[Springframework-developer] Spring rules and JSR-94

[Andy D. <an...@ma...>]

I've run across a rules package in the Spring sandbox 
(org.springframework.rules) while working with spring-rcp (spring-rcp uses it 
for input validation), and was wondering if any thought has been given to 
integrating it with JSR-94?  It is often unfeasable to keep some business 
logic isolated in a single tier (for example, some business logic ends up 
being in the UI for validation, some in the service layer, etc).  However, it 
may be possible to avoid duplicating business logic and at least manage it 
from a central location.  I've found that sometimes validation rules are 
duplicated elsewhere in the system (behind the service facade or in the DB, 
for example).  What if I could keep rules in a central location (a rules DB 
or a set of XML files on the server), and then serve those rules to whoever 
needs them?  For example, the UI asks for any rules against a particular 
object that it is editing so it can perform as-you-type validation, while the 
domain model behind the service facade might ask for the same rules to both 
validate and operate on data passed in from a client.  This way, all my rules 
are centrally managed, never duplicated, and can be reused.  I'm thinking of 
using such an approach in my next project and basing it off of JSR-94 - but 
I'd like to use spring and spring-rcp and since spring-rcp relies on 
org.springframework.rules, it would be nice if the rules package could 
integrate with JSR-94.  I'm just brainstorming at the moment, so I could have 
missed something... Is this a bad idea?

  - Andy