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Ask HN: Anyone have experience with Rules Engines like Drools or FICO Blaze?

3 points by goodlab ↗ HN
I am doing some work where we decided to use a rules engine. We are on a java/hibernate/struts stack. Are leaning towards Drools as it has some integration points with AppFuse that we are using. Plus FICO Blaze is way more expensive

7 comments

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brianm
Drools/JBossRules is actually pretty sweet (disclaimer, I worked on it once upon a time and JBoss gave me some kick ass headphones when they bought it from Bob and Mark). They have been taking it more in the direction of a traditional business rules management mabob, and I don't love their little language personally, but it is WAY nicer for programmers than Blaze, plus the devs are always in IRC and helpful, cannot beat that for support.
goodlab
Thanks - So your tipping me over to the drools side. One more question: When you used Drools did you use Governor as well. Any thoughts?
brianm
Guvnor didn't exist when I used drools :-)
dminor
I've used Drools - works well once you figure out the ins and outs of their DSL, and is actively developed. Haven't used FICO Blaze.
goodlab
Thanks! Yeah we had a small learning curve with the DSL as well. We are housing he rules in a csv file for now. When you used Drools did you use Governor as well. We will eventually need to have an interface for the business folks. Any thoughts?
dminor
Haven't used governor - the rules engine is embedded in an ecommerce platform for doing coupons/promotions with its own custom interface for defining the coupons/promos. Then those get translated into drools rules.
eduardo_f
I've had good experiences with Drools too. Never used FICO Blaze.