I would like to find or create a syntax to express business contracts programmatically, and I am looking for a robust, flexible, future-resistant way to do this.
A client should be able to add a negotiation points of varying types to the contract.
An example of a boolean negotiation point:
- “There is a pre-payment penalty?” (yes/no)
While the above is certainly doable, it seems more difficult to describe the relationships between the negotiation points in an abstract way.
Some examples:
- $600 is paid by “Client A” for inspection.
- The above amount is paid by “Client B” if condition Y (information that should have been disclosed before the inspection was not disclosed).
Some other possible functionality:
- Virtual fields are calculated based on the numeric values of other fields.
Notes:
It certainly seems like XML or possibly JSON-schema are possible candidates for describing the above. But I am open to other options.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_XML_markup_languages
Many thanks,
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The most commonly accepted way is to use a Business Rules Engine of some sort.
Of course, if you’re willing to roll your own BRE, and just need a reading on the markup language to use, I would imagine that XML is as good as any. It is hierarchical, has namespaces, and is unlikely to become obsolete any time soon. Since it’s likely that we’re not talking about gigabytes of markup here, the angle bracket tax is unlikely to be a real issue.
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At the syntax level, either XML or JSON would do fine. But that’s the easy bit. The challenge is defining what can go in the rules. I would adopt a standard object modelling approach: what are the entities you need to represent, and what are their attributes and relationships? When you know that, encoding it in XML is easy.
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The biggest problem is the huge set of assumptions that you so easily skip.
Just take your example: “$600 is paid by Client A for inspection”
- USD or other dollar?
- Paid when?
- To whom?
- What counts as an inspection?
- Is this a mandatory payment, or only incurred if A opts to do the inspection?
- Are multiple inspections allowed, If so, is this per inspection?
Your DSL will need to deal with all this complexity. For contracts in English, lawyers have already developed ways to resolve such issues, and even prevent them by reviewing draft contracts.
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