The way data rules are applied has been dramatically improved and expanded with the addition of a Rules engine and a corresponding new Data Rule Object Type.

In previous versions of Grooper, data rules were generally enforced by the definition of calculate or validate expressions. These expressions were small snippets of VB code written and attached to a particular data container (data field, or data column) inside of a content model. The way that data rules are applied has been dramatically improved and expanded in Grooper 2021 with the addition of a Rules Engine and a corresponding new object type inside of design studio, the Data Rule.

Although it was previously possible to do many things with calculate and validate expressions, the fact that they were individual expressions tied to individual fields made certain things difficult – such as moving data, or executing complex conditional rules, and performing separate actions, or action chains when conditions evaluate either true or false. Rules can be attached to data tables.

Other things that would have been very difficult – such as summing and comparing multiple tables – are now straightforward. Additionally, having the data rules in their own objects – as opposed to only attached to fields – makes implementing complex rule sets much more manageable, reducing development time, and maintenance load.