Chapter 2 Project Design Tutorial : Define the Account Concept

Define the Account Concept
In this task, you define the Account concept, which holds basic information about an account: an ID, a balance, an average monthly balance, and an account status. You also learn some useful information about concepts and how they are used.
Learning Points
What is a concept?  A concept type is a definition of a set of properties that represent the data fields of an entity. Concept types are like Java classes, and concept instances are like Java objects.
How are concept instances created?  Concept instances are created by rules and rule functions. For example, when you start the runtime engine, an instance of the Account concept is created by the InitializeAccounts rule function.
How can I manage concept instances?  Instances of concepts and events (also known as "facts" and "entities") can be persisted in various ways, as determined by the business need. See TIBCO BusinessEvents User’s Guide and provided examples for more details.
How is history tracked?  When the History setting for a concept property is 0 (zero) the current value is stored without a date-time stamp. When the history setting is 1, the current value is stored, along with the date and time the value was added or changed. When the history value is greater than 1, BusinessEvents tracks changes to property values up to the specified number (using a ring buffer). The Policy setting additionally determines what values are recorded, all values or only changes to the prior value.
For the Debits property, BusinessEvents records "All Values," that is, it records the value of the property every time an action sets the value, even if the new value is the same as the old value—a person can debit the account twice by the same amount. For a property such as "address" you might want to track only changes to the value.
More Information
Chapter 6, Working With Concepts, in TIBCO BusinessEvents User’s Guide.
Task E Define the Account Concept
1.
In the FraudDetection project folder, create a folder and name it Concepts.
2.
Open the Concepts folder, right-click in the design panel, and select Add Resource > BusinessEvents Workbench > Concept. (You can also select a resource by dragging it from its palette into the design panel.)
3.
4.
Select the Properties tab for the Account concept, and create the following properties. Click the plus button () to add lines:
 
Where is the account ID? in the @extId attribute  Concepts, events, and scorecards have some built-in attributes, in addition to the properties you define here. The attribute extId, referenced as @extId, will hold the account ID.
Concept Relationships  Concepts can have containment and reference relationships to other concepts. You set them up at the dialog where you selected the Double data type. Concepts can also inherit from other concepts. that relationship is set up on the Configuration tab. See Chapter 6, Working With Concepts in TIBCO BusinessEvents User’s Guide for more details.
5.
6.
Click Apply, then Save the project.
Summary and Next Steps
You have defined a concept type to hold information about bank accounts. The last step in building the ontology of your project is to set up a scorecard to hold fraud detection criteria that are used in rules.