Developing a Rule File

A rule file defines conditional processing. It is an optional set of code that offers additional control and user processing for individual documents and pages. In the rule file you can change field values based on certain conditions, perform calculations, create and use variables, route documents to outputs, read and write files, and add inserts or banner pages. The rule file is compiled as part of control file processing.

While the rule file can be a separate file, developers often embed rule file code within the control file. When it is embedded in this manner, there is no separate file that contains the rule file code. Nevertheless, rule file code that is located in the control file is still referred to as the rule file.