In addition to being a convenient way to test your Rulesheets with real business scenarios, the Corticon Studio Ruletest facility is also the best way to troubleshoot rule, Rulesheet, and Ruleflow operations. Corticon Ruletest are designed to replicate exactly the data handling, translation, and rule execution by Corticon Server when deployed as a Java component or web service in a production environment.

This means that if your rules function correctly when executed in a Corticon Ruletest, you can be confident they will also function correctly when executed by Corticon Server. If they do not, then the trouble is most likely in the way data is sent to Corticon Server – in other words, in the technical integration. This is such a fundamental tenet of rule modeling with Corticon, we'll repeat it again:

If your rules function correctly when executed in a Corticon Studio, they will also function correctly when executed by Corticon Server. If they do not, then the trouble is most likely your client application's integration with or invocation of Corticon Server.

The following methodology will guide your rule troubleshooting and debugging efforts. The basic technique is known generically as half-splitting or binary chopping. In other words, dividing a decision into smaller logical pieces, and then setting aside the known, good pieces systematically until the problem is isolated.

This guide is not intended to be an in-depth cookbook for correcting specific problems because, as an expression language, the Corticon Rule Language offers too many syntactical combinations to address each in any detail.