Introduction
BrowserHawk's Rules Enforcement Technology (RET) provides an easy way to ensure that each web site visitor meets your site's minimum browser and system requirements, and to provide automated self-help to those users who do not. And all without having to write any program code!
To use RET you simply define a group of "rules" that reflect your site's requirements. Each rule is configured to evaluate to one of 4 states: Pass, Fail, Warn, and Info. You define the conditions under which these states are assigned. You then pass this rule set to BrowserHawk, which enforces the rules and takes the actions you specify based on the outcomes of its testing.
For example, you may define one rule that a user must have Flash 9 or higher, and that it is failure condition if not. Another rule may be that cookies should be enabled, and it is considered only a warning condition if not.
In one particular RET implementation, as shown below, a "pass/fail" table is presented to the user that summarizes their browser test results. This table contains details about the tests performed, the results, and customized messages such as corrective actions to take. BrowserHawk can fully render this table all on its own, or you can take control and generate the table yourself if you wish.
In another RET implementation, a user could be redirected to a particular page or site based on the result of any particular rule, rather than shown a results table. Or both styles can be combined, whereby the user is shown the table except if certain conditions are true - in which case the user is redirected instead. Furthermore, for advance usage, you can even programmatically access the test results and write your own custom handlers.
The real power of RET is that your browser and system requirements are declared completely within an XML-formatted data source. BrowserHawk then enforces these rules for you automatically, with no custom programming required. This makes it possible to create a robust browser help system for your site in just minutes, without ever having to modify any code as your rules change in the future.
Note: RET is available only in the .NET and Java versions of BrowserHawk and requires BrowserHawk Enterprise Edition.
Tip: See the numerous RET samples included with BrowserHawk and the Rules Enforcement Technology Users Guide (available separately) for more information.
Tip: A Visual Studio "New Item Template" is available that automatically creates a default browser help page and adds all supporting files (graphics, style sheets, default XML rule set) to your project, which you can then fully customize. See the BH_RET_Template.zip file in your \Program Files\cyScape\BrowserHawk\dotnet\templates folder for details.
See Also:
Rules Enforcement Technology Users Guide (PDF)