Compiling nools from different sources

[fmatar]

Nools should allow compiling flows and rules from different sources. Currently the rules compiler is reading the flow definition file from the file system, this should be changed to be read from a stream, this way people have the flexibility to store the rules wherever they please, in the file system, building them through an interface and storing them in memory, read them from a different location, etc...

The mechanism of having the rules stored only in file systems is neither flexible nor secure, rules might be a critical factor in evaluating business operations

[doug-martin]

I agree this would be a great addition, should be in the next release.

[hazkiel]

Hi, I'm also interested in this feature. When can we expect it?

[doug-martin]

Hi,

We plan on addressing both #6 and #5 in the next couple of weeks if you have any specific use cases you would like addressed please provide an example! In the next release we plan on providing the functionality of compiling nools DSL from a stream such as a file stream, once the end event has been issued we will finish the compilation. The biggest issue is the conflict from issue #5 which requires a source to be available which will require a shim in order to to work as it currently stands. If either of you has comments or requirements for the API let us know and we will try to incorporate them in to the spec.

-Doug

[hazkiel]

Hi again,

I read some bits of your code and I don't see why there's a conflict with the other issue.
We only need a generic version of the "compile" method which would be identical to the existing one but would accept a string (containing the flow data) instead of a file path. This way, you would directly parse the given string instead of reading from the FS and continue normally.

Thanks,
Hazkiel

[fmatar]

Instead of a string you could use a stream, a stream is more generic and would allow your rules to be read from even an external source, such as a url

[doug-martin]

So as of v0.1.0 you can now parse and compile source strings from the nools.compile method. Using a string allowed us to keep the compile method sync, where with a stream it would have to become async. So instead of having two different versions one being sync and one async you can gather the source from wherever you want to let nools parse and compile it.

-Doug