Overview of BRFplus basics

Excerpt from Leveraging SAP BRFplus in Big Data Scenarios by Tom Zamir.

BRFplus is an ABAP-based rules engine which is a native part of SAP NetWeaver Application Server. As such, it enjoys the following advantages over other rules engines:

 

• Full integration with the Data Dictionary (DDIC), which allows you to reuse elements that have already been defined, such as fields, structures, table types, along with their definitions, texts, translations, domain lists, etc.
• The ability to define objects as local/client-dependent/clientindependent; changes are transported via the standard Change and Transport System (CTS)
• Design-time artifacts are translated into ABAP code (and in some cases into SQLScript that runs on HANA, as explained in Chapter 8), providing unrivalled performance
• Seamless integration with ABAP applications
• Actions of users in the workbench can be restricted using the standard SAP authorizations mechanism
• BRFplus does not require the installation of any special software or hardware to be operational

BRFplus is an incarnation of the now obsolete Business Rule Framework (BRF) tool, hence the “plus” in its name. However, there is no comparison between the two, as BRFplus is far more advanced than BRF.

Besides providing high performance, one of the declared objectives of BRFplus is to empower business users. As business policy is usually best understood by business experts, there is immense value in enabling business users to understand and even edit existing business rules in the workbench in the most comfortable way. Therefore, the authoring environment of BRFplus is based on a graphical approach to allow nonIT experts and non-coders to intuitively compose business logic. Furthermore, BRFplus provides business users with tools to help them understand the calculation steps that have led to a certain outcome and/or to record those steps in real time as a trace of an actual invocation. Other key features provided by BRFplus are:

• Personalization of the workbench
• Ability to manage versions of each object, thus enabling you to view and run a business logic as it was in a former state
• Ability to call custom code
• Various administration tools

Start reading now…

Written for BRFplus consultants, ABAP developers, and solution architects, this expert guide offers tips and techniques for optimizing the use of BRFplus in scenarios where business rules need to be applied to many business cases simultaneously. Explore how to push past the breaking point of BRFplus rules by enabling scalability and process any size of population dependent only on the physical resources available. Review BRFplus basics. Dive into design rules for a single-run scenario and learn how to avoid poor-performance traps. Analyze principles for designing business rules for mass-execution scenarios. Obtain guidelines for designing ABAP programs to enable parallel processing of business logic, which is critical for handling big data. Get an introduction to the Application Interface Framework (AIF) and learn how to create HANA Rules Framework (HRF) using analytical mode in BRFplus. Readers will learn how to:

– Use BRFplus in a single-run scenario
– Create BRFplus rules for mass execution
– Design ABAP programs to enable parallel processing of business logic
– Monitor BRFplus with the SAP Application Interface Framework

Author Tom Zamir is an experienced SAP consultant, a BRFplus specialist, and an experienced SAP trainer. As one of the world’s premier BRFplus consultants, Tom regularly consults to healthcare and public-sector clients. He has a passion for teaching and training, and enjoys explaining intricate scientific and technological principles in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. Tom holds a M.Sc. degree in Information Systems Engineering, a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and a B.A. in Management and Behavioral Sciences.