Running Drools 5.4.0 Final as a JBoss AS 7 module

Drools 5 introduces the Business Logic integration Platform which provides a unified and integrated platform for Rules, Workflow and Event Processing. It’s been designed from the ground up so that each aspect is a first class citizen, with no compromises.

Drools 5 has splitted up into 4 main sub projects:

• Drools Guvnor (BRMS/BPMS)
• Drools Expert (rule engine)
• Drools Flow (process/workflow)
• Drools Fusion (cep/temporal reasoning)

In this example we will focus on how we can use Drools Expert inside JBoss Application Server 7.

1. We are using JBoss AS 7.1.1.Final which can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.jboss.org/jbossas/downloads.

2. Download Drools 5.4.0.Final from the following link: http://www.jboss.org/drools/downloads.

3. Extract the downloaded Drools drools-distribution-5.4.0.Final.zip (87.7 MB).

4. Create a directory with the name org/drools/main inside the JBoss AS7 modules directory jboss-as-7.1.1.Final/modules.

5. Copy all the binaries (JAR) files from drools-distribution-5.4.0.Final/binaries and paste them inside the jboss-as-7.1.1.Final/modules/org/drools/main.

6. Create a file module.xml inside jboss-as-7.1.1.Final/modules/org/drools/main as the following:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <module xmlns="urn:jboss:module:1.1" name="org.drools">
     <resources>
       <resource-root path="antlr-2.7.7.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="antlr-3.3.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="antlr-runtime-3.3.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="bcmail-jdk14-138.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="bcprov-jdk14-138.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="dom4j-1.6.1.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="drools-clips-5.4.0.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="drools-compiler-5.4.0.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="drools-core-5.4.0.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="drools-decisiontables-5.4.0.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="droolsjbpm-introduction-docs-5.4.0.Final.jdocbook"/>
       <resource-root path="drools-jsr94-5.4.0.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="drools-persistence-jpa-5.4.0.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="drools-templates-5.4.0.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="drools-verifier-5.4.0.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="ecj-3.5.1.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="guava-r06.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="hibernate-jpa-2.0-api-1.0.1.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="itext-2.1.2.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="javassist-3.14.0-GA.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="jsr94-1.1.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="jta-1.1.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="jxl-2.6.10.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="knowledge-api-5.4.0.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="knowledge-internal-api-5.4.0.Final.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="log4j-1.2.14.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="mvel2-2.1.0.drools16.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="protobuf-java-2.4.1.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="slf4j-api-1.6.4.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="stringtemplate-3.2.1.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="xml-apis-1.3.04.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="xmlpull-1.1.3.1.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="xpp3_min-1.1.4c.jar"/>
       <resource-root path="xstream-1.4.1.jar"/>
     </resources>
     <dependencies>
       <module name="javax.api"/>
       <module name="javax.transaction.api"/>
       <module name="javax.persistence.api"/>
       <module name="org.hibernate"/>
     </dependencies>
   </module>
   

7. Make sure that your WAR file has the right dependencies defined. You can use META-INF/MANIFEST.MF as the following:

   Dependencies: org.drools
   

   Or META-INF/jboss-deployment-structure.xml if you prefer:

   <jboss-deployment-structure xmlns="urn:jboss:deployment-structure:1.0">
       <deployment>
           <dependencies>
               <module name="org.drools" />
           </dependencies>
       </deployment>
   </jboss-deployment-structure>
   

   Where org.drools is the name of the module which we created in previous steps.