T*Star Service Package Customization and Filtering System

A Java Application Linked with JESS - the Rule Engine for the Java Platform

The Challenge

In today's Telecommunication and Broadband industries service packages are offered through multiple sales channels, each of which can contain several package offerings and promotions unique to that partner or sales channel. For companies the challenge is build and use a single software framework that is robust and adaptable enough to accomodate all of these channels and at the same time provide customization and filtering for each partner and customer's needs.

In the past software developers often resorted to building code with level upon level of if-then statements in classes and web pages. There is a better way. Use the right tool for the job.

The Solution

Procedural programming languages produce results using logic encoded in step-by-step methods. Some problems however, such as customization and filtering are better approached using "declarative" or rule based programming.

When an application must both do procedural programming task as well as declarative, a hybrid approach can be used. With T*Star I wrote procedural Java code to communicate over the net, interface with the database. and load facts into JESS's working memory.

JESS uses the facts, rules, and template structures to filter and output the customized results (see below). Rule values are stored in a database and uploaded via Hibernate to the Java code and the JESS rule engine.

Diagram of the T*Star Program Architecture.

Test Values

These are some of the data values that can be input to the T*Star system. Hypothetical test values, rules, promotions, and service packages are already in the database for retrieval and testing. In actual use, T*Star performs a database lookup to determine if a user is a previous customer. Simulated credit scores are used in testing. Actual credit score values would be retrieved via a web services call to a credit reporting agency.

Sales Channel
 
First Name Last Name
Address
City
State
Zip
 
Previous Customer Credit Score

 
Click on this link to access the T*Star Test Page Test Drive T*Star for yourself !

Copyright (c) 2004 -6 by Sawatch Software, Inc. TStar is a trademark of Sawatch Software, Inc. Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems
Last Updated April 13, 2006 JESS is a trademark of Sandia National Laboratories