More Detail:

• NRL Rule Editor
• Mapping Editor
• Java Generator
• Model Two Zero Main Page

Software Components

Model Two Zero makes available software components to enable users and developers to work with the Natural Rule Language.

User Interface

Data modelers, technically aware business analysts or developers use the NRL user interface tools to create their specifications. These tools are built on top of Eclipse:


Since these tools are built on the Eclipse platform, they can be used standalone or in combination with modeling tools like IBM® Rational®'s RSM or RSA. XML Schema editors are also commonly used in conjunction with NRL.

More detail is available for each component:

	Function	Aimed At
NRL Rule Editor	Specify validation rules for data or messages by expressing them as NRL written against models. More detail...	Data Modelers, Technical Analysts, or Developers
Mapping Editor	Map between model representations, in order to achieve translations between data formats (e.g. XML to database). More detail...	Data Modelers, Technical Analysts, or Developers
Java Generator	Translate NRL to pure Java code; configure generation. More detail...	Developers

Runtime

There is no runtime requirement. The Java Generator produces plain Java source code that can be called directly, and maintained indepently if necessary.

Core Components

The NRL core components form the layer that sits beneath the user interface. They do not themselves have any user interface functionality.


These components are aimed at developers who wish to:

• Automate build processes around NRL, for example by plugging generators into ant or Maven.
• Produce new generators for NRL, for example: OCL generation, XPath generation, or generating C# code for .NET
• Build analysis software that can perform rule analysis
• Plug in new documentation frameworks that build model-driven documentation using the rules

All core components are implemented in Java. Tool builders can use the base parsers to product an Abstract-Syntax Tree representation of user rules, and transform the tree any way they like.