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Essential knowledge articles on rules

Workflows and Workflow Builder

Essential knowledgeWorkflows are accessed through the Workflow Builder through a Web App like Fluent Store.  Here, users can view, modify and create workflows and user actions.
  • A Workflow defines the logical flow or lifecycle of a top-level entity within a domain
  • Workflows consist of Rules that represent a single building block for logic and have a single purpose.
  • Rules join together to form Rulesets that execute a specific piece of business logic (e.g., a particular task).
  • Workflows are accessed through the Workflow Builder via a Web App Like Fluent OMS.
  • The Home Delivery (HD) Workflow defines the lifecycle for order fulfilment including its phases, entities, states and the rulesets that govern progression through each stage.

How to identify OMS challenges in new prospects

Essential knowledgeEmpower readers to diagnose hidden operational pain points by leveraging external sales intelligence, such as Trustpilot reviews, alongside strategic discovery questions.
  • How to use Trustpilot reviews as sales intelligence to uncover visible symptoms of an existing system failure.
  • Strategic discovery questions designed to expose hidden pain points regarding fulfillment speed and inventory accuracy.
  • How to directly align Fluent OMS capabilities to solve diagnosed inefficiencies.

Fluent Products and Core Capabilities

Essential knowledgeThis article provides a comprehensive exploration of Fluent Commerce's platform, detailing its critical components and functionalities that enable seamless order management and omnichannel fulfillment. It highlights how features like automated order orchestration, global inventory visibility, and integration tools drive operational efficiency and enhance customer experiences.
  • Explains how automated order orchestration utilizes APIs and webhooks to map optimal fulfillment paths
  • Understand how real time global inventory visibility prevents stockouts and significantly reduces order cancellations
  • Explore essential omnichannel capabilities including Ship from Store and Click & Collect (BOPIS)

Order Management - Status / Actions

Essential knowledgeLearn to configure dynamic order statuses and user actions within the Fluent Commerce back office to construct tailored, highly responsive order workflows.
This resolves operational bottlenecks by empowering customer service agents with versatile, user facing options to manage critical order phases, ultimately simplifying order handling for a highly smooth fulfillment process.
  • Learn how to configure dynamic workflows and build specific order statuses and user actions 
  • Understand how configured rule sets allow customer service agents to seamlessly use interface actions

Workflow Orchestration

Essential knowledgeLearn how implementing partners can configure Fluent Commerce workflow orchestration to build the operational blueprint governing order sourcing, fulfillment, and customer service.
Learning this will help resolve  operational inefficiencies by automating the order lifecycle and fulfillment routing, which directly reduces costs, improves productivity, and enhances the end customer delivery experience.
  • Learn how to configure operational blueprints and utilize individual rule sets 
  • Understand the core engine capabilities that enable automatic stock level assessment and distribution center selection
  • Learn how to apply automation to maximize workflow orchestration efficiency

Returns Management

Essential knowledge Learn how to implement the Fluent Commerce Returns Management module to deliver an integrated, end to end returns ecosystem for clients. This centralized solution resolves the costly pain points of revenue loss and inventory discrepancies, providing retail businesses with unified workflows that boost operational efficiency and customer satisfaction
  • Learn to seamlessly integrate  returns solution with existing e commerce platforms
  • Apply strict workflow configurations to accurately verify return cut off times, capture specific return reasons, and document item conditions.
  • Orchestrate Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) processes directly within the workflow to physically verify items
  • Observe how a centralized system empowers customer service teams to easily submit return requests and eliminate customer frustration.

Plugin API

Essential knowledgeThe Plugin API provides methods for uploading, installing, and viewing Plugins.A Plugin Bundle represents a collection of rules for a retailer that is uploaded and installed into Rubix for use in workflows. They can be developed and installed through the use of the Fluent SDK.
  • An explanation of each endpoint to use plugin API for Fluent OMS

Introduction to the Events API

Essential knowledgeThe Events API is a core component of the Fluent Platform, enabling the creation and management of events that drive workflow logic and system activity tracking. It supports asynchronous operations for optimized performance and integrates with systems for inventory updates, product data transfer, fulfillment, and carrier tracking.
  • Events are fundamental to the Fluent Platform, representing actions or occurrences within the system.
  • The Events API enables viewing and creating events, supporting workflow logic and system activity tracking.
  • `ORCHESTRATION` events trigger workflows, while `ORCHESTRATION_AUDIT` events log workflow execution details.
  • Common Event API operations include retrieving events by ID, filtering events, and creating new events asynchronously.
  • Event Contracts are defined by Rulesets in workflows, combining event attributes to handle specific processes.
  • Recommended practice: Use asynchronous integration for non-real-time actions to optimize performance.
  • Common integrations include inventory updates, product master data transfer, fulfillment updates, and carrier tracking.

Responsive Sourcing Framework Overview

Essential knowledgeThe Responsive Sourcing Framework is a configurable, scalable alternative to custom Workflows and Rules for managing sourcing strategies. You’ll learn how to define and optimize sourcing logic using Sourcing Profiles, Strategies, Conditions, and Criteria. The Framework empowers both technical and business users with faster implementation, greater control, and transparency into how sourcing decisions are made and why.
  • Prerequisites: You should have knowledge of Order Management and Order lifecycle, Order Reference Module, and GraphQL API
  • The Responsive Sourcing Framework is designed for both technical and business users - logic is transparent and comes with a configurable User Experience (UX)
  • Enables faster implementation by reusing modular sourcing logic building blocks such as Sourcing Profiles, Strategies, Conditions, and Criteria
  • Sourcing Profile GraphQL API is required to correctly set up your sourcing logic
  • Supports custom Sourcing Conditions and Criteria through externally developed extensions for advanced or domain-specific logic

Exception Management in writing Rules

Essential knowledgeThe Workflow Framework Engine ensures that all Exceptions thrown out of Rules are recorded within the Orchestration Audit Events, accessible via the Event API. This is important for providing detailed information about what went wrong.
  • To ensure that the Orchestration Audit Events contain as much useful information as possible, it is important to consider the Exception Strategy used by your Rules.
  • Don't swallow exceptions inside Rules, and always allow a caught exception to be re-thrown, or added as a cause to a new exception to ensure the cause is included in the Audit Events.
  • The Workflow Framework provides a special exception type called RuleExecutionException which provides special handling of exceptions differently from all others.

Rule Context Generator

Essential knowledgeThe `RuleContextGenerator` is the underlying class that the `RuleExecutor` and `WorkflowExecutor` use to construct a mock `Context` for your tests. While you will most often interact with it through the executors, you can also use it directly to manually create a `Context` object.This is particularly useful when you are unit testing a helper or utility class that requires a `Context` object as a parameter, but you don't need to execute a full rule.
  • Core Context Builder: `RuleContextGenerator` is the fundamental builder class that the `RuleExecutor` and `WorkflowExecutor` use to create the mock `Context` for your tests.
  • Direct Instantiation: You can use it directly (`RuleContextGenerator.of(...)`) when you need a `Context` object for testing a helper class or utility method, but don't need to execute a full rule.
  • Action Tracking: It automatically captures and tracks all actions (events, mutations, logs) performed during execution, providing methods like `getActionsOfType()` and `getLastActionOfType()` for verification.
  • Foundation of Testing: It is the foundational component of the test utilities, providing the mock environment that makes isolated unit and integration testing possible.

Rule Executor

Essential knowledgeThe `RuleExecutor` is the primary tool in the `util-test` library for unit testing a single rule in isolation. It provides a builder-style interface for setting up a mock `Context`, executing your rule's `run` method, and asserting the results.
  • Unit Testing Focus: `RuleExecutor` is the main tool for testing a single rule in isolation.
  • Arrange-Act-Assert: It's designed to follow the clean Arrange-Act-Assert pattern. You use the constructor to arrange the context, call `execute()` to act, and use `getActions()` to assert the outcome.
  • Rule Properties Configuration: Rule properties are passed as a `Map` in the `RuleExecutor.of(Class, Map)` constructor.
  • Event Configuration: Custom events can be passed to the `execute(Event)` method.
  • GraphQL Mocking: The `.mockNamedQuery()` method is a critical feature that allows you to provide predefined JSON responses for any GraphQL query your rule executes, enabling you to test different data scenarios without making live API calls.

Rule Actions

Essential knowledgeRule Actions are the single output of a Rule.Rules do not perform actions directly. Rather, they inform the Workflow Engine what it should do as a result of the rule execution. The Workflow Engine interprets the specific Action produced by the Rule and handles it appropriately.Most Actions are queued internally within the Workflow Engine and executed at the end of the current process.
  • There are 4 types of Actions available to produce from a Rule:
    • `SendEventAction`
    • `MutateAction`
    • `WebhookAction`
    • `LogAction`

Sample Rules

Essential knowledgeThe Rules SDK Maven archetype will generate 2 sample Rules into the Plugin Project.
  • DemoSendArbitraryEvent
  • DemoAddAttributeToOrder
  • DemoSendArbitraryEvent
  • DemoAddAttributeToOrder

Designing Rules

Essential knowledgeThis page provides all the information needed to design best practice Rules for your workflows. There are some important things to be aware of, so we highly recommend you thoroughly read through this page, and refer back to it regularly during development.
  • providing a guideline of designing your Rule within Fluent
  • It is important to keep the best practices and design principles in mind when designing your rules.
  • understand types of analogies when come to building rules

Designing Workflows

Essential knowledgeYou will learn how to design workflows, what they consist off and what are the best practices. 
  • The following topic covered when comes to designing workflows:
    • Workflow Boundaries
    • Workflow Patterns
    • Flow Control
    • Cross-Retailer
    • Cross-Workflow
    • Workflow Versioning
    • Defining Rulesets
    • Workflow Settings

General Principles for Rules

Essential knowledgeUnderstand what are some general Rule principles.
  • Fluent uses jsonPath, which is a period-separated string that describes a "path" between the entity being processed and a field on it or a related entity.
  • In essence, this category of rules understands how to generate dynamic queries. 
  • There are some helpers for traversing connection types, edges, and node fields, which will be automatically skipped, for example, `items.0.currency`  is equivalent to `items.edges.0.node.currency` 

Managing Workflow States

Essential knowledgeLearn about managing state in a workflow and the recommended best practices to follow.
  • Do not change the status of an entity until all conditions of that state have been confirmed.
  • Avoid duplicating logic within the workflow to maintain simplicity and readability.
  • Always use the SetState rule to change the state of an entity.
  • Handle all state change logic within a single execution thread where possible.
  • Utilize ruleset triggers to guard against illegal actions on states.

Workflow Event Execution

Essential knowledgeIn this module you'll learn about how events are executed on the Fluent platform.
  • A workflow represents the journey of a root entity, and related sub-entities, through various stages in its lifecycle.  These stages are represented by statuses.
  • Rulesets are collections of rules forming tasks within a process, dictating movement from one state to another based on business logic.
  • When an orchestration event is received, the Workflow Engine loads the associated workflow and searches for a matching ruleset based on event name, entity type, subtype, and status.  Matched rulesets are executed, and may produce additional events to trigger further rulesets in sequence.

Deploy your Rule

Essential knowledgeIn this lesson, you will learn how to deploy and run a custom rule.
  •  Access to Fluent Training account is required

Rule Utilities

Essential knowledgeThe `RuleUtils` class in the `util-core` bundle provides helper methods to streamline the process of retrieving and validating Rule properties. Using these utilities helps ensure that your Rules are configured correctly and reduces the risk of runtime errors caused by missing or invalid parameters.
  • Flexible List Properties: `rulePropAsList` reliably parses a rule property into a `List`, whether it's configured as a comma-separated string or a JSON array. This is ideal for properties that require multiple values.
  • Configuration Validation: `validateRulePropsIsNotEmpty` provides a simple, one-line way to ensure that all required properties have been provided to a rule, preventing runtime errors.
  • Fail-Fast Errors: When validation fails, the utility throws a `PropertyNotFoundException` with a clear error message. This stops the rule from executing with an invalid configuration and makes debugging easier.

Rulesets

Essential knowledgeRulesets are fundamental components in implementing business flows. They are reusable collections of rules that contain orchestration logic. These functions can be applied across various workflows and use cases, providing flexibility and efficiency. The Order, Inventory, and Fulfilment reference modules contain a set of pre-defined rulesets, each with its corresponding rules.
  • Rulesets are a collection of rules.
  • Rulesets are functions that can be used in multiple places for different use cases.
  • There are four possible Actions available to your rules: SendEventAction, WebhookAction, MutateAction, and LogAction.
  • The Core module contains rules that are common to all reference modules.

Composing Workflows

Essential knowledgeIn this section you will learn all about rules, including:
  • Typical functions of a rule
  • How to use them in workflow
  • Rule design best practices and recommendations
  • Rules are the building blocks of Rulesets.  They should be small, isolated, single-purpose, reusable, and composable.
  • Rulesets are composed of multiple rules to perform specific tasks.
  • Each rule within a Ruleset is executed in sequence.
  • A rule consists of a condition and an outcome (action).
  • Meaningful, descriptive names for Rulesets enhance workflow understanding and ease of troubleshooting.
  • Rulesets can perform functions like logical gates, state management, and notifying other domains.

Rule Development Guidelines & Recommended Practices

Essential knowledgeThis document provides comprehensive guidelines and best practices for custom rule development on the Fluent Commerce platform. Following these guidelines ensures your Rules are maintainable, testable, and follow platform conventions.It is highly recommended that you first read Designing Rules and Writing Custom Rules if you have not done so already.
  • This document will cover the following topics:
    • Best Practices
    • Rule Naming Conventions
    • Rule Descriptions
    • Rule Parameters
    • Exception Handling
    • Logging & Audit Events
    • Utilities Bundles
    • Constants
    • Documentation
    • Additional Best Practices

Working with Rulesets

Essential knowledgeIn this section you will learn all about Rulesets and how they can be configured using the Workflow Builder.
  • Rulesets define the rules that are executed when an Event matching the ruleset trigger criteria is received by the Workflow Engine.
  • Rulesets can be added and edited via the Workflow Builder.
  • Each Ruleset has a name, applicable trigger statuses, and list of rules or user actions.
  • Triggers define when a Ruleset is valid to be executed for a given entity.
  • It's possible to configure User Actions to appear in the Fluent Web Apps, which trigger business logic as defined in the corresponding Ruleset configuration.

Test your Rule

Essential knowledgeIn this module, you will learn about Unit Testing and creating a Mocked Unit test for a custom Rule.  You will also learn how to perform testing on the TestExecutor and finally deploy your plugin into your sandbox environment
  • Unit Testing
  • PowerMock
  • TestExecutor
  • Testing on Sandbox

Exception Management, Debugging and Logging Events

Essential knowledgeThis section covers the Exception handling, Debugging and Logging in a Custom Rule
  • Custom Rule should be ready along with the Unit Test Cases
  • Effect of Exceptions on Event processing
  • IDE Debugging
  • Log Action

Case Scenario - Implement Fraud Check

Essential knowledgeIn this scenario we will implement a Fraud Check step in the Order Workflow
  • Prerequisites setup
  • Basics of Rule writing

Introduction to Fluent Rules

Essential knowledgeWorkflow Framework Rules are written using Java and contain a specific structure and metadata for describing and validating the Rule. In this lesson, you will learn how to write Rules by adding customised business logic. 
  • OMX Workflow -  Understand the Workflow Engine (previously 'Rubix Orchestration Engine'), Workflow Design Patterns, Workflow Builder
  • Workflow Framework - Understand the Workflow Framework, Events, and Triggers.

Plugin Structure & JS GraphQL

Essential knowledgeIn this module, you will learn about a Plugin Project structure and JS GraphQL within the Plugin Project.  You will also learn how to modify and run a JS GraphQL query.
  • Installed SDK
  • GQL Basics

Rules SDK Setup & Plugin Creation

Essential knowledgeIn this lesson, you will learn about Rules SDK, the Software Development Kit for Fluent Order Management, and the key features of the SDK.
  • Prerequisites software installation

Workflow Scenario (Recommended Practice)

Essential knowledgeWalkthrough of an example scenario that demonstrates the advantages of following recommended practices in workflow design.
  • Smaller, granular rules offer better flexibility and adaptability, allowing for easier updates when requirements change.
  • Composing logic within the workflow gives clients and partners more control over business processes, reducing the need for expensive and time-consuming development changes.
  • Workflow-based logic enhances transparency and makes the process details more accessible, avoiding the "black box" effect of code-based logic.
  • Granularity in workflows leads to richer audit events, which improves triage and problem identification, resulting in faster issue resolution.

Workflow Process Flows

Essential knowledgeAn overview of workflow process flows, explaining how processes are executed by the workflow framework and offering best practices for workflow design.
  • Workflow processes execute business logic through rulesets within an execution context.
  • Processes can be initiated at the Root Entity level or Sub-Entity level.
  • Processes may flow across the same entity, down to a sub-entity, or back up to the parent entity.
  • Recommended practices include executing rulesets inline, making business logic visible, and avoiding cyclic flows.

Logical Gates in Workflows

Essential knowledgeAn introduction to the concept of Logical Gates and examples of how to use these in a workflow.
  • Logical Gates are a common workflow design pattern, and are used to control workflow execution flow. 
  • A logical gate can evaluate a simple condition that resolves to either TRUE or FALSE, or a condition with multiple possible paths such as evaluating an ENUM value.
  • A Logical Gate ruleset should only ever produce a single outcome, typically an inline event to process the following ruleset.

Working with Workflows

Essential knowledgeYou will learn about key Workflow concepts and the Workflow Builder 
  • Workflows are accessible via the Workflow Builder and the Fluent API
  • The Workflow Builder can be used for:
    • Adding and configuring rules, rulesets, triggers, user actions for UI integration
    • Configuring entity states and transitions to match the client's business process
  • Each entity type has its own workflow, such as Home Delivery orders (ORDER:HD) and Click & Collect orders (ORDER:CC)

Recap of Workflow Framework

Essential knowledgeThis article will provide an introduction to the fundamental concepts of the Workflow Framework, including:
  • Explanation of Events, Rules, Rulesets, and Triggers 
  • Description of Statuses representing the condition and state of entities in a workflow
  • Details about Actions as outcomes of Rules
  • Explanation of User Actions, which are UI interactions integrated with workflows
  • Events within the Fluent Commerce platform trigger the execution of rulesets, which are defined in a workflow.
  • Rulesets are collections of rules that form steps within a process, executing specific tasks based on configured criteria.
  • Rules are single-purpose building blocks of business logic that produce actions such as changing entity states or sending notifications.
  • Triggers define conditions under which rulesets are executed when a matching event is received.
  • Statuses represent the current state of an entity within its lifecycle.

Overview of Workflow Framework

Essential knowledgeYou'll acquire new knowledge of the Workflow Framework, its fundamental concepts and terminologies, and also learn about best practice workflow design concepts.  After covering the theory, you will get ‘hands-on’ by completing a Lab where you'll have a go at composing business logic (code free) via the Workflow Builder.
  • The Workflow Framework is a component of the Order Management Experience (OMX) platform and drives the business logic orchestration aspects of the Fluent Order Management.
  • The Workflow Framework enables flexible workflow customization via low-code configuration, high-performance and scalable processing, and seamless UI user action integration.
  • The Workflow Framework comprises the Workflow Engine, Workflow Builder, Rule Library, and Rules SDK.

Fluent Commerce Fundamentals

Essential knowledgeThis is a guidepost for Developers highlighting important guides and articles to speed up Fluent Commerce's learning process. 
  • Workflows that consist of states, rulesets, triggers, user actions, and Modules, used for distributing workflows and it's artifacts, are a key part of the Fluent Commerce platform.
  • Settings are used to adjust Workflow execution

The run Method

Essential knowledgeThe `run` method is called by the Workflow Engine when executing each Rule in a Ruleset triggered by an Orchestration Event.
  • Rules are the smallest building block for logic, it is important to remember that this method should be implemented to perform 1 simple task
  • You may not need all of these steps within your Rule. Some rules produce an action without a condition. Some rules do not need to query additional data. Make sure your Rule is as lean as possible, and simple to read.
  • The Rubix Plugin SDK provides a useful Util class to facilitate validation: RuleUtils
  • You can retrieve the data by using Context / Entity
  • Typically, a Rule will produce an output action.

Rules SDK Testing Rules

Essential knowledgeThis page describes the best practice testing approaches for rules and plugins.
  • As per standard industry practices, rules should be tested as part of the development cycle, on the developer's local machine.
  • Testing on Sandbox after local testing has been completed.

Order Management Experience (OMX) Framework

Essential knowledgeFluent's Order Management Experience (OMX) framework comprises the UX Framework, Workflow Framework, and Connect Framework, which can be configured and extended (or customised) using software development kits (SDKs).
  • Configuration of user interfaces via the UI Builder
  • Configuration of workflows Workflow Builder
  • Configuration of system integrations via Connector Builder
  • Custom Rules (workflows), UI features, and integration are also possible via Rules SDK, Components SDK, and Connect SDK.

Workflow Framework and the Rules SDK

Essential knowledgeThis section covers the fundamentals of the Workflow Engine, provides an overview of the architecture, identifies key concepts, and prepares clients to build and use their workflows.
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  • Workflow Engine Architecture
  • Workflow Builder
  • Rules SDK
  • Key Concepts of the Workflow Engine
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