Tips for Polishing Your OPA Policy Model
Oracle Policy Automation Cloud Service (August 2014)
Jasmine Lee
Principal Solution Specialist
Last updated: 18 November 2014
Copyright © 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |
Introduction
• Audience – People who work with OPA policy models. It is assumed the
reader has already had OPA training and is familiar with using OPA.
• Purpose – Provide ideas and suggestions for polishing your policy models,
and direct you to relevant articles in the OPA User Guide
• Software version – Slide deck prepared for Oracle Policy Modeling Cloud
• Acronyms
–OPA – Oracle Policy Automation
–OPM – Oracle Policy Modeling
–OWD – Oracle Web Determinations
Tip: Latest version of the OPA
User Guide can be found via
the question mark button in
OPM and on OPA OTN
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Example Projects
• OPM Cloud has examples which demonstrate the features discussed in this deck. See
the OPA User Guide article Example Policy Models for descriptions of the examples.
Filter examples by Industry and Feature
Example projects available
from the Project tab
Example projects available
from the Project tab
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Tips for Polishing Your Policy Model
• Substitution and Sentence Generation
– Name Substitution
– Gender Pronoun Substitution
– Second Person Sentence Generation
– Substituting Names in Labels
• User Input
– Default Values for Attributes on Screens
– Validating User Input – Event rules
– Validating User Input – Data tab
– Value Lists
• Screen Configuration
– Labels on Interview Screens
– Interview Stages
– Containers
– Entity Collect Screen
– Adding Images to Interview Screens
• Improving the Explanation
– Trimming Explanations – Attributes
– Trimming Explanations – Relationships
– Intermediate Attributes
• Enhancing Web Determinations
– Look and Feel of Web Determinations
– Document Generation using BI Publisher
• Language Support
– Adding a Verb to the Default Verb List
– Adding a Translation Layer
– Writing Rules in Other Languages
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Substitution and Sentence Generation
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5
Name Substitution
OPA User Guide
• Personalizes the interview for a more user-friendly experience
• Collect the person’s name at start of the interview, then
substitute the name in later questions, e.g. “Does the person
have insurance?” becomes “Does Homer have insurance?”
• Particularly important when using entities, e.g. “Is the child a
full-time student?” becomes “Is Bart a full-time student?”, “Is
Lisa a full-time student?”, etc.
• Substituted name automatically appears in attribute text on
interview screens and in explanations
• Substitute the value of
an attribute for its text
• Set up substitution
• Understand text
substitution
principles
• Combine multiple text
strings into a single text
attribute
• If substituted value is unknown, the original text will display
• If first and last name collected separately, you can use string
concatenation to combine if full name needed for substitution
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6
Gender Pronoun Substitution
• May be used in combination, or in isolation, with name
substitution to personalize the interview for a more userfriendly experience, and to provide more natural language text
• Gender pronoun substitution requires collecting gender
Original rule
generically refers
to “the applicant”
In combination with name substitution, “Has the
applicant submitted the applicant’s tax return?”
becomes “Has Homer submitted his tax return?”
OPA User Guide
• Substitute the value of
an attribute for its text
• Set up substitution
• Substitute a
pronoun for a text
attribute
• Understand text
substitution
principles
• Collect the gender of a
person
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7
Second Person Sentence Generation
• Similar concept to name substitution, but sentences/questions
generated in second person rather than third person
• Requires name substitution to be set up first
OPA User Guide
• Change the text of an
interview question
• Display interview
questions in second
person form
• Also see the articles for
Name Substitution
Example: Instead of “Has the
applicant submitted the applicant’s
tax return?” it displays “Have you
submitted your tax return?”
Example: Instead of “Does the
applicant have health
insurance?” it displays “Do
you have health insurance?”
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8
Substituting Names in Labels
• Variable values (e.g. person’s name, age, etc.) can be
substituted into labels on interview screens
• Requires name substitution to be set up first
Example: The person’s name and age
were collected on a previous screen,
and those values have been substituted
into label text on the School screen
OPA User Guide
• Substitute the value of
an attribute for its text
• Set up substitution
• Substitute an
attribute value into
text on screens
• Tip: For substitution in labels, make sure the substitution
values will always be known in advance of the screen being
displayed, otherwise “unknown” will appear in place of the
substitution value
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Screen Configuration
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Labels on Interview Screens
• Labels can:
OPA User Guide
• Add labels to screens
– be added to provide context and additional info
– be used as additional headings and subheadings
– include raw text, as well as HTML
– have conditional visibility
– contain substitution
• Add a label control
• Specify the style of a
label
• Control when a label
is shown
• Substitute the value of
an attribute for its text
• Substitute an
attribute value into
text on screens
• HTML validation for
interviews
Example label
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Interview Stages
OPA User Guide
• Group related interview screens together in a folder
• Folder becomes an interview stage in OWD
• Organize an interview
into stages
OPM (design time)
• Tip: Try to keep interview stage headings
and screen names to a single row each
Interview screen
• Add stages to an
interview
• Rename an
interview stage
Interview stage
• Delete an interview
stage
Interview stage
OWD (runtime)
Interview screen
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Containers
OPA User Guide
• Containers may be used to lay out screen controls side-by-side
• Containers allow for responsive design in OWD, e.g. multiple
columns which collapse to a single column in a small browser
• Labels and images may also be put into Containers
• Add containers to
screens
• See the example project
myBenefits which uses
Containers on several
screens
Screen controls laid out in two columns
Efficient use of space on a larger screen
Screen controls automatically
collapse to one column in a
narrow browser window. More
readable on a small screen.
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Entity Collect Screen
OPA User Guide
• Entity collection layout can be ‘portrait’ or ‘tabular’ style
• Collect information
about entity instances
• Tabular will usually make more efficient use of screen space
• Containers can also be used inside the entity collect space to
control layout
• Example project:
myBenefits
Entity collect screen
with tabular layout
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Adding Images to Interview Screens
• Add images to interview screens as useful visual aids
OPA User Guide
• Add images to screens
• Example project:
Energy Saver
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Enhancing Web Determinations
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16
Look and Feel of Web Determinations
• Many aspects of the OWD look and feel can be set in the
Styles section of the Interview tab, e.g. color scheme, banner
graphic and heading styles
OPA User Guide
• Customize the appearance
of the interview
• Customize the appearance
of interview items
Styles section in OPM
Web Determinations
and the Debugger
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Document Generation using BI Publisher
• Generate documents from OWD interviews, e.g. letters, claim
forms, etc. Available formats: PDF, RTF, HTML, Excel
OPA User Guide
• What is a form?
• Documents may include text, images, graphics, charts, etc.
• Create, update or delete
a form
• Note: Requires installation of BI Publisher Desktop. This is a
separate product. It is not part of Oracle Policy Modeling.
• Add forms to screens
• Develop a template for a
form
• BI Publisher code for
Policy Modeling
• Download BI Publisher
• Troubleshooting guide
for using BI Publisher
with Policy Modeling
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User Input
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Default Values for Attributes on Screens
• Can set default values for attributes on interview screens
– Defaults can be specific values, or can be dynamically determined
based on previously collected data, or inferred from rules
• Reduces the typing/clicking required to complete an interview
OPA User Guide
• Add questions to
screens
• Specify a default for
an input
All currency values have been defaulted to $0.
User only needs to edit the fields for which
they have income. Reduces manual data entry.
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Validating User Input – Event Rules
• Error event and Warning event rules may be used where
there is conditional logic associated with the validation, e.g.
– Display the message “Please check the dates of birth. You have
indicated that your date of birth is after your child’s date of birth.”
if the applicant’s date of birth > the child’s date of birth
• Error event: Error message is displayed and the user is
prevented from continuing until the situation that triggered
the event is no longer present.
OPA User Guide
• Validate user input using
errors and warnings
• Write an error event
rule
• Write a warning
event rule
• Warning event: Warning message is displayed, but the user is
able to click past and continue the interview.
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Validating User Input – Data Tab
• Validation with regular expressions and min/max can be done
on the attribute in the Data tab
– Error text may be configured on a per attribute basis
• Use min/max values if there is no conditional logic for
triggering the error, e.g.
– ‘the person’s age’ field could have a minimum allowable value of
0 and a maximum of 120
• Use regular expressions to validate the format of an input
such as an email address, an SSN, a TFN, a NINO or a PHN, e.g.
– ^[0-9]{3}-?[0-9]{2}-?[0-9]{4}$ is a basic SSN validation – allows for
NNN-NN-NNNN and NNNNNNNNN
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OPA User Guide
• Validate user input using
errors and warnings
• Specify minimum
and maximum
values
• Use regular
expressions
Other info
• http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Regular_expression
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Value Lists
OPA User Guide
• A value list is a way of managing lists of values for Text and
Number attributes
• What is a value list?
• Particularly useful when multiple attributes need the same list,
e.g. an online application form may ask for a ‘home address
state’ and a ‘mailing address state’. Create one value list for
‘state’ and attach it to both attributes
• Example project:
myBenefits
• Create, modify or delete
a value list
• Note: This is not a replacement for regular drop-down lists on
screens, it’s an alternative which can save time when multiple
attributes need the same list items
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23
Improving the Explanation
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24
Trimming Explanations – Attributes
• Explanations* automatically generated based on the logic,
language and structure of the rules can be extremely verbose
• Can trim Explanations using Silent and Invisible settings on the
attribute in the Data tab
– Silent: Hide all logic nested below a particular attribute
– Invisible: Hide the attribute only
Options for Booleans
Options for non-Booleans
OPA User Guide
• Hide information in an
explanation
• Hide all attributes in
the explanation
below a particular
attribute
• Hide a particular
attribute in the
explanation
• Cut off an
explanation above a
particular attribute
* Explanations previously called Decision Reports
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Trimming Explanations – Relationships
• Silent and Invisible can be applied to relationships
– See examples below with a containment relationship (the
household members) and an inferred relationship (the children)
No trimming
Invisible set on
the containment
relationship
Invisible on
containment
relationship
Silent on
inferred
relationship
OPA User Guide
• Hide information in an
explanation
• Hide a relationship
in the explanation
Invisible set on
both relationships
Invisible on
containment
relationship
Silent and
Invisible on
inferred
relationship
* Explanations previously called Decision Reports
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Intermediate Attributes
OPA User Guide
• Intermediate attributes can be added to make the
Explanation* more meaningful
– These two examples have identical core logic, but Example 2
has a more meaningful Explanation* due to the inclusion of
intermediate attributes
Example 2
• Design an explanation
• Add more information
to an explanation
• Add intermediate
rules
• Improve the wording of
a rule
• Replace grouping
operators with new
attributes
Example 1
* Explanations previously called Decision Reports
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Language Support
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Adding a Verb to the Default Verb List
• Default verb list for the policy model is based on the Rule
Language selected when creating the project
OPA User Guide
• Configure the list of
recognized verbs
• Occasionally you may need a new verb
• If a Boolean won’t parse properly, it’s
a sign the statement’s operative
verb may not be in the verb list
This statement won’t parse as
intended as the operative verb (love)
is not in the default verb list.
• Options are to re-word
the attribute to use a
different operative verb,
or add the new verb to
the list for the project
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Adding a Translation Layer
OPA User Guide
• Create one or more translation layers, e.g. policy model in
English, OWD in choice of English, Spanish or French
• Create a new language
translation for a policy
model
• Even a partial translation layer is sufficient to demo the
concept. Google Translate can be used for basic demos
• Example project:
Travel Compensation
• Use a (human) translation expert for translation text for
real implementations
English policy model
… with French translation layer
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Writing Rules in Other Languages
• Many languages available out-of-the-box for rule authoring
• When creating a new project, select the desired Rule
Language and Rule Region
• Rule Language:
– Language in which rule documents are written
• Rule Region:
OPA User Guide
• Click ‘Function Reference’
from home screen --> see
Contents panel for
Function Reference in the
supported languages
• Create, modify or delete
a project
• Create a new project
– Affects currency, numeric and date formatting of data entered
and displayed
– Affects parsing of currency and number constants in rule docs
• Change the project
region
• Customize the text of
interview items
• Customize the formatting
of attribute values in an
interview
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Documentation and Further Information
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Oracle Technology Network
Oracle Policy Automation on the Oracle Technology Network
– User Guides
– Best Practice Documentation
– Tutorials, whitepapers, datasheets
Ask questions about OPA on the OPA OTN forum
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OPA Social Media
• OPA on Twitter
• OPA Discussion Forum
• OPA on Facebook
• OPA on YouTube
• OPA on LinkedIn
• OPA Blog
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