Using WF Rules without using workflow activities or the embedded rule set editor

Question

Has any one used WF Rules engine outside workflow activities WITHOUT using Rules Editor or CodeDOM?

Scenario

I am trying to use the Rule engine that ships with Workflow foundation classes with .Net Framework for a web based application. We evaluate hundreds of Validation Rules before proceeding towards a calculation engine for a complex calculation.

I have gone through many blogs which state how to use Rules engine without having to have Workflow Activities including http://cgeers.com/2008/01/26/using-rules-outside-of-a-workflow/. However they all eventually end up using a Rule Set Editor for defining rules. I want to declaratively define rules in an XML file

What I am looking for

1. I need to be able to specify Rules in simple XML without dealing with CODEDOM. CodeDOM seems to be very complex to write.

2. I should not be dependent on RuleSet Editor for defining rules.

Any thoughts any one ?

Answer 1

Don't know what kind of rules you are evaluating, but if you search a good open source rule engine, here is one.

Answer 2

Have a look at the following article for a strategy (not a solution) to approach the problem.

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsdesktop/Creating-Rules-Using-the-23c5d561

Answer 3

The serialization format for WF Rules is CodeDom.

It does not have another serialization format built-in.

If you want an alternate XML representation, you would need to create a tool to map between the representations.