMIN role) contains the File Explorer view (by default on the left) with available asset repositories; the editor area on the right, where the respective editor appears when a resource is opened. The perspective allows an administrator to connect Knowledge Store to a repository with assets and to create a new repository (refer to Administration and Configuration Guide).
  • Deploy group:
    • Deployments perspective contains a list of the deployed resources and allows you to build and deploy an undeploy new units.
  • Process Management group:
    • Process Definitions perspective contains a list of the deployed Process definitions. It allows you to instantiate and manage the deployed Processes.
    • Process Instances perspective contains a list of the instantiated Processes. It allows you to view their execution worklow and its history.
  • Tasks group:
    • Task List perspective contains a list of Tasks produced by Human Task of the Process instances or produced manually. Only Tasks assigned to the logged-in user are visible. It allows you to claim Tasks assigned to a group you are a member of.
  • Dashboards group (the BAM component):
    • Process & Task Dashboard perspective contains a prepared dashboard with statistics on runtime data of the Execution Server
    • Business Dashboards perspective contains the full BAM component, the Dashbuilder, including administration features available for users with the ADMIN role.