Decision Grids

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The Common Knowledge Decision Grid Extender is used to represent business rules that are a function of two or more inter-related conditional groupings. The grid consists of one or more row conditions and one or more column conditions with the intersections of the row and column conditions being grid entries to which a range of complex actions can be attached.

For example, the following simple, two condition Decision Grid defines the valid combinations of paint colours available for a car manufacturer's model range.



Like all Common Knowledge Rule Extenders, the Decision Grid Extender seamlessly integrates with Common Knowledge Studio and the Common Knowledge Rules Engine and can be easily combined with other business rule formats to create powerful solutions to complex business rule problems.

Overview of Capabilities
Common Knowledge Decision Grids provide capabilities in a number of areas to enable you to create structured, readable and accessible representations of your business rules.

• Multiple Conditions - Specify multiple column types or row types to represent two or more dimensions in the Decision Grid
• Interactive Execution - Standalone execution of Decision Grid entirely within Common Knowledge Studio
• Explanations - Add explanations in the form of Reason Strings to any rule in the Decision Grid
• Documentation - Ability to attach custom information to your rules which will be included in generated documentation

Feature List
Common Knowledge Decision Grids incorporate an ever-growing list of features that assist you during the design, authoring, execution and testing of your table-based business rules. Features include:

• Multiple Conditions - Choose if single (or multiple) actions, rows or columns can match conditions
• Nested Rules - Ability to embed execution of any other Rule Extender anywhere within the Decision Grid
• Complex Expressions - Specify complex expressions as the conditions and actions within a Decision Grid to perform a range of operations including comparison (set, boolean and arithmetic), maths, statistics, string handling, financial, and date & time
• Interactive Debugger - An interactive debugger that can step through Decision Grids with support for breakpoints, stack tracing and expression evaluation 
• Multiple Actions - Ability to define an arbitrary number of complex actions for each rule
• Rule Activation - Colour-highlighting of evaluated conditions and executed actions within the Decision Grid
• Editing - Easy reordering and renumbering of columns and rows within Decision Grid
• Cell Merging - Easy auto-merge of common-valued row or column entries
• Cell Formatting - Auto-sizing of grid columns for easy layout formatting

What's New in Version 3.1
The following features are new to version 3.1 of Common Knowledge and augment the existing capabilities of Decision Grids in their ability to represent your business rules:

• Print & Preview - Print and Print Preview of Decision Grid rules
• Undo Redo - Full undo/redo of any rule edits
• Fixed Space Fonts - Optionally display text in Decision Grids using a fixed space font
• Search Replace - Full Search/Replace throughout all rule elements