Core Utilities Overview
Author:
Kirill Gaiduk
Changed on:
10 July 2025
Overview
The Core Utility (`util-core`) is a standard library of utility functions designed to simplify and accelerate Rule development on the Fluent Commerce platform. It provides a foundational set of helper classes that address common development challenges - such as safely handling event attributes, retrieving and converting settings, logging consistently, and minimizing boilerplate code when forwarding events or querying data.
Prerequisites
These articles assumes you're familiar with:
- Java
- Maven
- JUnit
Key points
- Event Management (
`EventUtils`): Simplifies creating and forwarding events, ensuring attributes are copied correctly. - Rule Properties (
`RuleUtils`): Streamlines retrieving and validating rule properties to avoid configuration errors. - Query Simplification (
`QueryUtils`): Eases the execution of GraphQL queries, especially for paginated data. - Settings Management (
`SettingUtils`) : Simplifies retrieving settings and automatically converts them from JSON to POJOs. - Logging (
`LogUtils`): Provides structured logging for easier debugging and auditing. - JSON Handling (
`JsonUtils`): Offers helpers for JSON serialization, deserialization, and comparison. - Date Formatting (
`GqlDateUtils`): A simple utility for handling GraphQL-compatible dates.
Value Proposition
The `util-core` bundle delivers significant value to Fluent Commerce developers by addressing common pain points and accelerating development velocity:
Development Efficiency
- Eliminate Boilerplate: Pre-built utility methods handle repetitive tasks like event forwarding, property validation, and JSON processing
- Faster Implementation: Common patterns are abstracted into reusable, tested components
- Reduced Debugging: Standardized approaches prevent common errors and edge cases
Code Quality & Maintainability
- Consistent Patterns: Enforce best practices across your rule implementations
- Better Maintainability: Centralized utilities make code easier to understand and modify
- Type Safety: Strongly-typed utilities prevent runtime errors
Team & Production Benefits
- Battle-Tested: Utilities are used across production environments
- Team Productivity: Standard utilities create a common language and accelerate onboarding
- Comprehensive Documentation: Detailed JavaDocs and examples for every utility
Explanation through an Example
At this point, it’s assumed you’ve already set up a plugin project and have some logic ready to implement. Let’s focus on how to write a Rule using the Core Utilities.
In this example, we’ll explore how to send a Webhook to a defined endpoint by writing a Rule using Core Utilities.
1import com.fluentretail.rubix.rule.meta.ParamString;
2import com.fluentretail.rubix.rule.meta.RuleInfo;
3import com.fluentretail.rubix.v2.context.Context;
4import com.fluentretail.rubix.v2.rule.Rule;
5import lombok.AllArgsConstructor;
6import lombok.Data;
7
8import java.util.Optional;
9
10import static com.fluentcommerce.util.core.EventUtils.cloneAndRenameEvent;
11import static com.fluentcommerce.util.core.LogUtils.logOnce;
12import static com.fluentcommerce.util.core.SettingUtils.getSetting;
13
14@RuleInfo(name = "SendWebhook", description = "Send webhook {setting}")
15@ParamString(name = "setting", description = "Name of the setting to load webhook info from")
16public class SendWebhook implements Rule {
17 @Override
18 public void run(Context context) {
19 String settingName = context.getProp("setting");
20
21 Optional<WebhookSetting> setting = getSetting(context, settingName).as(WebhookSetting.class);
22
23 if(setting.isPresent()) {
24 context.action().postWebhook(setting.get().url, cloneAndRenameEvent(context, setting.get().name));
25 } else {
26 logOnce(context, SendWebhook.class, "No webhook config found at '%s'", settingName);
27 }
28 }
29
30 @Data
31 @AllArgsConstructor
32 private static final class WebhookSetting {
33 String url;
34 String name;
35 }
36}
