Pattern Matcher Feature Overview

The Pattern Matcher add-on provide pattern-matching functionality, complementing TIBCO BusinessEvents rule processing and query processing features. Pattern Matcher consists of an easy-to-use language and a service that runs in a TIBCO BusinessEvents agent.

It addresses some of the simpler and more commonly occurring problems in complex event processing such as:

  • Patterns in event streams
  • Correlation across event streams
  • Temporal (time based) event sequence recognition
  • Duplicate event suppression
  • Implementation of "Store and Forward" scenarios

Unlike rules or continuous queries, Pattern Matcher helps you to specify and identify the temporal order of event arrival.

The Pattern Matcher functionality can be used with any object management type. Its functionality is not dependent on or related to the object management layer.

The Pattern Matcher component listens to events that are explicitly sent to the service. It does not discover new patterns; given the patterns you define, it identifies those patterns in the event stream, returning valuable information you can make use of in your TIBCO BusinessEvents projects.

The pattern matcher service is not cluster aware. It operates within the scope of an agent. Keep this in mind when designing patterns. For example, in a multi-engine deployment, do not attempt to correlate events that may be received from a queue by different instances of an agent.

Components of Pattern Matcher

Pattern Matcher has two parts:

Pattern Description Language
  The pattern description language is a straight-forward English-like language with similarities to SQL and regular expression languages. Within a simple syntax, however, you can specify complex patterns using nesting and various temporal constructs. You can also templatize patterns using bind variables. See Pattern Matcher Grammar for details.
Catalog Functions
  Catalog functions for design time and deploy time enable you to dynamically deploy and undeploy patterns, specify values for bind variables, and specify success and failure listeners (callback functions) to take follow on action. You can also start and stop the pattern matcher service, though typically it is started and stopped when the TIBCO BusinessEvents engine itself starts and stops. See Pattern Matching Functions in a Project for details.