11g (11.1.1.4) ADF and OPA

Question

Hi,
I am using JDeveloper/WLS 11g (11.1.1.4). I have also installed downloaded the latest OPA modeling and server (Oracle Policy Automation 10.2.0 modeling and runtime).
I then went ahead and installed the determinations-server.war in 11g (embedded in JDeveloper) after modifying the ‘application.properties’ to include the following
load.rulebase.from.claspath=true
rulebase.path=rulebases
I was able to test the http://localhost:7101/web-determinations/ URL
I was also able to create a basic rule form the modeler and run it against the "Oracle Web determinations" from the tool (instead of the "Oracle Determinations Server").
My questions are as follows.
Q1. Deployment of Rules with Fusion: I would like my business users to be able to create rules and test them against a test WLS server preferably the Weblogic server that hosts my web-determinations. In this regard, i would like to know how i can configure the OPM tool to deploy/test against Weblogic. In other words, should i set specific values to Tools->Options->Rule based development->Embedded Server? The only settings i see are for Tomcat, but i am assumign i can put something similar to weblogic. Any sample will be appreciated.
Note that i do understand the issue about rulebase.path directory. In other words, i can either
a) explode deploy the determinations-server.war , or
b) add a director that will contains my rules to the weblogic class path, or
c) use something like -Ddeterminations.server.rulebase.dir=/some/other/dir/rulebases in my startWeblogic.cmd
Q2. OPA with ADF Example: Can anyone point me to a working example of OPA that has been integrated with ADF 11g. In other words, i am looking for an end-to-end scenario where i can develop my business rules in OPA and use them in an ADF application. It would be better if the example uses some values of the business rules that reside in a database.
Q3. OPA versus OBR: Can someone articulate lucidly the use cases when someone would chose OBR (Business Rules in ADF) versus OPA (the haley product), and the implications on ADF development.
Thanks very much,

Answer 1

1. In the current version, OPM doesn't directly deploy to anything other than local TomCat. You'll need to manually refresh your WebLogic environment with the latest rulebase.
2. I'm not aware of an ADF sample. I assume your goal is to host Web Determinations interviews in an ADF UI?
3. You should use OPA instead of OBR if you need any of the following:
a) Rules in natural language in any of the supported OPA languages (English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc....)
b) Rules in Word/Excel document format that can be easily shared with business users
c) Interactive interviews for guided decision making, where questions can be automatically generated from rules, and screens are shown only as needed to make progress towards an answer
d) Detailed decision reports of which rules and data were used to reach a decision
e) Productized integration with Siebel or SAP
f) Rich test case development and regression testing capabilities
More generally OPA is very good at determinations. I.e. reaching the one right decision given a set of input data. It is not a good fit for optimization problems where the goal is to seek the best outcome given a series of constraints. It is also good at taking a large set of law/policy documents are managing them as interconnected rules. It is possible to efficiently manage thousands of pages of material as an OPM project.
For ADF development, anywhere you have a process that involves a complex decision step, or a calculation that depends on complicated rules that may change frequently or need good business visibility, OPA is a good choice.
Davin.