Is drools the same as jrules?

Question

Is there a difference between Drools and Jrules? Is Jboss rules the same thing as Jrules? What type of environments typically use Drools?

Trader

Simple answer: No, they are different products. But both are rule based system, and it's best if you consult the help pages of each - jBoss have a very good primer on Drools - which describes some situations.. – Constructionist

Answer 1

Similarities:
At the end of the day these two applications are BRMS so yes, they are similar
Both offers you the ability to:
- store rules in a repository
- write rules in a web environment
- execute the rules on a server

JRules is from far the best approach for business users (non technical).
JBoss rules is from far the best approach if you look for a non stupidly expensive solution
Both can do CEP as well. (Complex Event Processing)

Differences:
JRules is more mature than Drools but Drools is a great tool to work with
Drools uses JSON to write technical rules JRules uses IRL (Ilog Rule Language). Don't worry you can add "verbalisation" with Drools but it is less powerful than with JRules.
The main differences are from a business (non technical) point of view.
If you want to be able to write a rule in a proper human language like :
if the age of the applicant is less then 18 then reject the application;
you can do it with both.
Now if you want the business to write rules in Hindi, review them in French, validate them in German and do some report in English then JRules is the BRMS you need.
You can write rules directly in Excel or Word with JRules.
Because Drools is from the free world you may face some few bugs but as it is free, you have access to all the source code compare to JRules where part of the API is hidden

What environment:
For Drools I would say JBoss :)
JRules = JBoss, WebSphere, Weblogic, Tomcat, ... and more
For this one: RTFM really. Depends on your needs.
Google may give you some benchmark on the various BRMS.

To sum up:
If you have money (loaded) then JRules
If you are poor or geeky then Drools - you will have fun, really :)

Note: I talk about "Drools" not "JBoss rules" supported by Red Hat.
Difference between them is the Red Hat version is not the latest Drools one and do not have exactly the same functionalities as Drools.
Simply because Red Hat support their version so they evoluate less quickly than Drools. Basically they choose a version at one time and decide to use it while drools still change... You got my point, hopefully.
Hope it helps

Grannie

Sometime JBoss rules name Guvnor as BRMS which is just wrong. Just to let you know. – Grannie

"Drools uses JSON to write technical" -> this is not true. DRL is the native Drools language, equivalent to IRL in JRules. Also, I disagree with your overall opinion about the merits of open source in general and statements like "Because Drools is from the free world you may face some few bugs" are naive to say the best (but everyone is obviously entitled to have his own opinion, of course). Bugs exist in software both open and closed source, and they have nothing to do with the model adopted. – Hebron

Not JSON but DRL yes correct, I was wrong. I didn't meant this. Bugs exist of course but a product like JRules spend more time in QA. Last time I used drools (6 months ago) it was not able to have 2 rule tasks in a rule flow for a stateful session... end of issue. First two questions were differences and similarities. – Grannie

If you write testable code, you won't have to worry about platform bugs :) – Gahan

Answer 2

No, Drools is the open source rules engine. It includes several sub projects, like Drools Expert, Drools Fusion, Drools Guvnor, etc.

Red Hat packages and supports Drools as the JBoss Enterprise BRMS product.

JRules is the rules engine from ILOG that was acquired by IBM.

Hebron

Answer 3

From Red Hat's site:

For example, did you know that between the JBoss Drools community project v5.1 and Red Hat's JBoss Enterprise BRMS v5.1, there were 150+ bug fixes, 5 security fixes, and several performance enhancements? ...

Red Hat's JBoss Enterprise BRMS product is based on the innovative work done by members of the JBoss Drools community project. However, it is not a one-to-one relationship and only JBoss Enterprise BRMS offers assurance from Red Hat through an enterprise subscription that includes patches and updates, SLA-based support, and multi-year maintenance policies. With Red Hat's JBoss Enterprise BRMS, you can manage the technical and political concerns that get in the way of deployment.

Our support is first class. The Red Hat Customer Portal is award- winning and Red Hat consistently outpaces proprietary competitors in support rankings.

But JBoss Enterprise BRMS is more than product stability. Our professional services team has a wealth of experience that will help even the most experienced JBoss Drools developers to harness the full power of the rules platform. And powerful it is!

JBoss Enterprise BRMS: where the power of JBoss Drools meets the assurance of Red Hat.

Radbourne