Introducing Liteflow: A Lightweight Rule Engine for Java Backend Development

In daily development, serial or parallel business processes often lack clear relationships; using a combination of strategy and template patterns can solve this, but coding leads to many files. Introducing a rule engine, liteflow, addresses these challenges from a global perspective.

Liteflow Overview liteflow is a lightweight, powerful rule engine that works out‑of‑the‑box, enabling complex rule orchestration quickly. It supports multiple rule file formats (XML/JSON/YAML) and storage options (SQL, Zookeeper, Nacos, Apollo). The official site is https://liteflow.yomahub.com .

Dependency example:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.yomahub</groupId>
    <artifactId>liteflow-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
    <version>2.10.6</version>
</dependency>

Component Types

Ordinary Component : Implement NodeComponent, used in when and then logic. Override iaAccess, isContinueOnError, and isEnd as needed.

Switch Component : Extends NodeSwitchComponent and overrides processSwitch to choose the next node, similar to a Java switch.

Condition Component : Extends NodeIfComponent and overrides processIf to return true/false and direct flow.

EL Rule Files

Rules are written in XML (or other supported formats). Example snippets:

# Serial composition
THEN(a, b, c, d);
# Parallel composition
WHEN(a, b, c);
# Nested composition
THEN(a, WHEN(b, c, d), e);
# Switch composition
SWITCH(a).to(b, c, d);
# Conditional composition
THEN(IF(x, a), b);

Data Context

The data context carries parameters between nodes. Execution example:

LiteflowResponse response = flowExecutor.execute2Resp("chain1", initialParams, CustomContext.class);

Parameter Configuration

liteflow:
  ruleSource: liteflow/*.el.xml
  retry-count: 0
  print-execution-log: true
  monitor:
    enable-log: true
    period: 300000
  request-id-generator-class: com.platform.orderserver.config.AppRequestIdGenerator
  slot-size: 10240
  main-executor-works: 64
  when-max-wait-seconds: 15
  when-max-workers: 16
  when-queue-limit: 5120
  parse-on-start: true
  enable: true

Business Practice Example

An e‑commerce scenario where, after an order is completed, points are granted, a message is sent, and SMS and email are dispatched in parallel. The flow definition:

<flow>
    <chain name="test_flow">
        THEN(
            prepareTrade, grantScore, sendMq, WHEN(sendEmail, sendPhone)
        );
    </chain>
</flow>

The article also notes that most of Liteflow’s work (rule parsing, component registration) happens at startup, providing high performance and detailed execution metrics.

Summary

Liteflow’s core concepts and usage have been introduced, covering architecture, component development, rule file syntax, data context, configuration, and a practical e‑commerce workflow example.

Additionally, the article contains promotional sections advertising ChatGPT services, a paid “knowledge planet” community, and various marketing links.