Featured White Papers

• Utilizing Fast Testing to Transform Java Development
• Do You Really Get Classloaders?
• Pragmatic Continuous Delivery with Jenkins, Nexus, and LiveRebel
• Your Next Java Web App: Less XML, No Long Restarts, Fewer Hassles
• Coding with JRebel, Java Forever Changed
• 2012 Developer Productivity Report: Java Tools, Tech, Devs, and Data

Sponsored Links

• Graph databases are 1000x faster than relational.

  Learn More!

• Career opportunities at Harman- Careers That'll Rock Your Socks Off.

  Learn More!

• Developer-friendly Java PDF libraries by Qoppa Software

  Live Demos

• Stop blaming your app! Diagnose Java performance issues.

  Free tool >

• UrbanCode: Go From Continuous Integration to
  Continuous Delivery

  Learn More!

Sponsored Links

Optimize with a SATA RAID Storage Solution
Range of capacities as low as $1250 per TB. Ideal if you currently rely on servers/disks/JBODs

Clash of the Java rule titans

Blaze Advisor vs. JRules

By James Owen, InfoWorld, 07/17/06

Page 2 of 2

On the down side, ILOG made a number of changes that make the tool far less easier to use for both the experienced programmer and the experienced AI geek. No longer are PDF manuals included in the release (they are online, but require an ILOG ID and password), and the formerly user-friendly documentation has taken a sharp turn for the worse. Finding the information you need can be nightmarishly difficult. Considering that version 6.0 is by far the most complex and difficult-to-understand implementation that ILOG has ever delivered, now was not the time to hobble the documentation.

Further, JRules no longer provides a way for developers and engineers to access the rules and the standard ILOG Rule Language "irl" files in the same tool. Developers can generate and access "irl" files when using the Eclipse-based BR Studio, but the rules are accessible only through the JRules GUI—a fine tool for business users but painful for geeks. Developers and engineers need a way to work with the rules and the "irl" files in the same place.

Blaze Advisor and JRules continue to lead the BRMS pack in features suitable for enterprises, and both should be on the consideration list for most enterprise deployments. If you need great reporting templates, maximum speed, and lots and lots of factory support, Blaze Advisor is probably the answer. If rule building and rule management are more important than runtime performance—if you need different views of the rules for different classes of users, or you want to customize the rule-building GUI and language for your business or industry—then JRules may be the better choice. The pricing of the JRules starter pack, which includes unlimited use of BR Studio across the company, is also quite favorable.

About the author

For more enterprise computing news, visit InfoWorld. Story copyright InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.