API Documentation

Azure DevOps CICD Pipelines

Using Azure DevOps CICD Pipelines with DecisionRules Business Rules Engine

This page provides a basic example of how to create pipelines with DecisionRules and Azure DevOps. For more advanced or customized pipelines tailored to specific use cases, please refer to DecisionRules Consulting for expert guidance and support.

Introduction

This tutorial will guide you through setting up two CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps CICD Pipelines to automate the management of business rules in DecisionRules. The first pipeline will handle moving business rules from one DecisionRules space to another, even across different environments (e.g., from development to production). The second pipeline will focus on Restore-in-Time Recovery, allowing you to revert to a previous state of your business rules when necessary.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure the following:

  • Azure DevOps account and project set up.

  • DecisionRules account with API access.

  • A Git repository with your DecisionRules configurations and rules.

  • DecisionRules Pipeline Tools basics on Github

  • Access to a Service Principal with appropriate permissions in Azure DevOps.

Example of two standard pipeline use cases in Azure DevOps Pipelines

Pipeline 1: Moving DecisionRules Business Rules Between Spaces/Environments

This pipeline will automate moving business rules from one space in DecisionRules to another, supporting deployment across different environments such as development, staging, and production.

Step 1: Create a New Azure DevOps Pipeline

  1. Navigate to your Azure DevOps project.

  2. Go to Pipelines in the side panel, then select Create Pipeline.

  3. Choose where your code is hosted (e.g., GitHub, Azure Repos).

  4. Select the repository where your DecisionRules configuration and rules are stored.

  5. Choose the Starter Pipeline or define a YAML pipeline.

Step 2: Configure YAML Pipeline for DecisionRules Deployment

Optional: Comparison of Source and Destionation Spaces

If you want more control over what is being overwritten in the destination space you can compare the exports of both spaces. Using the pipeline in the appendix

The YAML configuration below automates the transfer of business rules between spaces:

trigger: none

#External parameters of this YAML pipeline. You can select source environment and target environment
parameters:
- name: srcEnv
  displayName: "Source Environment"
  type: string
  default: "TEST"
  values: [ "PRODUCTION", "TEST" ]
- name: destEnv
  displayName: "Target Environment"
  type: string
  default: "PRODUCTION"
  values: [ "PRODUCTION", "TEST" ]

variables:
- group: dr-var

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest



steps:
# Get DecisionRules CDCI Pipeline tools from Github
- script: |
    git clone https://github.com/decisionrules/decisionrules-cicd-tools.git
    cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
    npm install
  displayName: 'Prepare DecisionRules CICD tools'

# Create branchName variable which represents branch in github repo
- script: |
    echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=branchName;]$(date '+%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S')"
  displayName: 'Set variables'

# Create project folder
- script: |
    cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
    mkdir export
  displayName: 'Creating project folder'

# Export source space from source environment
- script: |
    cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
    npm run export export/export.json $(${{parameters.srcEnv}}_ENV_URL) $(${{parameters.srcEnv}}_SPACE_MANAGEMENT_APIKEY) 
  displayName: 'Storing source project'

# Create repository, create branch for backup, commit and push exported space to git repository
- script: |
    mkdir repository && cd repository
    git clone $(GIT_REPO) .
    git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
    git config --global user.name "Release Pipeline Agent" 
    git checkout -b release/$(branchName)
    cp ../decisionrules-cicd-tools/export/export.json .
    git add .
    git commit -a -m 'Storing release'
    git push --set-upstream origin release/$(branchName) --force
  displayName: 'Storing data to git'
  
# Also attach deployment artifact to the pipeline.
- task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
  inputs:
    targetPath: 'decisionrules-cicd-tools/export/export.json'
    artifact: 'Exported Space'
    publishLocation: 'pipeline'
  displayName: 'Attach deployment artifact to the pipeline'

# Prepare target space for new import
- script: |
    cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
    npm run clear $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_ENV_URL) $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_SPACE_MANAGEMENT_APIKEY)
  displayName: 'Preparing target project'

# Upload tada to target space
- script: |
    cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
    npm run import export/export.json $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_ENV_URL) $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_SPACE_MANAGEMENT_APIKEY)
  displayName: 'Migrating to target project'

Step 3: Set Up Variables

  1. In Azure DevOps, navigate to Pipelines > Library > Variable Groups.

  2. Create Variable group dr-var

  1. Add the following variables:

    • GIT_REPO: Git repository where backups are stored

    • *_ENV_URL: URL of environment endpoint. This endpoint can be named i.e. as PRODUCTION, DEV, TEST, etc. This prefix is then selected in pipelines parameters section:

    parameters:
- name: srcEnv
  displayName: "Source Environment"
  type: string
  default: "TEST"
  values: [ "PRODUCTION", "TEST" ]
- name: destEnv
  displayName: "Target Environment"
  type: string
  default: "PRODUCTION"
  values: [ "PRODUCTION", "TEST" ]

    • *_SPACE_MANAGEMENT_KEY: Decision Rules Management API key that identifies the space on DecisionRules environment

Step 4: Trigger and Monitor the Pipeline

Run pipeline

Once set up, you can trigger this pipeline through code commits or manually and monitor the status from the Pipelines page.

Pipeline 2: Restore-in-Time Recovery Pipeline

This pipeline will allow you to revert to a previous version of a business rule, enabling a restore-in-time recovery for DecisionRules.

Step 1: Create a New Pipeline for Recovery

  1. Follow the same steps as above to create a new pipeline in Azure DevOps.

  2. Name it something like Restore-In-Time Pipeline.

Step 2: Configure YAML Pipeline for Rule Restoration

Here’s the YAML configuration for the restore pipeline:

trigger: none

#External parameters of this YAML pipeline. You select target environment and source branch you want to restore.
parameters:
- name: destEnv
  displayName: "Target Environment"
  type: string
  default: "PRODUCTION"
  values: [ "PRODUCTION", "TEST" ]
- name: sourceBranch
  displayName: "Select source branch"
  type: string
  default: ""

#Definition of variable group in Azure DevOps.
variables:
- group: dr-var

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest


steps:
# Get DecisionRules CDCI Pipeline tools from Github
- script: |
    git clone https://github.com/decisionrules/decisionrules-cicd-tools.git
    cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
    npm install
  displayName: 'Prepare DecisionRules CICD tools'
  
# Checkout git branch you want to restore. The branch is pushed to this YAML as sourceBranch parameter
- script: |
    mkdir repository && cd repository
    git clone --branch ${{parameters.sourceBranch}} --single-branch $(GIT_REPO) .
    git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
    git config --global user.name "Release Pipeline Agent"
  displayName: 'Storing data to git'
  

# Prepare DecisionRules space
- script: |
    cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
    npm run clear $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_ENV_URL) $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_SPACE_MANAGEMENT_APIKEY)
  displayName: 'Preparing target project'

# Import data from git repository to DecisionRules space
- script: |
    cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
    npm run import ../repository/export.json $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_ENV_URL) $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_SPACE_MANAGEMENT_APIKEY)
  displayName: 'Restoring target project'

Step 4: Trigger and Monitor the Pipeline

Parameters of Restore space in time pipeline
Successful pipeline run

Appendix

Pipeline Example with comparison of Space

To add comparison of spaces and a manual review requirement we need to add environments to our pipelines.

How to:

  1. Navigate to your Azure DevOps project.

  2. Go to Pipelines/Environments in the side panel.

  3. Create two new environments named DecisionRules-PRODUCTION and DecisionRules-TEST.

  4. Open each of the envrionments and under Approvals and Checks add a manual review and the necessary reviewers

Then use the following pipeline. This pipeline will export both source and destination spaces, compare them and give you an overview (also available as a .json artifact) of what rules have changed between the environments. You can then go over those rules to look for suspicious or unrecognised changes.

The reviewers will be notified via email to review the pipeline. The review approval is necessary for the pipeline to continue and overwrite the destination Space.

trigger: none

# External parameters of this YAML pipeline
parameters:
- name: srcEnv
  displayName: "Source Environment"
  type: string
  default: "TEST"
  values: [ "PRODUCTION", "TEST" ]
- name: destEnv
  displayName: "Target Environment"
  type: string
  default: "PRODUCTION"
  values: [ "PRODUCTION", "TEST" ]

variables:
- group: dr-var

stages:
- stage: CompareEnvironments
  displayName: 'Compare Environments'
  pool:
    vmImage: ubuntu-latest
  jobs:
  - job: CompareAndExport
    displayName: 'Export and Compare Spaces'
    steps:
    # Get DecisionRules CICD Pipeline tools from Github
    - script: |
        git clone https://github.com/decisionrules/decisionrules-cicd-tools.git
        cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
        npm install
      displayName: 'Prepare DecisionRules CICD tools'

    # Create directories
    - script: |
        cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
        mkdir -p export
        mkdir -p comparison
      displayName: 'Create directories'

    # Export source environment
    - script: |
        cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
        npm run export export/source_export.json $(${{parameters.srcEnv}}_ENV_URL) $(${{parameters.srcEnv}}_SPACE_MANAGEMENT_APIKEY)
      displayName: 'Export source environment (${{parameters.srcEnv}})'

    # Export destination environment
    - script: |
        cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
        npm run export export/destination_export.json $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_ENV_URL) $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_SPACE_MANAGEMENT_APIKEY)
      displayName: 'Export destination environment (${{parameters.destEnv}})'

    # Run comparison
    - script: |
        cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
        echo "======================================"
        echo "COMPARING ENVIRONMENTS"
        echo "======================================"
        echo "Source: ${{parameters.srcEnv}}"
        echo "Destination: ${{parameters.destEnv}}"
        echo "======================================"
        
        # Run comparison using npm script
        npm run compare export/source_export.json export/destination_export.json comparison/comparison_results.json
      displayName: 'Compare spaces'

    # Display comparison results
    - script: |
        cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
        echo ""
        echo "======================================"
        echo "COMPARISON RESULTS:"
        echo "======================================"
        cat comparison/comparison_results.json | python3 -m json.tool
        echo "======================================"
      displayName: 'Display comparison results'

    # Publish artifacts
    - task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
      inputs:
        targetPath: 'decisionrules-cicd-tools/export/source_export.json'
        artifact: 'SourceExport'
      displayName: 'Publish source export'

    - task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
      inputs:
        targetPath: 'decisionrules-cicd-tools/export/destination_export.json'
        artifact: 'DestinationExport'
      displayName: 'Publish destination export'

    - task: PublishPipelineArtifact@1
      inputs:
        targetPath: 'decisionrules-cicd-tools/comparison/comparison_results.json'
        artifact: 'ComparisonResults'
      displayName: 'Publish comparison results'

- stage: Migration
  displayName: 'Migration (Requires Approval)'
  dependsOn: CompareEnvironments
  pool:
    vmImage: ubuntu-latest
  jobs:
  - deployment: MigrateToTarget
    displayName: 'Migrate to Target Environment'
    environment: 'DecisionRules-${{parameters.destEnv}}'
    strategy:
      runOnce:
        deploy:
          steps:
          # Get DecisionRules CICD Pipeline tools from Github
          - script: |
              git clone https://github.com/decisionrules/decisionrules-cicd-tools.git
              cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
              npm install
            displayName: 'Prepare DecisionRules CICD tools'

          # Download source export artifact
          - download: current
            artifact: 'SourceExport'
            displayName: 'Download source export'

          # Prepare export file
          - script: |
              cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
              mkdir -p export
              cp "$(Pipeline.Workspace)/SourceExport/source_export.json" export/export.json
            displayName: 'Prepare export'

          # Clear destination
          - script: |
              cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
              npm run clear $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_ENV_URL) $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_SPACE_MANAGEMENT_APIKEY)
            displayName: 'Clear destination (${{parameters.destEnv}})'

          # Import to destination
          - script: |
              cd decisionrules-cicd-tools
              npm run import export/export.json $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_ENV_URL) $(${{parameters.destEnv}}_SPACE_MANAGEMENT_APIKEY)
            displayName: 'Import to destination (${{parameters.destEnv}})'

          # Final message
          - script: |
              echo "======================================"
              echo "✅ MIGRATION COMPLETED"
              echo "======================================"
              echo "Source: ${{parameters.srcEnv}}"
              echo "Destination: ${{parameters.destEnv}}"
              echo "Timestamp: $(date)"
              echo "======================================"
            displayName: 'Migration complete'

Conclusion

By setting up these two Azure DevOps pipelines—one for moving business rules between spaces (optionally comparing them) and the other for time-based recovery—you can effectively automate rule management in DecisionRules. These pipelines will help you maintain consistent deployments, streamline environment management, and offer the ability to quickly revert to a previous rule state when needed.

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