Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

sureshg57 — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 18:05:05 GMT

Still, i think it is not a good way of coding in SAIL. if you use a variable in Expression rule with out defining rule input still it wont show an error (Invalid variable(s) found) but it make the code read very hard and also can not test stand alone prone to a lot of errors, hard to debug as well as if a new developer join you team, they may have very difficult time understanding what is happening in the code it self.

Also if you take user interfaces if you do not define rule input it will complain about the invalid variables.

Not defining rule input seem to me like lazy way of getting around what we need to do and will produce not so developer friendly readable code.

Regards
Suresh G

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

Abhay Giri — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 12:23:33 GMT

Hi trishar,

"A lot of child interfaces don't have variables(ri!) declared." where you saw this ? if this is the case then may it is requirement there.

we can not make anything best practice based on one rule or design. declaring rule input in child interface totally depend on the requirements.

If that child interface can be reused in any where in the entire application it is always good to declare the rule inputs so it can be reused by anyone without bothering the logic inside the interface.

if any child interface is created only for a specific requirement and it will never reused then you can avoid creating rule input.

regards
Abhay

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

viveku3486 — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 08:38:14 GMT

You should have to declare ri! variables in child interface its a good practice Some of the advantages of it are as below

1) If any operations need to be done on the variables before getting its final value, Then in that case u should just need to do this in the parent interface and simply pass the modified values in child interface. This makes code more feasible because next time when u are checking the logic, You don't need to dig inside each n every rules u created

2) If you are testing the interface and want to check what value your variables are storing, In that case your ri! variable helps you a a lot. Otherwise you have to create additional text box for storing and checking the local!variables value

3) In future if you need to enhance your code in such a way that some data needs to be taken from process model, Then you don't need to add any additional ri!variables under your interface(As it will already be available)

4)ri!variables also help to figure out the lifetime of a variable i.e upto how many interfaces/rule that variable exists

5) No chances of name Mismatch, That would be possible in case of local variable, etc

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

smriti p0001 — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 05:06:14 GMT

yes its bad design, it becomes very difficult to maintain when you many levels of child interfaces.

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

Rama Thummala — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 15:29:06 GMT

tirshar121 , Please refer docs.appian.com/.../SAIL_Performance.html for more details.

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

sergeiz — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:41:29 GMT

OMG! I tried and it works. The called interface took value from the calling interface. This is just ugly. In Java or other programming variable visibility is controlled by specific tools, but it is always clear on the level of the element being called what variable it is accessing. Here it will be just accessing nearest context available variable by name.

In this case I don't see any design issues if someone decided to not used any parameters when splitting an interface. But I assume such decision can be made in absolute certainty that the child will always be a child of this parent and no need in separate testing. Otherwise usual way is to parametrise a rule either it is interface or expression.

Usually it cannot cause any performance issues as the data for an interface is limited.

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

Mike Schmitt — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:19:51 GMT

A child interface is a separate interface/rule called by a parent, which relies on the inherited variables (both local and ri!) from the parent. It will work since the interpreting engine simply assumes the local! and ri! variables called in the child are referring to those defined in the parent, but as others have noted here it's sloppy and not easy to test or maintain.

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

sergeiz — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:13:56 GMT

Hello!

I'm not sure I understood a single part of question. What is a child interface? Usually, interface display some data and collect some input from the user. What will be displayed on interface without incoming parameters? Where to input will be saved?

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

sureshg57 — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 08:30:18 GMT

Yes it is a best practice to declare the rule inputs. There are many reasons to that.
It will make easier to maintain
Defining rule input allows you to test the user interface.
Interface can be reused in many places and it will be easy for someone other than the developer who developed the interface to use it.
If we do not define rule inputs the context of the interface limits to the parent interface most of the time as this will have a tight coupling due to the way we set and use variables in child and parent interfaces.

So define your rule inputs that is a best practice.

Regards
Suresh

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

vamshib — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 07:51:20 GMT

It is suggested to declare the rule inputs in any of the interface/expression rule.. which can help to test it in the stage of development and easily maintainable.

RE: Declaring Rule Inputs in child interface

Stefan Helzle — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 07:09:36 GMT

It simply is bad design to not declare inputs. It makes maintenance a hell. So yes, it is a best practice to do so.