A summary of the work done by the DMN Revision Task Force and what is new in DMN 1.2

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What is new in DMN 1.2
Denis Gagné
CEO & CTO
Chair BPMN MIWG at OMG
DMN RTF Member at OMG
CMMN RTF Member at OMG
BPMN RTF Member at OMG
Chair BPSWG at WfMC
XPDL Co-Editor at WfMC

2. • Dec 2015 - La Jolla
Chartered:
• Jun 2018 - Boston
Reported:
• Gary Hallmark, Oracle
• Alan Fish, FICO
Task Force Chairs:
DMN
1.2
Revision
Task
Force

3. DMN 1.2 Context
The RTF made changes that:
Corrected features in order to improve
implementability and adoption of the standard
Corrected errors in the specification
Increased the clarity of the specification

4. Resolved
63
53%
Deferred
19
16%
Closed; No Change
10
8%
Closed; Out Of Scope
3
3%
Duplicate or Merged
23
20%
ISSUE DISPOSITION
Resolved
Deferred
Closed; No Change
Closed; Out Of Scope
Duplicate or Merged
118
DMN 1.2 RTF
by the numbers

5. 1
2%
38
60%
21
33%
3
5%
EXTEND OF CHANGE
Critical/Urgent
Significant
Minor
Support Text
63
DMN 1.2 RTF
by the numbers
Critical/Urgent — Fixed problems with
normative parts of the specification which
prevented implementation work.
Support Text — Changes to descriptive,
explanatory, or supporting material.
Significant — Fixed problems with
normative parts of the specification that
raised concern about implementability.
Minor — Fixed minor problems with
normative parts of the specification.

6. 8
6
2
1
3
5 5
1
2
4
3
4
7
2
5
4
7
8 8
13
15
5
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Issues per Ballots 04-Aug-16
16-Sep-16
28-Oct-16
25-Nov-16
03-Mar-17
07-Apr-17
21-Apr-17
19-May-17
11-Aug-17
25-Aug-17
22-Sep-17
06-Oct-17
05-Jan-18
26-Jan-18
02-Mar-18
16-Mar-18
30-Mar-18
13-Apr-18
27-Apr-18
04-May-18
08-May-18
12-May-18
DMN 1.2 RTF
by the numbers
4
8
10
BALLOTS PER YEAR
2016
2017
2018
2018
2017
2016

7. What’s new in DMN 1.2
• Decision Services as invokable
• Ellipsis Marker
• Decision Table Generalized Unary Tests
• Decision Table Annotations
• FEEL changes:
• For loop expression - Partial
• Additional Built-in Functions
• String Escape Sequence
• Temporal semantic clarifications
• Singleton list
• Type lattice introduced
• Recommendation to not use SFEEL
• DMN DI
• Chap 11 Example Serialization Corrected
• Technicalities
• Editorials

8. What’s new in DMN 1.2
Decision Services as invokable
• Decision services may be invoked
internal to the decision model
(a trait that they share with BKMs )
DMN12-10

9. What’s new in DMN 1.2
Ellipsis Marker
• DRG Elements with requirements not
displayed on the current DRD SHOULD
be notated with an ellipsis (...) to show
that this is the case.
DMN12-38

10. What’s new in DMN 1.2
Decision Table Generalized Unary Test
• The name '?' refers to the value of the
corresponding input expression
• Any FEEL expression can be provided as a
generalized unary test as long as it results to
a Boolean
DMN12-29

11. What’s new in DMN 1.2
Decision Table Annotations
• A list of annotation clauses (zero
or more). Each annotation clause
is made of a name. Each
annotation SHALL be named as
part of a rule annotation clause.
The annotation entries are
contained in the rules, and the ith
annotation entry corresponds to
the ith annotation clause.
DMN12-124, DMN12-280, DMN12-282

12. What’s new in DMN 1.2
FEEL changes : For Loop: Support for common iteration use cases
1. Loop on index:
Following “in”, instead of the list variable myList use the range syntax a..b
2. Include partial results in the iteration:
Much like the built-in variable item is defined for filter expressions, we introduce a
new built-in variable partial for iteration, a list variable holding the results of previous
iterations
Example: first 7 Fibonacci numbers:
For num in 1..7 return if (num =1 or num =2) then 1 else (partial[-2] + partial[-1])
DMN12-223

13. What’s new in DMN 1.2
FEEL changes : Additional Built-in Functions
• split( string, delimiter )
• product( list )
• product( n1, …, nn)
• median( list )
• median( n1, …, nn )
• stddev( list )
• stddev( n1, …, nn )
• mode( list )
• mode( n1, …, nn )
• abs( number )
• modulo( dividend, divisor )
• sqrt( number )
• log( number )
• exp( number )
• odd( number )
• even( number )
• any( n1, …, nn )
• all( n1, …, nn )
DMN12-78, DMN12-190

14. What’s new in DMN 1.2
FEEL changes : String Escape Sequences
• ’ : Insert a single quote character in the text at this point
• “ : Insert a double quote character in the text at this point
• : Insert a backslash character in the text at this point
• n : Insert a newline in the text at this point
• r : Insert a carriage return in the text at this point
• t : Insert a tab in the text at this point
• u xxxx : Insert a 4 digit Unicode character in the text at this point
DMN12-226

15. What’s new in DMN 1.2
FEEL changes : Temporal Semantic Clarifications
• Semantics of addition and subtraction (Table 55)
• Semantics of multiplication and division (Table 57)
• List of property per type (Table 63)
• Semantics of date, time and durations properties (Table 64)
DMN12-24, DMN12-137, DMN12-187, DMN12-189, DMN12-195, DMN12-201, DMN12-206, DMN12-211

16. What’s new in DMN 1.2
FEEL changes : Singleton List
• A singleton list is equal to its single item, i.e., [e]=e for all FEEL
expressions e.
• For convenience of notation, a singleton list L, when used in an
expression where a list is not expected, behaves as if L[1] is
written.
• Inputs outside of their domain result in a null value, unless that
input is a singleton list, whose single element belongs to the
domain; in which case, the single element should be unwrapped
and used instead of the list.
DMN12-210

17. What’s new in DMN 1.2
FEEL changes : Semantic of itemDefinition
• The FEEL semantic domain D consists
of an infinite number of typed values.
The types are organized into a lattice.
• The types include
• simple datatypes such as number,
boolean, string, date, time, and duration
• constructed datatypes such as functions,
lists, and contexts
• the Null type, which includes only the null
value
• the special type Any, which includes all
values in D
DMN12-216

18. What’s new in DMN 1.2
FEEL changes : Recommendation to not use SFEEL
• Experience with DMN since its release has shown that
few if any complete decision models can be defined
using S-FEEL.
• Individual decision tables can be defined using only
S-FEEL but within a decision model there is generally
at least one decision that requires FEEL.
• Developers and users are therefore encouraged to
use and implement the full FEEL specification rather
than the S-FEEL subset
DMN12-48

19. What’s new in DMN 1.2
DMN DI : Diagram layout maintained during interchange
DMN12-20, DMN12-101, DMN12-248

20. What’s new in DMN 1.2
DMN DI : Diagram layout maintained during interchange
DMN12-20, DMN12-101, DMN12-248

21. What’s new in DMN 1.2
Chap 11 Example Serialization Corrected
• Tool generated (Trisotech DMN Modeler) vs Handcrafted
DMN12-229

22. What’s new in DMN 1.2
Technicalities
• Scope of Variables in Context Boxed Expression
• Missing comma to split “in” in quantified expression in FEEL syntax
• Space in FEEL names is not well-specified
• FEEL path expression has same precedence as filter and invocation
• DMN 1.1 XML schema starts with ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE (U+FEFF)
• some/every ... satisfies not defined for empty list
• Label versus name attribute
• Problem with QName usage in typeRef
• Add id to context entry
• Inconsistencies between metamodel and xsd schema
• Metamodel is missing the "kind" attribute on function
• FEEL precedence for function definition
• Decision Table hit policies C and C# should not return null when there are no matches
• Semantic mapping for XML syntactical artifacts
• Wrong length range check for built-in function sublist() and substring()
• semantics of import is unspecified
• Import is lacking extension capability
• Please clarify what is the result of a filter with non-boolean expressions (null)
• FEEL versions cannot be distinguished
DMN12-33, DMN12-53, DMN12-58, DMN12-60, DMN12-68, DMN12-87, DMN12-89, DMN12-94, DMN12-134, DMN12-143, DMN12-160,
DMN12-162, DMN12-176, DMN12-184, DMN12-186, DMN12-188, DMN12-231, DMN12-262, DMN12-286

23. What’s new in DMN 1.2
Editorials
• definition of expression in glossary omits CL3 expressions
• typeRef from tables 10 and 15 not in figures 20 and 23
• Wrong numbering in S-FEEL syntax
• Attributes in tables 29a and 29b do not correspond to metamodel Fig 51
• Issues with Table 61
• X and TBD are undefined in Table 35
• Decision table is not a good example of a builtin function
• grammar rule 56 missing comma
• singular helping verb used with plural subject
• Missign Comma in Grammar Rule 48 (some/every...)
• Duplicate definition of BKM/@variable in Table 14
• Unclear meaning of unique name constraint for ItemDefinitions and DRGElements
• decision table structure in 8.1 does not agree with MM
• Output Order hit policy on pg 85 is incorrect
• Supporting text about Expression lists non-existing name attribute
• Different definition of hit policy collect aggregations in FEEL and DMN
• Wrong chapter reference for date and time / date and time subtraction
• Transitive information requirements maybe inferred from the spec text
• Lost formatting in 10.3.2.2 Equality, Identity, and Equivalence
DMN12-12, DMN12-23, DMN12-46, DMN12-55, DMN12-74, DMN12-83, DMN12-84, DMN12-86, DMN12-103, DMN12-127,DMN12-138,
DMN12-141, DMN12-148, DMN12-149, DMN12-155, DMN12-175, DMN12-203, DMN12-225, DMN12-246

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