Tips for Polishing Your OPA Policy Model - Oracle Policy Automation (March 2019) Jasmine Lee Oracle Policy Automation Specialist Last updated: ...
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Tips for Polishing Your OPA Policy Model
Oracle Policy Automation (March 2019)
Jasmine Lee
Oracle Policy Automation Specialist
Last updated: March 2019
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |
Introduction
• Audience – People who work with OPA policy models. It is assumed the
reader has already had OPA training and is familiar with using OPA.
• Purpose – Provide ideas and suggestions for polishing your policy models,
and direct you to relevant articles in the OPA Documentation Library.
• Software version – Deck prepared for Oracle Policy Modeling (19A).
• Acronyms
–OPA – Oracle Policy Automation Tip: Latest version of the OPA
Documentation Library can be
–OPM – Oracle Policy Modeling found via the question mark
button in OPM and on OPA OTN
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |
Example Projects
• OPM includes Example Policy Models that demonstrate features discussed in this deck
Filter examples by Industry and Feature
Example projects available
from the Project tab
Example projects available
from the Project tab
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 3
Tips for Polishing Your Policy Model
• Screen Configuration • Substitution and Sentence Generation • Improving the Explanation
– Labels on Interview Screens – Name Substitution – Intermediate Attributes
– Interview Stages – Gender Pronoun Substitution – Rule Tags
– Navigation Strip – Second Person Sentence Generation – Trimming Explanations – Attributes
– Containers – Substituting Names in Labels – Trimming Explanations – Relationships
– Entity Collect Screen • User Input
– Adding Images to Interview Screens – Default Values
• Enhancing Interviews – Value Lists
– Look and Feel of Interviews – Hint Text
– Document Generation using BI – Validating User Input – Event rules
Publisher – Validating User Input – Data tab
– Capture the User’s Location – Input Masks
– Configuring Attribute Value Formats
• Language Support
– Configuring Standard Message Strings
– Adding a Verb to the Default Verb List
– Adding a Translation Layer
– Writing Rules in Other Languages
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 4
Screen Configuration
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 5
Labels on Interview Screens
Documentation Library
• Labels can: • Add text to screens
– be added to provide context and additional info • Add a label control
– be used as additional headings and subheadings • Specify the type of
label
– include raw text, as well as HTML
• Hide and show screen
– have conditional visibility controls
– contain substitution • Show attribute values
on screens
• Show attribute
values in other
screen text
Example labels • Use embedded HTML in
an interview
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 6
Interview Stages
Documentation Library
• Group related interview screens together in a folder • Organize an interview
• Folder becomes a stage in the interview into stages
OPM (design time) Interview (runtime)
Interview stage
Interview stage
Interview screen
Interview screen
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 7
Navigation Strip
Documentation Library
• Configure the
appearance of the
interview
• Configure the
Train stops
navigation strip
Left menu
• Navigation strip may
be displayed at the
top or left of the page
• Many configuration
Ribbon Thermometer options available, e.g.
text color, text size,
background color
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 8
Containers
Documentation Library
• Containers may be used to lay out screen controls side-by-side • Change control layout
• Containers allow for responsive design in interviews, e.g. two for a screen
columns which collapse to a single column in a small browser • Example project:
myBenefits
• Labels and images may also
be put in containers
Screen controls laid
out in two columns.
Efficient use of space
on a larger screen
Screen controls automatically
collapse to one column in a
narrow browser window. More
readable on a small screen.
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 9
Entity Collect Screen
Documentation Library
• Entity collection layout can be ‘portrait’ or ‘tabular’ style • Collect entity instances
• Tabular will usually make more efficient use of screen space • Example project:
myBenefits
• Containers can also be used inside the entity collect space to
control layout
Entity collect screen
with tabular layout
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 10Adding Images to Interview Screens
Documentation Library
• Add images to interview screens as useful visual aids • Add images to screens
• Many configuration options available for images, e.g. • Use embedded HTML in
horizontal alignment (left, center, right), image size, an interview
conditional visibility, clickable link • Refer to images
using HTML tags
• Images may be placed in • Change control layout
containers for further for a screen
layout control • Edit a container
control (including
• Use text substitution to placing other
insert different images controls within a
depending on the value container)
of a substituted attribute • Example project:
Energy Saver
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 11Enhancing Interviews
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 12Look and Feel of Interviews
Documentation Library
• Many aspects of the interview look and feel can be set in the • Configure the appearance
Styles section of the Interview tab, e.g. color scheme, banner of the interview
graphic, heading styles, button location, footer and header • Change the appearance of
interview items
Interview and
the Debugger
Styles section in OPM
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 13Document Generation using BI Publisher
Documentation Library
• Generate documents from interviews, e.g. letters, forms, etc. • Forms
OPM supports creation of RTF, PDF, HTML, XML & Excel forms • Create, update or delete a
form
• Forms may include text, images, charts, explanations, signatures
• Overview of designing a
• Note: Requires installation of BI Publisher Desktop. This is a form
separate product. It is not part of Oracle Policy Modeling. • Design an RTF template or
a PDF template for a form
• Add forms to screens
• Insert a signature into a
form
• BI Publisher code for Policy
Modeling
• Download BI Publisher
• Troubleshooting guide for
forms
• Example: Healthy Eating
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 14Capture the User’s Location
Documentation Library
• User’s location (latitude and longitude) may be captured • Capture the user’s
during the interview using standard browser location support location
• Latitude and longitude may be used in rules, e.g. • Example projects: My
Store App, Emergency
Generate map URL to Response
add to interview screen
Compare distance between locations
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 15Configuring Attribute Value Formats
Documentation Library
• Default attribute value formats are based on the project • Change the formatting
region (for non-Boolean attributes) and the project language of attribute values in an
(for Boolean attributes) interview
• E.g. If project language = ‘English (American)’ and
region = ‘United States (English)’ then:
– Default currency symbol: $
– Default date out format: MM/dd/yyyy
– Default Boolean values: Yes/No
• Default attribute value formats can be modified in:
Project > Language > Formatting
• Generally will not need to edit default formats,
but configuration options are there if needed
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 16Configuring Standard Message Strings
Documentation Library
• Default message strings and labels (e.g. standard error text, • Change the text of
alt-text, button labels, etc.) can be modified in Interview > buttons, messages and
Styles > Strings other built-in interview
items
• Generally will not need to edit default message strings, but
configuration options are there if needed
• Note: Button labels (e.g. Next, Back, Submit, Add New
Instance, Remove) can also be modified on a per-button basis
• To change all occurrences of a message string → modify the
default string, e.g. to use ‘Continue’ instead of ‘Next’ as the
standard label on a Next button
• To change one occurrence of a button label → make the
change on the individual screen
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 17Substitution and Sentence Generation
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 18Name Substitution
Documentation Library
• Personalizes the interview for a more user-friendly experience • Personalize attribute
• Collect the person’s name early in the interview, then text
substitute the name in later questions, e.g. “Does the person • Enable substitution
in Policy Modeling
have insurance?” becomes “Does John have insurance?”
• Understand text
• Particularly important when using entities, e.g. “Is the child a substitution
full-time student?” becomes “Is Emma a full-time student?”, principles
“Is Joshua a full-time student?”, etc. • Combine multiple text
strings into a single text
• Substituted name automatically appears in attribute text on attribute
interview screens and in explanations
• If first and last name collected separately, use concatenation
to combine if full name needed for substitution in attributes
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 19Gender Pronoun Substitution
Documentation Library
• May be used in combination, or in isolation, with name • Personalize attribute
substitution to personalize the interview for a more user- text
friendly experience, and to provide more natural language text • Enable substitution
in Policy Modeling
• Gender pronoun substitution requires collecting gender
• Substitute a
pronoun for a text
In combination with name substitution, “Has the attribute
applicant submitted the applicant’s tax return?” • Understand text
Original rule becomes “Has Christopher submitted his tax return?”
generically refers substitution
to “the applicant” principles
• Collect the gender of a
person
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 20Second Person Sentence Generation
Documentation Library
• Similar concept to name substitution, but sentences/questions • Display interview text in
generated in second person rather than third person second person form
• Requires name substitution to be set up first • Also see the articles for
Name Substitution
• Works with gender pronoun substitution if it has been set up
Example: Instead of “Has the Example: Instead of “Does the
applicant submitted the applicant’s applicant have health
tax return?” it displays “Have you insurance?” it displays “Do
submitted your tax return?” you have health insurance?”
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 21Substituting Names in Labels
Documentation Library
• Variable values (e.g. person’s name, age, etc.) can be • Personalize attribute
substituted into labels on interview screens text
• Requires name substitution to be set up first • Enable substitution
in Policy Modeling
• Understand text
Example: The person’s name and age
substitution
were collected on a previous screen,
principles
and those values have been substituted
into label text on the School screen • Show attribute values
on screens
• Show attribute
• Tip: For substitution in labels, make sure the substitution values in other
screen text
values will always be known in advance of the screen being
displayed, otherwise “unknown” will appear in place of the • View text
substitution
substitution value examples
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 22User Input
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 23Default Values
Documentation Library
• Can set default values for inputs on interview screens • Provide answer values
– Defaults can be specific values, or can be dynamically determined • Specify a default for
based on previously collected data, or inferred from rules an input
• Reduces the typing/clicking required to complete an interview
All currency values have been defaulted to $0.
User only needs to edit the fields for which
they have income. Reduces manual data entry.
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 24Value Lists
Documentation Library
• A value list is a way of managing lists of values for attributes • Overview of value lists
• A single value list can be attached to multiple attributes, e.g. • Set up a value list in a
the person’s home address, the person’s work address project
• Associate a value list
• Value lists can be created manually, imported from another with an attribute
OPM project, or loaded in from a Service Cloud connection or collected on a screen
web service connection. • Hide and show individual
items in a value list
• Value lists can be Value list displayed as
• Choose how data is
image buttons
displayed as lists, collected
radio buttons, • Button types
text buttons, • List types
images, sliders • Example projects: Loan
Advisor, myBenefits
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 25Hint Text
Documentation Library
• Can supply hint text for inputs on interview screens • Provide answer values
– Hint text appears until the user clicks into the input field • Specify hint text
• Tip: Always add hint text when the format of the input is
important, for example:
– Date fields
– Any sort of ID number like SSN, TFN, NINO, PHN
Hint text showing the
required date format
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 26Validating User Input – Event Rules
Documentation Library
• Error event and Warning event rules may be used where • Validate user input
there is conditional logic associated with the validation, e.g. • Use rules to show
– Display the message “Please check the dates of birth. You have errors and warnings
indicated that your date of birth is after your child’s date of birth.”
if the applicant’s date of birth > the child’s date of birth
• Error event: Error message is displayed and the user is
prevented from continuing until the situation that triggered
the event is no longer present.
• Warning event: Warning message is displayed, but the user is
able to click past and continue the interview.
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 27Validating User Input – Data Tab
Documentation Library
• Validation with regular expressions and min/max can be done • Validate user input
on the attribute in the Data tab • Specify validations
– Error text may be configured on a per attribute basis on individual inputs
• Use min/max values if there is no conditional logic for
Other info
triggering the error, e.g.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/
– ‘the person’s age’ field could have a minimum allowable value of wiki/Regular_expression
0 and a maximum of 120
• Use regular expressions to validate the format of an input
such as an email address, an SSN, a TFN, a NINO or a PHN, e.g.
– ^[0-9]{3}-?[0-9]{2}-?[0-9]{4}$ is a basic SSN validation – allows for
NNN-NN-NNNN and NNNNNNNNN
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 28Input Masks
Documentation Library
• Masked input text boxes may be used to auto-format data • Choose how data is
entered into text fields, e.g. phone numbers, social security collected
numbers, product codes, etc. • Text box types –
Masked input text
Uses the input mask: boxes
(999) 999 9999
Uses the input mask:
A*999AA*
• Input masks can effectively act as a type of validation since the
input field won’t allow the user to type offending characters,
e.g. an input mask containing only numbers will not allow
letters to be entered.
• Masked input text boxes can only be used with text attributes.
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 29Language Support
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 30Adding a Verb to the Default Verb List
Documentation Library
• Default verb list for the policy model is based on the Rule • Configure the list of
Language selected when creating the project recognized verbs
• Occasionally you may need a new verb
• If a Boolean won’t parse properly, it’s This statement won’t parse as
intended as the operative verb (love)
a sign the statement’s operative is not in the default verb list.
verb may not be in the verb list
• Options are to re-word
the attribute to use a
different operative verb,
or add the new verb to
the list for the project
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 31Adding a Translation Layer
Documentation Library
• Create one or more translation layers, e.g. policy model in • Translate policy models
English, interview in choice of English, Spanish or French into other languages
• Even a partial translation layer is sufficient to demo the • Create a form in a
different language
concept. Google Translate can be used for basic demos. Use a
• Example project:
(human) translation expert for real implementations Travel Compensation
• Generated forms can also be created in different languages
English … with Spanish … and Chinese
policy model translation layer translation layer
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 32Writing Rules in Other Languages
Documentation Library
• Many languages available out-of-the-box for rule authoring • Write rules in other
– For additional languages, create a custom language parser languages
• Change the user interface
• Function Reference is available in out-of-the-box languages language for Policy
• When creating a new project, select the desired Rule Modeling
Language and Rule Region • Change the language of
the Policy Automation
• Rule Language: Hub
– Language in which rule documents are written • Custom language support
• Function references in
• Rule Region: different languages
– Affects currency, numeric and date formatting of data entered
and displayed
– Affects parsing of currency and number constants in rule docs
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 33Improving the Explanation
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 34Intermediate Attributes
Documentation Library
• Intermediate attributes can be added to make the • Design an explanation
Explanation* more meaningful • Add more information
– These two examples have identical core logic, but Example 2 to an explanation
has a more meaningful Explanation* due to the inclusion of • Add intermediate
intermediate attributes rules
• Improve the wording of
Example 1 Example 2
a rule
• Replace grouping
operators with new
attributes
* Explanations previously called Decision Reports
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 35Rule Tags
Documentation Library
• Structural elements in legislation (e.g. section, paragraph, • Tag rules with
article) and policy (e.g. chapter, guideline) can be captured in references to source
rules and displayed in explanations in an interview material
• Add more information
to an explanation
Rule tags in an explanation • Show reference tags
in an interview in an explanation
• Example project:
Travel Compensation
Rule with rule tags
* Rule Tags previously called Structural Elements. Explanations previously called Decision Reports.
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 36Trimming Explanations – Attributes
Documentation Library
• Explanations* automatically generated based on the logic, • Hide information in an
language and structure of the rules can be extremely verbose explanation
• Can trim Explanations using Silent and Invisible settings on the • Hide all attributes in
the explanation
attribute in the Data tab below a particular
– Silent: Hide all logic nested below a particular attribute attribute
– Invisible: Hide the attribute only • Hide a particular
attribute in the
Options for Booleans Options for non-Booleans explanation
• Cut off an
explanation above a
particular attribute
* Explanations previously called Decision Reports
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 37Trimming Explanations – Relationships
Documentation Library
• Silent and Invisible can be applied to relationships • Hide information in an
– See examples below with a containment relationship (the explanation
household members) and an inferred relationship (the children) • Hide a relationship
in the explanation
Invisible set on
No trimming Invisible set on
both relationships
the containment
relationship
Invisible on
containment
Invisible on relationship
containment
Silent and
relationship
Invisible on
Silent on inferred
inferred relationship
relationship
* Explanations previously called Decision Reports
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 38Documentation and Further Information
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 39Oracle Technology Network
Oracle Policy Automation on the Oracle Technology Network
– OPA Documentation Library
– Best Practice Documentation
– Tutorials, whitepapers, datasheets
Ask questions about OPA on the OPA Forum or OPA Cloud Connect
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 40OPA Social Media
OPA on Twitter OPA Discussion Forum
OPA on LinkedIn OPA on YouTube
OPA Cloud Connect OPA Blog
Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 41Copyright © 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | 42
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