Q1:can i expose Rules set(or Policies in BizTalk terminology) as web service that can be consumed by .NET (web/windows) application?

Q2:can i get an output from executing certain business rule?

In many cases, the flow of a process depends on the output of execution of certain business rule(s), and the type of this output maybe not be just Boolean, but it can be calculated value(s) or even a string that can be returned back to the caller of the rule.


In BizTalk Business rule engine, we understood that the "Then" part of rules is always an action that execute some commands or calls to a .NET code, and we couldn't figure out how we can return an output to the caller of the rule whether it was BizTalk "Call Rules" shape or .NET code (if possible).

Q1: yes, you can call the policies directly from any .NET host -- or use the rule shape in an orchestration. Executing the policies using your own code gives you much finer control.

Q2: you can call your own methods in the <IF> section and return values as needed. The trick is that anything you do inside the <IF> must evaluate as a boolean. You can do something like this in your condition: YourClass.FuncReturnsBool(YourClass.SomeOtherFuncC alculatesVal(Facts.SomeFact)).
Also, if your calculated value is part of a fact, you can update the value and update/reassert the object. This will cause all rules to be evaluated again for the current request and allows forward chaining of rules.