The application I am working inputs lot of data from file import and updates the database column accordingly. I need to come up with a custom Rule engine that would process all the input values based on validation and perform transformation of data accordingly. E.x.
One of the fields in our application is Product Name. So one of the rules we need to implement is to convert Product name from lower case to upper case, if the input value from the file is in lower case. Similarly, there are many text/mathematical transformations that need to be done. For these reasons, we need to come up with custom rule engine where we define the rules for each attribute, parse them and then apply the rules.
I do know that ANTLR is one of the parser generators around for Java. I am seeking advice on following queries:
1> General information on working of a parser generator and best practices for implementing grammar.
2> Since I need to design this rule engine completely, can anyone point me to a sample rule engine out there that I can refer to? right from UI to database design. I am using GWT for UI, Java for core logic and oracle for database
3> Are there any other parser generators around for Java
4> Though I do want to follow the path of defining my own grammar and using parser generator to build this rule engine, is there any other approach I should consider?
You might want to consider just using JbossRules (formerly Drools) which is a Java based rules engine. Alternatively, a scripting engine may be another way to implement your rules (e.g. Apache Rhino (Javascript in Java)).
Writing your own in this situation seems like overkill, but it may allow you to provide better security guarantees if end users are going to be creating the rules / scripts.
EDIT to address questions in comments:
I suggest using an existing rules engine (ala JbossRules/Drools) instead of writing your own parser and grammar (for the rule component). Take a look here for instance: Drools.
For specialized logic that rules may need to use (db access or computation libraries) you should write a single Java API used by your rules (so that rules are not deeply accessing your other code since that can lead to bugs if/when you refactor). This advice applies regardless of which rules engine you use (your own or an existing one).
I assume that you already have the data format of your data input files solved and that you are only looking for a solution to the rule format and rule parsing.