Code Effects Rule Types

Code Effects supports two complementary types of rules:

• Evaluation Type rules — return a boolean evaluation result; may invoke in-rule methods during rule evaluation; may use reusable rules as bool fields or method returns, and can itself be a reusable rule.
• Execution Type rules — return a boolean evaluation result; may invoke in-rule methods during rule evaluation and may set/update/delete field values and invoke rule actions (void methods) after the evaluation is complete; may use reusable rules as bool fields or method returns, and may execute inline rules, other execution type rules run from its THEN or ELSE section. It can itself be an inline rule, but not a reusable rule.

Both rule types are authored in the same Rule Editor UI and stored in the same Rule XML format. The selected Rule Type determines which menus are enabled during authoring and which engine behaviors are active at runtime.

When to Use Which Type

Use evaluation rules when you need a decision that can be expressed as a predicate (eligibility, segmentation, routing, pricing tiers). These rules also support Data Filtering, so you can apply the same rule to collections with the Filter() method.

Use execution rules when, in addition to a decision, you need to perform side effects such as sending notifications, generating files, invoking HTTP calls, or updating state via actions.

Authoring Differences

Capability	Evaluation Type	Execution Type
Returns boolean	True	True
Actions and field setters	False	True
In‑rule methods	True	True
Filter mode (Data Filtering)	True	False
Loop evaluation mode	False	True
Ruleset evaluation mode	False	True
Uses reusable rules (as Boolean fields or method returns)	True	True
Can be a reusable rule	True	False
Executes inline rules	False	True
Can be an inline rule	False	True
Multilingual support and Help XML	True	True