The Progress Corticon Studio is where rules are created, maintained, tested, and packaged for deployment. The Corticon Studio workbench comprises several work sections for your interactive rule development and testing.



The highlighted sections in this illustration are:

  • Title bar - Displays the current workspace, and the active project's active file in the editor.
  • Menu bar - Provides access to Studio commands. The active file's type adds its menu.
  • Tool bar - Provides access to most Studio commands. The active file's type adds its bar to the toolset.
  • Project panel - Lists all the projects that are in the workspace. Expanding a project opens its folders and lists its files.
  • Editor window - Enables the editing functions for the file's type. When other files open in the editor window, they all are available but only one is active.
  • Operators panel - Provides hints to the rule language syntax and usage and also lets you drag and drop selected operators into rules.
  • Additional info on active window - Comments and added information are relative to the active window.
  • Properties and problems - Settings for the active window's file are maintained here. Problems are workspace wide listings.

Corticon assets in a Rule Project

In this view of the Corticon Studio, the OrderProcessing Rule Project is loaded. The editor view has each of the four file types in a Corticon project open:
  • Vocabulary - An .ecore file is structured dictionary containing all necessary business terms and relationships between them used by the business rules. In this illustration, the Vocabulary is the active window.
  • Rulesheet - An .ers file is a set of conditions and actions and plain language statements written from a common business Vocabulary. A Rulesheet is associated with one Vocabulary. Multiple Rulesheets can use the same Vocabulary.
  • Ruleflow - An .erf file is a set of one or more Rulesheets, embedded service call-outs, and other Ruleflows organized on a canvas for sequential execution. A Ruleflow is compiled into a versioned Decision Service, shown here as Order_v1_10.eds, and then deployed on Servers.
  • Ruletest - An .ert file is a set of one or more Testsheets containing sample data used for testing Rulesheets and Ruleflows, all based on the same Vocabulary. While optional, they are the essence of Corticon's test-as-you-go structure.

Once you have defined a Vocabulary, you build Rulesheets that you then assemble into Ruleflows that can include additional functions. You can then create tests to run against the Ruleflow right in the Studio as though it were deployed.

The project illustrated also shows some supporting files that are often placed in the project space:
  • Decision Service package - An .eds file is a versioned package of the compiled rules, ready for deployment.
  • Deployment Descriptor file - A .cdd file is a way to package several Decision Services and their supporting files and properties.
  • JSON and XML test requests - Well-formed JSON and XML requests are useful for testing a deployed Decision Service.

Initial menu commands

Many menu commands are standard behaviors in any development environment. Commands that are key to Corticon Studio are available when Corticon Studio opens:

File Menu

The Corticon actions accessed on the File menu are:

  • New - Creates the specified Corticon Studio resource dialogs to create Corticon rule projects, their assets and files in the file system. You generally want to create Rule Projects instead of just Projects to ensure that the Corticon Nature is applied.
  • New > Folder - Creates a new file folder.
  • Import - Enables import archive files, project folders, or loose files from your file system into an existing project. See Importing or exporting a Rule Project.
  • Export - Enables export of resources of an existing project to archive files, or the file system. See Importing or exporting a Rule Project.
  • Switch Workspace - Select a different workspace. Lets you choose whether to save each open file in the editors before restarting into the selected workspace. It is a good idea to update rule assets after you choose a workspace that has not been used recently.

Edit Menu

The initial Corticon actions accessed on the Edit menu are the basic cut, copy, paste, delete, and select. You might see that the undo/redo actions are available.

Navigate Menu

The actions accessed on the Navigate menu are standard workbench functions. You can jump to the file in its file system context or you can open its Properties tab. Do not rename, add or delete files, or arrange folders in the project's file system context. Do those actions in the workbench so that the project can apply your changes across all the project's assets.

Project Menu

The Corticon actions accessed on the Project menu are described in The Project Explorer window. They have limited functionality when there are no open projects.

Vocabulary, Rulesheet, Ruleflow, Ruletest Menus

Note: When a Corticon file is active in the Editor Window, its file type's menu is replaces another type's menu in the menubar. Each of these is described in a separate topic, as follows:

Window Menu

The Corticon actions accessed on the Window menu are:

  • Show View - Adds a perspective-related view as a tab in the perspective window. Views in the Corticon Designer include Corticon AI Assistant, Comments, Localization, Natural Language, Problems, Properties, Rule Messages, Rule Operators, Project Explorer, Rule Statements, and Rule Vocabulary. Other lists all available views, whether or not directly relevant in the current perspective.
  • Open Perspective - Opens a defined set of views and editors. You might want to switch to Corticon Classic to extend the Studio user interface to include Eclipse tooling that Corticon Studio does not typically use.
    • Corticon Designer - Resets the layout to the views commonly used default Corticon user interface.
    • Other - Opens the perspective dialog where you can choose an available perspective, such as Java or Corticon Designer Classic, the perspective that shows a richer set of Eclipse options.
  • Preferences - Opens the Preferences dialog for the installation. Corticon preferences include:
    • Progress Corticon
      • Setting the override properties file - The basic override file, brms.properties, is installed at the work directory root. You can choose to point to a file that exists at your preferred location that will be the last set of overrides that are loaded.
        Note: Changing the override properties file -- and changes within an override file --- are not applied until you restart the Studio.
      • License file path and information - The current license file information is displayed. You can point a preferred license file or license file location.
      • Note: Changing the license file location is applied as soon as you click Apply or OK -- you do not need to restart the Studio.

        Click Apply to record your selections. Click OK to close the dialog.

      Corticon AI Assistant submenu– Lets you choose your AI Provider and then enter your API Key. Test your key, and then choose other options.

Help Menu



The Corticon actions accessed on the Help menu are:

  • Welcome - Opens the Welcome page with access to What's New, Samples, Tutorials, Documentation, and Web Resources. Use the Home button in the upper right if the page that opens is not the top page.
  • Help Contents - Opens the help system window where you can access the Corticon Information Hub for up-to-date documentation for the latest release of the Studio and its related Corticon tools. You can also search for terms, access documentation archives, and browse the help structure of Eclipse and third-party tools.
  • Samples - Opens the Welcome page's Samples panel to access and unpack Corticon sample projects.
  • Tutorials - Opens the Welcome page's Tutorials panel to access the tutorial documents on the Corticon Information Hub.
  • Check for Updates - Accesses Progress and related sites to determine whether updates are available.
  • About Corticon Studio - Details versions and licenses of installed Corticon Studio, Eclipse, and other installed products. Also provides access to installation details.
Note: Keyboard shortcuts - Many menu commands have keyboard shortcuts displayed next to their command name. There are also many other general and Eclipse shortcuts that might be relevant in your work. You can open the list of shortcuts by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+L. The complete list is accessible at Window > Preferences, and then General > Keys.

Initial tool bar

The initial Corticon Studio toolbar shows tools that create and save assets in open projects. These tools are also accessible as menu commands.

The tools initiate the following actions:

  • > New open the dialogs to create Corticon rule projects, their assets and files in the file system. You generally want to create Rule Projects instead of just Projects to ensure that the Corticon Nature is applied.
  • Saves changes to the active file in the editor window.
  • Saves changes to all open files in the editor window.