The Drools project released version 3 of its open-source Java rule engine based on Charles Forgy's Rete algorithm.

According to Drools developer Michael Neale, Drools provides for declarative programming. "Drools is flexible enough to match the semantics of your problem domain with Domain Specific Languages, and it makes it easier for developers to expose business logic to domain experts."

JBoss Rules is a branded release of the Drools project, and is part of the JBoss JEMS product suite. JBoss provides fee-based support for JBoss Rules.

According to Neale, who is also a lead of JBoss Rules 3.0, the JBoss offering introduces a new Eclipse Workbench plugin, making it easier to write and debug rules. "JBoss Rules will be familiar to those who have used Jess, ILog, JRules, or CLIPS," says Neale. JBoss made available an introductory video presentation of JBoss Rules 3.