Observe rule naming conventions

Each rule name within a rule set must be unique. To help ensure uniqueness, Guidewire recommends that you follow the best practices naming conventions for rules described in this topic. In addition, these naming conventions help you quickly identify each rule within the complex hierarchy of rules in your Guidewire instance during testing and in production.

The basic format for a rule name has two parts:

Identifier- Description

Follow these conventions for Identifier and Description:

  • Separate Identifier from Description with a space, followed by hyphen, followed by a space.
  • Limit Identifier to eight alphanumeric characters.
    Important: PolicyCenter truncates Identifier values that exceed eight characters if you include the actions.ShortRuleName property in rule actions to display rule names in messages that you log or display. PolicyCenter also truncates Identifier values that exceed eight characters in automatic log messages if you enable the RuleExecution logging category and set the server run mode to Debug.
  • Begin Identifier with up to four capital letters to identify the rule set or parent rule of which the rule is a member.
  • End Identifier with at least four numerals to identify the ordinal position of the rule within the hierarchy of rules in the set.
  • For Description values, keep them simple, short, and consistent in their conventions.
  • Limit the total length of rule name to 60 characters.

For example:

CV000100 - Future loss date

Rule naming summary principles

Remember these principles for rule names:

  • Rule names are unique within a rule set.
  • Rules numbers are sequential to mimic the order of rules in the fully expanded set.

The following example demonstrates these principles.

Claim Validation Rules
  CV001000 - Future loss date
  CV002000 - Policy expiration date after effective date
  CV002500 - Not Set: Coverage in question
  CV003000 - Injury
    CVI03100 - Workers Compensation
      CVIW3110 - Claimant exists
      CVIW3120 - Not Set: Injury description
    CV103900 - Default
  CV004000 - Expected recovery exceeds 100

Root rules naming conventions

Consider the following example rule set, Claim Validation Rules. The identifiers of rules in this set all begin with CV, a code to identify “Claim Validation” rules. 

Claim Validation Rules
  CV001000 - Future loss date
  CV002000 - Policy expiration date after effective date
  CV003000 - Injury
    CVI03100 - Workmen’s Compensation
    CV103900 - Default
  CV004000 - Expected recovery exceeds 100

The rule set contains four root rules, with identifiers CV001000, CV002000, CV003000, and CV004000. The numbers at the end of the identifiers, 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000, are units of one thousand. This spread of numbers lets you add new root rules between existing ones without renumbering. You want identifier numbers for rules in a set to remain in sequential order to mimic the order of rules within the fully expanded set.

For example, you want to add a rule between CV002000 and CV003000. Assign the new rule the identifier CV002500.

Claim Validation Rules
  CV001000 - Future loss date
  CV002000 - Policy expiration date after effective date
  CV002500 - Not Set: Coverage in question
  CV003000 - Injury diagnosis validity dates
    CVI03100 - Workmen’s Compensation
    CV103900 - Default
  CV004000 - Expected recovery exceeds 100

Parent and child rules naming conventions

Many rule sets achieve their business function with simple rules in the root of the set. In preceding example, rules CV001000, CV002000, CV002500, and CV004000 are simple root rules. Frequently however, rule sets achieve their business function only with a hierarchy of parent and child rules. In the example, rule CV003000 is a parent rule with two child rules.

When you add child rules to a parent, follow these conventions:

  • Expand the beginning code for the child rules with an additional letter to identify their parent.
  • Assign each child rule an ending number that falls between the number of the parent and the sibling rule that follows the parent.
  • Assign the children a spread of numbers so you can add more children later without renumbering.

In the preceding example, the identifiers for the child rules of CV003000 all begin with CVI, a code to identify “Claim Validation Injury” rules. 

Claim Validation Rules
...
  CV003000 - Injury
    CVI03100 - Workmen’s Compensation
    CV103900 - Default
  CV004000 - Expected recovery exceeds 100

The spread of numbers for child rules of a root parent rule generally are units of one hundred. This spread of numbers lets you add new child rules between existing ones without renumbering. Most importantly, the numbers of child rules must fall between the numbers of their parent rule and the sibling rule that follows their parent. In this example, the numbers for child rules satisfy both conventions.

The parent and child naming convention applies to another, third level of children. For example, you want to add two new child rules to the rule CVI03100 - Workmens’s Compensation. Begin the child identifiers with CVIW, a code to identify “Claim Validation Injury Workmen’s Compensation” rules. At the third level of a rule set hierarchy, the spread of numbers for the child rules generally are units of ten.

Claim Validation Rules
...
  CV003000 - Injury
    CVI03100 - Workmen’s Compensation
      CVIW3110 - Claimant exists
      CVIW3120 - Not Set: Injury description
    CV103900 - Default 
  CV004000 - Expected recovery exceeds 100