RulesManager Studio
Save Time & Increase Efficiency
TRM’s RulesManager Studio is the single, unified solution your business needs to extend capabilities, enhance operational control, maximize performance and streamline configuration management of IBM Maximo.
RulesManager Studio — used by more 120 complex organizations — is an entire suite of capabilities designed to enhance all aspects of your Maximo lifecycle – from design, to development, testing, training, deployment and beyond.
The Studio suite consists of these core features:
MaxAssist
End User, Trainer
- Menu Assisted Data Entry
- Embedded Training Material
- Tole/Application Specific
- Administration Control
- Accelerate user adoption
- Targeted New & Casual users
Performance
Administrator, QA
- Multi-Env & Cluster – Mgmt
- Unit/Regression Testing
- Performance Testing
- Simplified API access
- License Guidance
- Operations Console
- Change Mgmt – Check Point
Rules
Developer, Configuration, QA
- “Point & Click” Rules Creation
- Real-time debugging
- Requirements traceability
- Source control
- Real Time Code Assist & Error Check
- MIF Scripting
TRM RulesManager
(aka Rules) is the cornerstone of the Studio
RulesManager is a powerful business automation engine for Maximo and is proven to lower the total cost of ownership and improve your ROI while guaranteeing:
- Ease of Configuration Management and Evolving Maximo with Business Growth
- Reduced Development, Deployment, Testing, Support and Upgrades Time & Costs.
- Future Savings with Decreased Upgrading Costs at 60‐70%.
- No Java Programming Required.
- No Risks – RulesManager never alters the base code of Maximo.
RulesManager offers virtually limitless options for enhancing Maximo. Common examples include:
- Custom Business Logic Validates Data to Enforce Data Standards
- Adding Calculated Fields and Auto-populated Fields
- Scripted Actions to Implement Automation
- Screen Enhancements to Improve Usability
- Custom Maximo Functionality to Meet Unique Business Requirements
- A Simplified Alternative to Maximo Workflow for Business Process Automation
- Can Be Used in Conjunction with Maximo Workflow or Instead of Maximo Workflow
Looking for More from Maximo?
Explore the other core functionalities of RulesManager Studio.
Consider MaxAssist, the only online training module designed for IBM Maximo, and MaxPerform, an application enabling you to test, monitor, compare, automate, manage and control your Maximo system.
Learn About our Other Software Solutions
RulesManager Studio Basics: Frequently Asked Questions
Click on the arrow for answers from the experts at TRM about Maximo and RulesManager solutions:
Previous Customizations
What is the recommendation for customers that have a “very” customized (i.e. lots of java classes) Maximo system?
- We typically find no conflict with previous customizations. This, of course, will depend on the customizations you’ve made, but in general, we strive to have our product work with any current customizations.
Will there be conflicts? Is it better to migrate everything to RulesManager? Is a full test cycle needed after RulesManager rules are added to such an environment (heavily customized)?
- Migration is often the best, but not always the most cost effective. This judgment should be based on where you are going with Maximo vs how many/what kind of customizations you have.
- Full testing is always recommended for any environment.
Architecture
Can you give us further architecture details? What runs on the server? What runs in the browser client?
- The RulesManager runtime engine runs on the server. There is no installation required to your browser clients or changes to your database. The Rules Builder Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is based on Eclipse and a RulesManager plug-in is provided to write rules.
What is installed on the server in order to make RulesManager work?
- Java Archive Repository (JAR) files are installed to your Maximo installations directory and built into your Enterprise Application Repository (EAR) file. You merely have to run the RulesManager installer, build your EAR file and deploy it to your Web platform as you normally do with “Out of the Box” Maximo.
Does RulesManager require extra resources (RAM, CPU, network bandwidth)?
- No. The system requirements are the same as for Maximo without RulesManager.
Is RulesManager independent of the platform? If not which versions/platforms are supported? Is RulesManager development portable to any version/platform without changes?
- RulesManager is certified against all major platforms that Maximo runs on.
How would you deploy these rules to another environment? Are they stored in a file somewhere?
- The rules are stored in XML files that can be deployed easily to other environments (test and production environments).
Learning
How is the product packaged? Does it include rules examples for every type of rule? What documentation is provided?
- Documentation is included in Studio and sample Rule files and libraries are included.
Are there any best practices for implementing rules in order to improve performance or other considerations?
- Standard coding best practices should be followed, such as building functions/libraries for items needed in multiple areas and focus on building ‘low cost/efficient’ rules. We have a knowledge base with a living best practices thread and there is a best practices section in our Developers Guide.
What is available in terms of RulesManager training?
- Upcoming 5-day RulesManager training courses can be found on the Training page of this website.
- We are also creating a 3-day refresher RulesManager course for the more experienced rule-writer to increase their knowledge – please contact us for more information on this.
How long does it take for a person to become productive with RulesManager?
- This depends on the proficiency in Maximo. Typically, Java programmers are immediately effective, whereas others may take a month of working with RulesManager to start becoming proficient after completing a RulesManager training course. Students taking the RulesManager training course are also encouraged to bring along their typical problems that their instructor may help solve during the course of the training.
Is it possible to build a library of JavaScript functions that then can be reused in the rules?
- Yes, in fact it’s recommended. We provide some common useful libraries as well (such as a CSV library).
Support
Does IBM standard support area support clients that have RulesManager installed?
- No. TRM provides RulesManager Support via email and phone.
- RulesManager is a Tivoli-approved 3rd party product. RulesManager has a “turn off” switch so you can completely turn RulesManager off. When a problem is encountered and it cannot be isolated, we recommend turning RulesManager off to see if the problem persists.
- If it does, when you call the IBM help desk, you can legitimately say you have no 3rd party products installed.
If patches/fixes are installed, are rules affected? Is testing required afterwards?
- Yes, we always recommend re-configuring and testing your RulesManager rules after (Maximo) patches are installed. We post support patches for RulesManager as they are QA’d.
Pricing
How is RulesManager licensed? What is the Price Schedule? Is there a runtime license? For clients that will not need the development environment, will use a third party for development?
- RulesManager licenses mirror a client’s Maximo licenses. For example, if a client has 100 Full, 300 Limited and 1,000 Express users, they need an equal number of RulesManager Full, Limited and Express licenses. Service providers that support and develop Maximo for their clients should contact us about pricing.
Data Migration
How does RulesManager function as a data migration tool or interface to external systems?
- RulesManager provides several options for moving data in and out of Maximo. RulesManager can be used to import and export data between the systems without the need for Java development. These tasks can easily be scripted and timed as regular tasks using RulesManager’s CRON task capability.
- One of the distinctions RulesManager adds is the ability to transact with an external XML service and get real time data on the Maximo screen during a transaction. An example is using a RulesManager interface function to get GL account validations from an external system, live at the Maximo screen, while a user is working on a transaction.
- Another example showing the flexibility of the RulesManager Interface functions is a rule which includes an interface to an HR system and populates a lookup (real-time) of only craftsmen currently “clocked in” per the HR system for emergency work orders.
- Interface Communication Options: Rules can be written that can include the following interface communication options for Maximo with external systems or data sources which include:
- HTTP – Sending and Receiving Web Transactions in Maximo
- JDBC – Pulling Data from an External Database into Maximo
- FTP – Sending and Receiving FTP Files and Transactions in Maximo
- XML Web Services – Sending and Receiving XML Transactions in Maximo, e.g. SOAP
- File/Directory – Creating and Accessing Files on the Maximo Server
- Email – Sending and Listening to SMTP and POP Servers
- SVN – Connecting and Creating Subversion Repositories
- Data Parsing Options: RulesManager includes tools to parse the data as needed. The following data formats can be parsed within a RulesManager rule:
- XML
- CSV
- FLAT File
- JSON
- HTML
- ZIP
- Microsoft Project
- CRON Task: RulesManager supports CRON Tasks so the required frequency of the interface can be set. Additionally, RulesManager allows scripts to be triggered based on defined conditions when a CRON task fires without the need for any Java coding.
- Maximo Integration Framework (MIF): Rules can be written on MIF, so rules can fire for incoming or outgoing MIF traffic. This includes rules specifically for Web Services, Enterprise Services, Publish Channels or Invocation Channels. User Exits, Internal Exits, Response Exits, Processing Classes and Event Filter Classes can all be replaced with RulesManager rules.
- Mobile: Need different rules for Maximo Everyplace? RulesManager can do that. Rules will also work for any Mobile system that updates data through the application server, this includes Maximo Anywhere.
Scripting Engine
I believe it is possible to run an external JavaScript file via the RulesManager. What is required on the machine from where the script is run – full RulesManager installed or something less?
- It is possible. There is a separate component, which we call the standalone engine. The standalone engine allows your script to read/manipulate data from multiple Maximo instances, XML Web services, JDBC databases, local file systems, etc. It has a separate installer. You do not need to have anything on that machine other than Java to run the standalone. However, if the standalone needs to connect to a Maximo instance, that Maximo instance must have RulesManager installed.
Performance Impact
What is the performance impact of RulesManager?
- The RulesManager framework has an insignificant (unmeasurable) footprint and there is no correlation between performance degradation and the number of rules on the system when development best practices are followed.
- Our Quality Assurance team thoroughly vets (and load tests) every release. We’ve tested the performance on several global organizations with over 3,500 rules, multiple time zones and thousands of users – there was a negligible performance impact.
Reporting
Can RulesManager customize the Reports selection and request pages? For example, can I hide reports from some users/groups and when running a report can I customize the request page to not show some optional report criteria?
- RulesManager has the ability to control any (Maximo Business Object) MBO or MBOSet in your Maximo System. Any dialog, application, etc. that uses MBOs and MBOSets to present data can be controlled. In this case, the Report MBO is presenting the data and can be controlled via RulesManager.
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