8. Getting Started with Decision Model and Notation

This lab introduces you to the deployment of an existing Decision Model and Notation (DMN) and validation of it's decisions.

• Explore an existing DMN file created using Business Central
• Deploy the existing DMN project to Decision Server
• Test the deployed DMN

8.1 Examine Existing DMN Diagram

The following example describes an insurance price calculator based on an applicant’s age and accident history. This is a simple decision process based on the following decision table:

DMN Decision Table

• The decision table was designed without using Business Central tools, but could be imported seemlesly due to the conformity with DMN specification.

• The DMN decision table includes a hit policy, inputs, and outputs.

• Unlike the drl based decision tables that can be created in Business Central, input and output names in DMN decision tables accept spaces.

• The conditions for the Age input is defined using the Friendly Enough Expression Language (FEEL).

The decision can also be represented by the following decision requirements diagram:

• In this decision requirements diagram, note that the applicant’s age and accident history are the required inputs for the decision table "Insurance Total Price".

• The DMN component is currently stored in the DMN GitHub repository.

8.2 Import the DMN File into KIE Sandbox

In this section, you will import the GitHub repository to KIE Sandbox directly.

1. Copy to this Raw DMN file and click the Raw Button or simply copy the link from the below command.

   

   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/timwuthenow/dmn-workshop-labs/master/policy-price/insurance-pricing.dmn
   

2. With this link navigate to the KIE Sandbox and under Import From URL paste the link from the previous step and click Import.

   

3. When the project is imported, you will see the DMN Editor with the insurance-pricing DMN model displayed. If you instead of pointing to a particular DMN, pointed to an entire project, any DMN/BPMN models associated with it would be able to viewed/edited within KIE Sandbox.

   

4. You can then click the Run button to get a local copy of this DMN running within the browser session itself.

   

5. This will have a section of the browser turn into a form and you can run the model right there. Modifying the checkbox based on the boolean of had previous incidents and set an Age based on the data type being a number.

   📘 INFO: There is a known issue around the DMN Runner with forms that does not initially assume a non-checked box is false on the first successful execution. To quickly get around this, check and uncheck the checkbox and move forward with your testing

   

6. If you link your OpenShift login to the gear icon, you can even do a sample deployment of this as a service into OpenShift. For now this will conclude this section.

8.3 Importing a DMN in Business Central

If you want to try this in Business Central, you can go through the following steps, but it is not required.

1. From the GitHub web page, click Clone or download on the right and then select Download ZIP:

2. Using your favorite file system navigation tool, locate the downloaded ZIP file and unzip it to a directory in your file system.

   • From this point forward, this location is referred to as $PROJECT_HOME.

3. Log in to Business Central. You can use either bamAdmin:ibmpam1! or pamadmin:pamadm1n to do so or whatever login you have created on your instance.

4. Create a project in Business Central called policy-price.

5. In the empty project library view for the policy-price project, click Import Asset.

   

6. In the Create new Uploaded file dialog, enter insurance-pricing.dmn in the Uploaded file field:

   

7. Using the browse button at the far right of the field labeled Please select a file to upload, navigate with the file browser to the $PROJECT_HOME directory where the unzipped Git repository is located.

8. Select the $PROJECT_HOME\policy-price\insurance-pricing.dmn file.

9. Click Ok to import the DMN asset.

10. The diagram will open and you will be able to see the DRD. Explore the diagram nodes to check the decision policies of this diagram.

    

11. Close the diagram. You should now be on the library view for the policy-price project.

12. You should see the insurance-pricing asset is added to your project assets:

    

13. From the policy-price project’s library view, click Build, then Deploy to deploy the project to the execution server.

14. After receiving the build confirmation, navigate to the container deployment list by clicking the "View deployment details" link in the confirmation pop-up, or by selecting Menu → Deploy → Execution Servers.

15. Verify that policy-price_2.0.0 shows a green status:

    

8.4 Testing the Decision Service on KIE Server

In this section, you test the DMN solution using the REST endpoints available in the Decision Server (a.k.a. KIE Server).

1. Open your Decision Server (a.k.a KIE Server) on the url "/docs". You should see something like this:

   

2. Next, under DMN Models, click on the POST /server/containers/{containerId}/dmn" and select "Try it out":

1. Now use the following data:

2. Container ID: policy-price

3. Body (dmn context): {"dmn-context": {"Age": 20, "had previous incidents": false}}
4. Parameter content type: application/json

1. Click on the execute button. You should see the server response 200 and the results of the decision.

   

2. Try out the Decision with different values for the age and accident history, and compare the results with the decision table:

8.5 Conclusion

Congratulations, you've finished the getting started exercise. Next, you will have an intermediate level exercise that will guide you through the implementation, deployment and testing of the Vacation Days use case.