Changelog

Notable changes to Blawx will be documented here.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog. As of v0.2-alpha, this project is attempting to adhere to Semantic Versioning. While alpha, however, any version may include breaking changes that may not be specifically noted as such, and breaking changes will not necessarily result in changes to the main version number.

v1.6.22-alpha 2023-10-18

Fixes

Fresh installs were failing due to dependency issues.

v1.6.21-alpha 2023-09-21

Fixes

Attributed rules subject to applicability with multiple category checks were slowing the code.

v1.6.20-alpha 2023-09-21

This release is backwards compatible with v1.6.19-alpha.

Fixes

Applies Blocks cause slow-downs in code speed.

v1.6.19-alpha 2023-07-27

This release includes bug-fixes.

NB: This release incorporates a change to the Blockly API that was implemented in Blockly 10. In order to ensure that this release works properly, when building the image you may need to use the --no-cache flag on the docker build command to ensure docker uses the latest version of the Blockly library. See INSTALL.md for details. If you are having difficulties, inside the rule editor run Blockly.VERSION in the browser console. The version should be 10.0.0 or later.

Fixes

Crash in scenario editor on ontology endpoint for certain code
Errors setting value in dropdown (caused by changes to Blockly)
Issue #563, files owned by Admin were not working properly
Issue #562, reasoner incorrectly formats section references

v1.6.18-alpha 2023-07-20

This release resolves three bugs in the scenario editor.

Fixed

Issue #543
Issue #449
Issue #561

v1.6.17-alpha 2023-07-18

This release adds validation for category names, attribute names, object names, relationship names, and variable names. The corresponding blocks will now convert invalid names to valid names where possible, and will reject names that they cannot convert.

This version is reverse compatible with .blawx files from previous versions. However, invalid names will be either corrected if possible, or if not possible to correct will be replaced with the default value for the relevant field. This may have unexpected effects in encodings with invalid field values.

Changed

New Relationship, New Category, New Attribute, New Object, and Variable blocks now validate and correct names as follows:
- first letters will be corrected to uppercase for variables and lowercase for all others
- spaces at the start and end will be removed
- spaces elsewhere will be converted to underscores
- names with symbols other than letters, numerals, underscore, and space will be rejected
- names that end in an underscore followed by numerals will be rejected
Documentation has been updated to reflect the new behaviour.

v1.6.16-alpha 2023-06-26

.blawx files created in previous versions will work with this version, but please note that the majority of URLs are now different.

Added

Projects now have a path slug based on their name, which must be unique per user. The slug can be changed in the admin interface.

Changed

All URLS that previously began with /{rule_id}/ now start with /{owner}/{rule_slug}/ For example /1/test/who_won would now be /jason/rock-paper-scissors-act/test/who_won. This is intended to give some predictability to the location of the API endpoints for a loaded .blawx file to simplify development using Blawx as a legal reasoner.

v1.6.15-alpha 2023-05-23

Added

If you provide an API access key for an OpenAI account, Blawx will use ChatGPT-3.5 to summarize its explanations and display those summaries in scenario editor.

Changed

Disclaimer has been added to the GCWeb styled version of the scenario editor.

v1.6.14-alpha 2023-05-12

Added

A GCWeb-themed version of Scenario Editor

Fixed

Event reasoning was finding spurious evidence of non-interruption.

v1.6.13-alpha 2023-05-09

Fixes

Favicon works properly
JSON errors no longer occur in test editor
Blockly warnings no longer occur in test editor and code editor

v1.6.12-alpha 2023-05-09

This release chances how code is generated for projects. To upgrade existing files you may need to open each section of the code and re-save it.

Fixes

Numerical constraints with equality work properly
Date constraints no longer fail on type errors related to the beginning and end of time
Scenario editor now displays all relevant constraints in the explanations
Scenario editor will now display reasoner errors if they occur.
The OASA example is no longer published by default.
Scenario Editor and Test Editor no longer crash when dealing with attributed rules in the root section of the project.
Disequalities and numerical constraints now appear in explanations.

v1.6.11-alpha 2023-05-08

Fixes

Files saved in v1.6.10-alpha would lose information for parameters 4+ on load.

v1.6.10-alpha 2023-05-05

This release fixes project imports, and makes the current version almost reverse compatible with v1.6.0-alpha forward.

To update existing .blawx files from v1.6.0-alpha forward, you need to load the file, find all the relationship declaration blocks, and reset the type values for each parameter, and save each section of code.

Fixes

Upgrades examples.
Examples and previously saved files would not load.
Project Import did not work in code editor and test editor.

v1.6.9-alpha 2023-05-05

This release resolves a problem with dynamic dropdown menus in three blocks that would sometimes forget their values without letting the user know.

NB: If you rename or delete a category that has been selected in a dropdown, that dropdown will be reset to the first still-available option. In relationships, this will be "number", in attribute declaration type, "true / false", and everwhere else it will be the first listed category.

Fixes

Improves speed of the coding interface by reducing how frequently categories are updated.
Makes Category and DataType dropdowns remember their values, and update properly when available categories change.

v1.6.8-alpha 2023-05-04

Fixes

Problem where relationships were not formatted properly in scenario editor explanations.

v1.6.7-alpha 2023-05-04

Fixes

Date, time, and duration values sent from Scenario Editor were not being received properly by the reasoner

v1.6.6-alpha 2023-05-04

Fixes

Published Projects not appearing in login and logout screens.
Test "Save as..." disabled for users without permission
Scenario Editor save default facts/view are disabledfor users without permission

v1.6.5-alpha 2023-05-03

Fixes

Problem experienced when running negated queries over a date add block.

v1.6.4-alpha 2023-05-03

Fixes

Problem with importing .blawx files
Problem with the display of durations that are returned from the reasoner as terms

v1.6.3-alpha 2023-05-03

Fixes

Fixes crash on new project screen

v1.6.2-alpha 2023-05-02

This version makes significant changes to the visual appearance of Blawx.

Added

A collapsible navigation bar on the left side of the screen for all pages, including documentation.

Changed

The overall look and feel has been changed and standardized.
The right-bar in code editor and test editor has been replaced with a tabs interface.
The navigation tab has been moved to the top in code editor as part of the breadcrumb.

v1.6.1-alpha 2023-04-27

This release adds to the representational power of Blawx by adding "relationships", which are a statement that is true (or not) about 3 or more objects or values.

Added

Relationship Declaration Block
Relationship Selector Blocks
Known Relationship Drawer
Associated documentation

Changed

/onto endpoint returns information about relationships in addition to categories and attributes
the JSON format accepted by the test and interview endpoints now accepts relationships in addition to categories and attributes
The response from the ontology endpoint is now shown in the "devel" tab of the scenario editor.
Scenario Editor has been modified to support relationships.
Rock Paper Scissors example was updated to use relationships for throws instead of attributes.
Associated documentation

Fixed

Problems with natural language generation for non-boolean attributes in test editor explanations

v1.6.0-alpha 2023-04-11

This release is NOT backward compatible.

This release adds event reasoning features to the Blawx language. In addition to saying what is true, you can now indicate when it was true, and when it ceased to be true. It also re-implements date math using s(CASP)'s numerical constraints, which makes event reasoning possible, increases the speed of date calculations, and allows comparison constraints over dates.

Upgrade Notes

Upgrading code for v1.5.4-alpha to v1.6.0-alpha will require:

Replacing all existing duration blocks, converting years and months into days as required.
Re-saving workspaces using any of the modified blocks (e.g. date, time, datetime value, date add, duration and date comparison blocks)
Replacing date add days, date diff, and date diff days blocks with the new date add block
Eliminating the use of date, time, datetime, and duration constructors
Replacing math calculation blocks with numerical constraints set to "equal"

Blocks that have been removed from the drawers will still display, in v1.6.0-alpha, so that they can be replaced. But they will not function as intended, and are deprecated, and may be removed from any future version of Blawx.

Added

Event Drawer
Initially, Ultimately, From, As of, and During blocks
New Life Act example demonstrating use of event blocks
Date, datetime, and duration from timestamp blocks
Associated documentation on event reasoning and new event and date blocks

Changed

Duration value blocks no longer have Year and Month fields
The date add block can now be used for addition or subtraction by leaving one of the three fields unbound
Date and duration comparisons and calculations are now implemented as numerical constraints
When date constraints are displayed in the scenario editor, Blawx tries to determine the data type and formats the constraint appropriately
Updated documentation for changed blocks, features
The numerical constraint block was reformatted, and has equality and disequality operators added to it
All of the feature and block documentation has been brought up to date
The way that dates, times, datetimes, and durations are displayed in the test editor explanations has been improved to make them more readable
Examples have been updated to use the new block language

Removed

Date Add Days, Date Diff, and Date Diff Days blocks
Date, Duration, and Time Constructor blocks
Calculation block
Documentation for removed blocks

v1.5.3-alpha 2023-03-16

Fixed

Logical Constraints now work as expected
Numerical Constraints now work as expected
Numerical and disunity constraints on variables appear in explanations
Question blocks can now accept more than one statement block.
Interview Reasoner endpoint would crash when provided with numerical values specified in code.
Constraints appear in Test Editor Explanations

Changed

Updated documentation for constraints and questions

Added

Logical Constraints example & documentation
Numerical Constraints example & documentation

v1.5.2-alpha 2023-03-15

This release front-loads the process of generating Akoma Ntoso and Code Editor navigation trees to immediately after the rule text is saved, for a dramatic improvement in speed whenever legal text is displayed, including when you open the code editor, and when answers are displayed.

Changed

Load time for the code editor is dramatically improved
Answers are displayed more quickly in test editor and scenario editor
Saving rule text, importing projects, and opening example projects is slightly slower
Additional project fields have been added to the admin interface

v1.5.1-alpha 2023-03-13

Changes

The default in v1.5.0-alpha that sections are applicable to object by default is removed. Default applicability should be specified by presumption, as indicated in the defaults, exceptions, and applicability section of the documentation.
Documentation and examples have been updated to reflect that change.

Fixes

The "login" link on the registration screen now has a working target. (Thanks @ASmith26 !)
Spelling error in attributed rule block

v1.5.0-alpha 2023-03-10

This release is NOT backward compatible.

This release revises the way defaults and exceptions are dealt with, dramatically speeds up code using defaults and exceptions, simplifies getting access to legislative text in explanations without using defaults and exceptions, and makes it possible to specify objects to which a rule does not "apply." All examples have been updated to the new block language, the Bird Act example has been modified to show the new features, and the relevant documentation has been updated.

Upgrade Notes

To bring code from pre v1.5.0-alpha up to date, you will primarily need to update overrules blocks, update "holds" blocks, replace "according to" blocks with "holds" blocks where appropriate (only where you are concerned about the source of the conclusion), and switch to attributed rules where the conclusions are subject to exceptions. Most questions which previously used the "holds" block can now have the holds block left out, and will work properly. Note that conclusions in attributed rule blocks also no longer need to be wrapped in "according to" blocks in order to be defeasible. Checking the "subject to exceptions" checkbox has that same effect.

Changes

Overrules Block
Holds Block
Updated examples to new block language
New version of Bird Act example demonstrating enhanced features
Updates to documentation for changed blocks, changed examples, and defaults, exceptions, and applicability

Adds

Attributed Rule Block
Defeated Block
Applies Block
New Documentation
In addition to being contradicted, rules can now also be made inapplicable to certain objects.

Removes

Opposes Block
Documentation for opposes block

Fixes

Defeating rules will not longer defeat if they are themselves defeated
Rules can be defeated by multiple other rules
Links to legislative material can be obtained without checking for defeating rules
Rules can be disabled in addition to contradicted
Error in OASA example that made people eligible by default
New categories not available in the code editor
Reasoner endpoints were returning duplicate explanations

v1.4.1-alpha 2023-03-02

This release fixes two bugs in how explanations were being displayed in the scenario editor.

Fixes

Some paragraphs in explanations were being repeated.
Paragraphs for logically false conclusions were not being displayed correctly.

v1.4.0-alpha 2023-02-28

This release is NOT backward compatible.

This release makes a number of interface changes, and significantly changes the way that Blawx deals with true / false values. Instead of being treated as a statement about an object and a value (true, or false), they are treated as a statement about an object alone. This has considerable implications for the block language, and as a result, .blawx files exported prior to v1.4.0-alpha will not work from v1.4.0-alpha forward.

True / False attributes are created using the new attribute declaration block. Specifying that a true or false attribute has the value of "false" is done by using the "known false" block, and the new style of true / false attribute selector block, in a fact or conclusion. Stating that it has the value "true" is done by merely using the new attribute selector block.

This change makes the block language considerably smaller, as it replaces 4 blocks, and removes another 14.

Significant changes have also been made to the fact interface in scenario editor, allowing for a number of important new features. Whereas previously, it was possible to specify known positive facts, and uncertainty about objects or attributes of objects, it is now possible to specify known true, known false, and uncertain facts, and it is possible to do that with both specific and general parameters.

The interface has been simplified to a list of facts in natural language that can be deleted if they were provided by the user, and a single button that allows the user to make new statements.

Upgrade Process

The process for upgrading Blawx code to this version is as follows:

Phase 1: Replace declarations in all sections and tests
- replace all category declarations with a new category declaration with the same name and NLG (typically, "object is a X")
- replace all attribute declarations with a new attribute declaration with the same name and NLG
Phase 2: Replace Usage in all sections and tests
- replace all boolean attribute selectors with the new style of boolean attribute selector
- replace all object category blocks with the new style of object category block.
- replace new object declarations for categories where you changed the NLG
- replace attribute selectors for non-boolean attributes where you changed the NLG
- replace category equivalence blocks with rules that use the new object category blocks in both the conditions and conclusion
Phase 3: Delete Orphaned Blocks
- find and delete orphaned true and false value blocks (explained below)

Doing declarations across all code sections and tests first avoids the need to come back to any section of code more than twice.

Because of changes in the type checking in attribute blocks, old-style boolean attribute blocks will reject the "True" or "False" value blocks, and orphan (disconnect) them. When that happens, they may not be visible in the workspace until the code has been saved and reloaded from save twice. All code being migrated should be opened at least twice, and any floating "True" or "False" blocks appearing in the top left of the workspace the second time it is opened should be deleted.

There are circumstances in which adding more than one of the new style of attribute declaration block might cause that block not to update properly when the attribute type is set to "true / false". If this happens, add all the required attribute declarations, save and re-open the workspace, and the attribute declarations will then format themselves properly. This problem only occurs when migrating.

NB: It will not be possible to migrate from pre-v1.4 code to post-v1.4 code indefinitely. At some point, old block types will be removed from the language, making upgrades more difficult or impossible. If you have code that you want to keep using, upgrade it now, or you may have to rewrite it from scratch in a future version.

Added

The Wills Act Tutorial example page in the documentation now links to a YouTube video demonstrating the use of Blawx, and it is linked from the front page.

Changed

Toolboxes are reorganized
New Category Declaration Block
New Attribute Declaration Block
New Object Category Block
Examples re-implemented using new block language
Removed an incomplete example
Reformulated Beard Tax Act example
Improved Facts Interface in Scenario Editor
New Payload and Response Format for Interview endpoint
Revised uncertainty semantics for interview endpoint
Updated (some) documentation (and marked the rest as out-of-date)

Fixed

Explanations in the test editor were being truncated

Removed

Data Type Blocks
True and False Value Blocks
Category and Attribute Display Blocks
Category Attribute Block
Known Category Blocks
Category Equivalency Block

v1.3.41-alpha 2023-02-27

Refactors code into a single Django app.

v1.3.40-alpha 2023-02-16

Sets allowed hosts to all for testing and development purposes.

v1.3.39-alpha 2023-02-16

This release adds a simple version API endpoint that can be used to check versions and as a heartbeat to test whether your blawx server started properly.

Adds

the /version endpoint will now return the version of the Blawx server as a JSON object {'version': '1.3.39-alpha'}

v1.3.38-alpha 2023-02-06

This update improves the display of answers in the scenario editor, and makes it easier for developers to see how the Scenario Editor uses the Blawx reasoner API.

Adds

The Scenario Editor now has a "Devel" tab to allow developers to observe the messages sent to and from the Blawx reasoner API.

Changes

Explanations in the Scenario Editor are now displayed using a non-nested paragraph format.
Dates, Times, Datetimes and Durations are displayed in explanations and variables using a human-friendly format.
Updated copyright notice on all pages.
Scenario editor now caches the responses from the /rule endpoint to avoid making multiple calls and slowing the display of answers.
The explanations in Scenario Editor no longer contain information about global constraint checks.
Explanations for all data statements are in natural language, and exclude irrelevant details.
Duplicate sub-goals in explanations are removed.
The Net30 example has been updated to use the new date blocks from 1.3.33-alpha

Fixes

Pre-defined numerical values in code or tests would crash /onto endpoint.

v1.3.37-alpha 2023-01-12

This release adds features for lists and aggregation.

Adds

The List datatype
The List subdrawer to the Data Statements Drawer
Collect List, List Aggregation, List Datatype Selector, First / Rest List Block and Empty List Block
Documentation for New List Blocks
List Demonstration example project
Lists feature page in documentation.

v1.3.36-alpha 2023-01-09

This release allows the owner of a test to save a default set of facts that should be loaded when that test is viewed in the scenario editor.

Adds

/save_facts endpoint for tests
fact_scenario is added to the test model
fact scenarios are returned in the output of /onto
scenario editor loads the facts from the ontology before asking the user for input, if they exist.
added "save as" control to test interface, which collects new name for test
API endpoint for duplicating a test

Changes

updates documentation to reflect availability of "save as" in test editor.

v1.3.35-alpha 2023-01-06

This release fixes a problem in the Covid Test example, and adds the Old Age Security Act example.

Adds

Old Age Security Act example

Changes

Covid Test example no longer has extraneous blocks, and uses the views feature of the scenario editor.

v1.3.34-alpha 2023-01-06

This update allows you to configure, from a new tab in the scenario editor, the elements that should and should not be displayed when using a particular test in the user interface for collecting facts. You can choose to hide entire categories, specific objects, specific attributes for all objects in a category, or specific attributes of specific objects in a category.

This allows the owner of a test to specify what fields should and should not appear in the scenario editor when a test is viewed in that interface.

Added

the {ruledoc}/test/{test_name}/update_view endpoint for saving view information
"view" is added to the test model
The view associated with a test is now returned as part of the /onto endpoint for tests
A "view" tab has been added to the scenario editor
the facts tab of the scenario editor hides elements selected to be hidden in the view tab
the owner of the test can save the current view
the scenario editor automatically uses the view last saved by the test owner.

v1.3.33-alpha 2023-01-05

This update adds "time" to Blawx's date and duration capabilities. It includes new data types, new data statements, a revised duration datatype, a new example, and extensive documentation.

There is a small chance that code generated using earlier versions will need to be updated, particularly if it relies on some unusual behaviour of durations in previous versions.

Added

Datetime and Time Data Types
Datetime and Time Data Value Blocks and Constructors
Now and Today blocks
Datetime Combination block
Duration Comparison Block
Documentation for all new Blocks
New Covid Test example demonstrating deadlines measured in hours

Changed

Durations now include time elements
Adding a duration to a date now returns a datetime
Precision has been changed on the date value block
Documentation has been updated for changed blocks and for the dates feature
Duration between block has been modified to return simplified durations, not just days

v1.3.32-alpha 2022-11-25

No user-facing changes.

Changed

Corrected install problem on some distributions caused by absence of EXPOSE command in Dockerfile
Corrected location of blockly install

v1.3.31-alpha 2022-09-29

No user-facing changes.

Changed

Revised the Dockerfile to speed up development builds
Switched to develop version of blockly.

v1.3.30-alpha 2022-09-28

This update gives the scenario editor the ability to indicate which objects, attributes, and values are relevant for finding additional non-contingent answers to your test question. It also improves the relevance calculations used in the interview endpoint.

BlawxBot is removed, and in the documentation and tutorials where it was referred to as an example it has been replaced with the same example in the Scenario Editor.

Added

Scenario editor now indicates what additional facts would be relevant to un-conditional answers to the query by highlighting the relevant add object and add value buttons in green.
Scenario editor will highlight relevant values in boolean and object selector new value inputs.
Scenario editor will indicate (by highlighting the expand button) that there are hidden relevant attributes in collapsed categories and objects.

Changed

Constraints and other residual information will now be displayed inside models instead of inside answers in the scenario editor.
Explanations for the same bindings but different constraints or hypothesized variables will be treated as explanations for the same answer in the scenario editor.
The interview endpoint now returns all answers, including answers that rely on assumptions specified in the fact data.
BlawxBot has been removed from the interface, until it is revised to work with the new interview endpoint.
BlawxBot has been removed from the documentation, until it is revised to work with the new interview endpoint.
Added documentation for the scenario editor.
Updated the Beginner's Guide to use the scenario editor instead of BlawxBot in Step 4.
Updated the tutorial to use the scenario editor instead of BlawxBot
Updated images in the documentation to remove the BlawxBot button.

Fixed

The presence of singleton variables in answers no longer causes console warnings in the scenario editor.
If you specify that a category is abducible in the scenario editor, it is abducible only with regard to objects that are not already a part of that category, this was not previously true, which was causing duplicate answers.
If you specify that a category is abducible in the scenario editor, the attributes of abduced objects are also made abducible. This was not previously true, which was causing there to be no answers when only categories were abducible in the scenario editor.

v1.3.29-alpha 2022-09-25

Added

Scenario editor now uses the same natural language generation used in explanations in the user interface

Changed

In order to provide additional space for NLG text, the scenario editor has been made a single-column tabbed interface.

v1.3.28-alpha 2022-09-25

Added

Scenario editor will now deal with numerical values, dates, and durations

Fixed

The ontology endpoint will now function properly when number values are defined in the code and tests.

Changed

The /run and /interview endpoints now accept dates in the 'yyyy-mm-dd' format, and durations in the '[-]PyYmMdD' format.
The /onto endpoint now returns dates in the 'yyyy-mm-dd' format, and durations in the '[-]PyYmMdD' format.

v1.3.27-alpha 2022-09-15

Added

The "Scenario Editor" has been added to the test interface
Added documentation for the Scenario Editor component to the docs

Changed

The /onto endpoint on tests will only return fully-ground responses

Fixed

The reasoner API will no longer create duplicate facts if facts specified in the rule and test are re-submitted in the JSON payload for the /run and /interview endpoints. (#342).

v1.3.26-alpha 2022-08-10

Fixed

A bug where multiple users importing the same project caused code to disappear was fixed.

v1.3.25-alpha 2022-08-09

Fixed

A bug where non-admin users did not have permissions to export projects was fixed.

v1.3.24-alpha 2022-07-21

Fixed

A permission problem that was preventing tests from being created properly has been solved.

v1.3.23-alpha 2022-07-21

Bug fixes and updates to documentation

Fixed

A problem that was preventing tests from saving properly has been solved.

Added

install.md now has more detailed instructions on what is required to deploy Blawx to production.

v1.3.22-alpha 2022-07-11

This release adds the ability for administrative users to turn off user registration, for restricted-access deployments.

Added

An "allow user registration" setting has been added to the interface. If set to false, the "register" links will not appear and the user registration view will be forbidden.

Changed

The option to "register" now appears in the top bar alongside "login" for unauthenticated users.

Fixed

Authenticated users other than the owner have access to published projects.

v1.3.21-alpha 2022-07-11

You can now "publish" a project in the Rule Editor screen, which gives other users, including anonymous users, read-only access to view the code, and the ability to run tests and BlawxBot, and the ability to access the API endpoints for that project and its tests.

Added

The user registration page will set the default username based on an X-Forwarded-Email header if present.
Projects can now be set to "published" in the Rule Editor screen and admin interface.
Anonymous users and users other than the owner of the project have read and execute access to published rules and their associated tests.
The admin interface now allows permissions to be set for users and groups with regard to specific rules, workspaces, and tests.

Changed

User interface elements that require permissions you do not have will appear disabled.
The coding interface in Code Editor and Test Editor will be read-only if you do not have permissions to change the code.

v1.3.20-alpha 2022-07-11

This release adds user registration, restricts access to projects that the user created, and allows the user to create new projects from templates and tutorials.

These features make it possible for Blawx to be used in a multi-user environment.

Breaking Changes

Note that .blawx files from previous versions will not work with this version. You can address this problem by editing your .blawx files to add an owner field to your ruledoc objects, only. You can set the value to any number, it will be ignored on import.

Added

User registration - non-admin users can create user accounts for themselves.
Users can now only see and interact with projects they created.

Changed

Tutorials and Examples are now available from the New Project button.
Updates to Beginner's Guide and Examples documentation.

Fixed

A bug in the project import method has been fixed.

v1.3.19-alpha 2022-07-07

Added

A tutorial based on a simplified version of the Wills example
Documentation for the Wills tutorial.

Fixed

Overrule blocks will now accept variables in addition to section selector blocks.
Comments work again.
Long contents in the rightbar makes it scrollable

Changed

Documentation was updated to add the "Tutorial" button in the interface.
Blockly version temporarily fixed at 8.0.2 until comments work in current.
The rightbor in the Code Editor has been made wider to make reading the tutorial content easier.

v1.3.18-alpha 2022-06-29

Added

Rules can now have associated tutorials, which can be accessed in the right sidebar of the code editor when present

Fixed

A change in how the s(CASP) library reports reasons broke the interview endpoint's relevance calculations.
Saving rules with no tests defined caused a malformed .blawx file
Crash in New Rule screen
Headers in doc sidebar were linked to root of blawx server

Changed

Dockerfile generates superuser and database at build time
Password for admin user can be set by providing --build-arg SU_PASSWORD=password as a parameter to docker build.
Google fonts are now installed locally to the Docker container to facilitate off-line use
jQuery is now installed locally to the Docker container to facilitate off-line use
bootstrap is now installed locally to the Docker container to facilitate off-line use
bootstrap-icons is now installed locally to the Docker container to facilitate off-line use
What the exit and cancel buttons do (and whether they appear) in the rule editor now depends on whether you got to it from an existing rule, or while trying to create a new rule

v1.3.17-alpha 2022-06-28

This version adds a first attempt at user authentication. Currently, one admin user admin and one non-admin user demo are created by default, each with the password blawx2022. The admin account can use the admin interface at /admin to add and remove users. All authenticated users can access all features of the site. Unauthenticated users cannot access any of the server's capabilities. Exposing Web API end-points for public use will be implemented in a future version.

This version also re-implements the import/export features that were available prior to v1. If you are in the rule page, you can now hit the "Export" button to download your rule, all of its associated code, and all of its associated tests, as a single .blawx file. If you are on the main page, you can use the "Import" button to upload a .blawx file to your server. Note that while Blawx is in alpha, there is no guarantee that .blawx files made with one version of Blawx will work in a later version. We will do our best to indicate when there are breaking changes and how you might resolve them.

We have also made a number of improvements to the user interface designed to make it easier to use and more consistent.

Added

The version of Blawx currently installed is now visible in the footer of each page after the copyright notice
User Authentication - you will be prompted to log in when required
Username, Change Password, and Logout/Login are displayed on header.
Documentation - New Page on admin interface for adding users
Import/Export - It is now possible to save your rule to a .blawx file from inside the rule screen, and to import a .blawx file from the main Blawx screen, allowing you to save and share your work even if the server goes down.

Changed

By default, only authenticated users have access to anything other than the rule index and the documentation
Changes to the user interface on several pages

v1.3.16-alpha 2022-06-23

Added

Beard Tax Act example project

Fixed

Code runs properly when single quotes occur in the text fields of a category or attribute customize block

v1.3.15-alpha 2022-06-22

This release improves the interview endpoint's method of determining which attributes and categories are relevant, and also improves BlawxBot's ability to describe fact scenarios and derive relevant categories from relevant attributes. The Wills Act example has been modified to demonstrate these capabilities, and the documentation updated.

Changed

The interview endpoint was modified to calculate question relevance better, and BlawxBot was revised to match.
The Wills Act example and documentation was updated to demonstrate the new reasoning capabilities.

Removed

An example project was temporarily removed.

v1.3.14-alpha 2022-06-22

Removing temporary fix for problems with SWI-Prolog. If you experience problems using this version, you may need to rebuild the docker container using the --no-cache option, to ensure that Docker grabs the latest release of SWI-Prolog when building.

Changed

The MQI.pl file and the steps in the Dockerfile for installing it have been removed, as the problems with MQI have now been resolved in the latest version of SWI-Prolog.

v1.3.13-alpha 2022-06-21

This update brings all of the documentation included up to speed with the current version of the software, taking into account outstanding bugs.

Added

Documentation for Answers and Explanations
Documentation for Dates and Durations
Documentation for Defaults and Exceptions
Documentation for Logical Constraints
Documentation for Numerical Constraints
Documentation for Numbers and Math
Documentation for BlawxBot
Documentation for Web API
Documentation for CLEAN
Several Example Documentation Pages
Linked new blocks to their own help pages

Changed

Completely re-organized and re-wrote the Beginner's Guide to Blawx
Updated all other documentation to current version.
User interface documentation now uses animated gifs

v1.3.12-alpha 2022-06-17

Fixed

Legal texts with sandwich sections caused the code editor to crash. (Issue #258)

v1.3.11-alpha 2022-06-08

Milestone: Automated Interviews

This release marks the end of the automated interview milestone. Expect near-future changes to focus on updating documentation, adding demonstrations, and occasional bug fixes.

Changed

The interview end point now generates relevant category and attribute data on the basis of an abductive query based on the user's input so far.
BlawxBot now uses the relevance information from the interview end point to determine whether or not it needs to ask each question.
The Rock Paper Scissors demonstrate code has been modified to ensure that games and players are relevant categories in BlawxBot. This may be undone once BlawxBot is dealing better with category relevance and question order.

Added

A Wills Act demonstration, with a test that can be run in BlawxBot to demonstrate that it is deciding whether to ask questions on the basis of whether they are logically relevant.

v1.3.10-alpha 2022-06-07

Fixing display of attributed variables in answers.

Changed

Inequality and numerical constraints on bound variables are now displayed in the bindings of answers.
Names generated by the reasoner are not displayed as attributes.

v1.3.9-alpha 2022-06-03

Added ontology and interview endpoints for tests, and added BlawxBot demonstration expert systems to tests.

Note that there are a lot of improvements to come in BlawxBot, but it will at least run all the existing example tests.

Also made the navigation tree and output pane display automatically, to simplify the interface for new users.

Added

Each test now has a onto/ endpoint from which a list of categories, attributes, and their natural language generation expressions can be obtained.
Each test now has a interview/ endpoint which will currently return any answers that can be generated, ignoring the "known" entries in the data submitted over JSON, and a list of relevant categories and attributes to collect as input. Currently, all categories and attributes are returned in all cases.
Demonstration chatbot at bot/ for each test
"Bot" button in test endpoint.

Fixed

The ontology endpoint now works with codebases that have no attributes in them.

Changed

The Copyright notice in the footer was corrected.
The output pane in tests is displayed automatically when the user clicks "Run".
The navigation pane in the code interface is displayed automatically when the page opens.

v1.3.8-alpha 2022-05-12

Updates to the JSON data format expected by the tests/run endpoint.

Added

You can now make "assume" statements in your data payload to the test/run endpoint.

Changed

The format expected by the test/run endpoint now looks like this:
```
{
  "person": {
    "members_known": false,
    "attributes_known": {
      "test_attribute": false
    },
    "members": {
      "jason": {
        "favourite_number": {
          "values_known": false,
          "values": [42]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
```
Detailed documentation will come later, but the 'members_known', 'attributes_known', and 'values_known', give you the ability to add three different sorts of "assume" statements over the JSON Payload.

v1.3.7-alpha 2022-05-11

Dates and Durations.

Added

Date and Duration Data Type Selectors
Date and Duration Value Inputs
Date and Duration Builders, Comparison, Date Add, Date Difference
Net 30 Example

v1.3.6-alpha 2022-05-11

This release just finishes a first draft of the code for the Rule 34 example, and adds a test that replicates the experiment originally done in Morris, Jason. "Constraint answer set programming as a tool to improve legislative drafting: a rules as code experiment." Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law. 2021.

Changed

Rule 34 example is finished

Added

Test for Rule 34 example

v1.3.5-alpha 2022-05-09

This release adds some examples, but more importantly makes some changes to the reasoner to ensure that a problem with some tests not returning results. The Rule 34 example is incomplete, and will be updated in a later release.

Much thanks to Jan Wielemaker (SWI-Prolog) and Eric Zinda (MQI) for upstream code changes that were necessary to get those tests running.

Added

Some examples rules, and tests.

Changed

Some tests will now return an additional variable named "Attributes".

Fixed

Problems with some queries that appeared not to terminate have been corrected.
links to rules in a span of text now show up properly in explanations

v1.3.4-alpha 2022-04-27

This update makes changes to the back-end of how code is generated by Blawx. The only user-facing change should be the fix below.

Fixed

Code with comments in the Blocks will now work properly (issue #184)

v1.3.3-alpha 2022-04-20

This update improves the formatting of explanations in the reasoner, adds text of the relevant rules to the output of the reasoner, and makes corresponding changes to the API endpoint for running tests.

This version will break code that was using the previous version of the blocks in the "known sections" drawer of the toolbox.

Added

Answers include the bindings of the variables named in the Question.
A new {rulenumber}/rule/{section_id} endpoint has been created that will return the XML and plain text of a portion of the rule's text document indicated by the eId attribute for the AkomaNtoso section.

Changed

If a question returns multiple explanations, they are now grouped according to the bindings for the variables in the question. This allows the user to see which explanations are for the same answer.
Explanations are now presented in a nested collapsible tree structure, so that the user can navigate to the portions of the explanation that are most relevant for them.
The format of results from the {rulenumber}/{testname}/run endpoint has been modified extensively.
In explanations, when a rule is mentioned in an "according to", the name of the rule is a link with a tooltip that will show the text of the relevant section.
We have changed how rule names are displayed in explanations to avoid exposing implementation details not relevant to the user.

v1.3.2-alpha 2022-04-07

This update allows you to use the defeasibility features for defaults and exceptions that occur inside a single section of the rules.

Added

Blawx now supports the use of span elements generated in Clean>=0.0.4
In the Rule navigator, now only clicking on the "arrow" will open up the sub-parts of a section of a rule.

v1.3.1-alpha 2022-03-29

Fixed

Problems with primary and known section drawers in Test interface.

v1.3.0-alpha 2022-03-28

This update adds defeasibility back to the v1 series.

Added

There is now an "Exceptions" drawer in the toolbox, with the blocks required for using the defeasibility system: overrules, opposes, according to, and holds.
There is now a "Known Sections" drawer, with rule section selectors for each of the elements in the rule navigation tree, for use in the according to and overrules blocks.
A new example has been added called Tweety that shows how the exceptions system works.

Changed

The primary drawer is now dynamically generated, and has two additional entries, a query that includes the "holds" block, and a rule that includes the "according to" block filled in for the currently-selected rule.

v1.2.0-alpha 2022-03-11

The point of this update is to make it easy to edit your natural-language legislation inside the Blawx interface. The minor version change indicates that fixtures in the previous versions will no longer load in this version of blawx because the data structure has changed.

Added

Rule Editing View

Changed

Laws are now specified using the clean markdown language, instead of in Akoma Ntoso. Akoma Ntoso is still used to generate the user interface, and the ability to export and import Akoma Ntoso will be added later.

Removed

The demonstration Rule demonstrating a complicated Akoma Ntoso example has been removed.

v1.1.0-alpha 2022-03-01

Added

Code is now organized among Rules, Sections, and Tests
Rules can be created using Akoma Ntoso encodings of legislation
Complex Akoma Ntoso example
Simple Rock Paper Scissors example with encoding and test

Changed

There have been significant changes to almost all aspects of the tool, many of which are breaking. You can expect that code created with any previous version will not work in this version.

v1.0.6-alpha 2022-02-08

Added

JSON Input primary block
Documentation page for JSON input primary block
JSON input processing on run endpoint

Changed

Requests to run code from the interface now use application/json content type

v1.0.5-alpha 2022-02-08

Added

Examples dropdown menu for loading example workspaces
Examples model and api endpoint at /examples/id

Removed

Existing example workspaces

Changed

Workspaces can all now be updated and deleted by anyone.

v1.0.4-alpha 2022-02-07

Added

Documentation for all v1 blocks, available in context menu and help (resolve #135)

v1.0.3-alpha 2022-02-03

Added

Blawx reports compiler errors (resolving #61)
Basic CodeQL Scanning Workflow

Removed

Admin interface for documentation

v1.0.2-alpha 2022-02-03

Changed

Documentation and default workspaces have been deleted from the database, and are now loaded from YAML fixtures in the installation process.

v1.0.1-alpha 2022-02-03

Added

Category Display Block
update.sh Script to stop, rebuild, and run local docker container

Changed

Dockerfile loads blawx files from local
Explanations use language from category display block
Object declaration blocks use language from category display block
Dockerfile reorganized to rebuild faster

v1.0.0-alpha 2022-02-01

v1.0.0-alpha is nearly a complete rewrite of the code, to facilitate two major changes:

New reasoning engine (from Flora-2 to s(CASP))
Server-side workspace management

Major Version Change

The move from v0 to v1 indicates there is no compatibility between Blawx code written for v1, and for previous versions.

Added

Natural language explanations
Multiple model responses to queries
Numerical constraints
Logical constraints
Compiler warnings
Live code generation
Server side management of workspaces
User Authentication
Example workspaces (not modifiable by anonymous users)
Assumptions, hypothetical reasoning

Changed

Code generation has been moved to the client side
The entire block language has been updated
The web API uses code stored on the server
JSON input data schema has changed

Removed

Silent variables
Several Logical statements
Dates, Times, Durations, and Strings
Includes
Data blocks

v0.2.4-alpha RC1 2021-01-22

Added

Date, Time, Datetime, and Duration Datatypes (Issue #48)
Date Math Functions
String Functions
New Attribute Declarations with Cardinality
The docker container now includes a Jekyll set of documentation at /docs.
Silent and unnamed variable blocks.
Tooltips and help links to all blocks.
Beginner's Guide in documentation
Image type hints on method and type selectors

Changed

Toolbox reorganized
Updated reasoner to Flora-2.1RC1 (Issue #55)
"String" renamed to "Text"
"True/False" renamed to "Yes/No"
New String Value Block

Breaking Change: Workspaces from previous versions using string values will not load.
Reimplemented Reasoner

Reasoner responses for small queries will be significantly faster. Reasoner responses will also scale better with hardware. Workspaces or data that take more than 30 seconds of processor time will fail.
New Object blocks are now created for each Category in the workspace. (Issue #42)

Fixed

Allow Long Search Results (Issue #1)
Stop using sleep in Reasoner.php (Issue #26)
Queries don't work if they are not at the bottom (Issue #24)

v0.2.3-alpha 2020-06-29

Added

adding ?load=url to address for interface will pre-load a .blawx file at that url.

v0.2.2-alpha 2020-06-06

Added

Script for updating running container in development enviroments.
Start of gh-pages based documentation
Keyboard navigation.

Changed

Implemented custom true/false value block (Issue #8) Note that this may be a breaking change for people using the docassemble-blawx integration.
Changes to what counts as conflicting results for the purpose of override blocks, only applies to workspaces using the new true/false blocks.

Fixed

Docker install missing sudo.
Docker install missing python3. (Issue #38)
Overridden answers still returned. (Issue #2)
Aggregate functions not working. (Issue #19)

v0.2.1-alpha 2020-05-26

Added

Dockerized install process (Issue #21)
Calculation Block (Issue #20)
Changelog

Changed

Remove extra implication operators (Issue #16)
Math operators and aggregate functions now report "Number" as their output type.

v0.2-alpha 2020-05-22

Changed

Installation process clarified, simplified. (Issue #9)

Fixed

Reasoner was crashing on machines with slower processors. (Issue #25)ff

Files

CHANGELOG.md

Latest commit

History

CHANGELOG.md

File metadata and controls

Changelog

v1.6.22-alpha 2023-10-18

Fixes

v1.6.21-alpha 2023-09-21

Fixes

v1.6.20-alpha 2023-09-21

Fixes

v1.6.19-alpha 2023-07-27

Fixes

v1.6.18-alpha 2023-07-20

Fixed

v1.6.17-alpha 2023-07-18

Changed

v1.6.16-alpha 2023-06-26

Added

Changed

v1.6.15-alpha 2023-05-23

Added

Changed

v1.6.14-alpha 2023-05-12

Added

Fixed

v1.6.13-alpha 2023-05-09

Fixes

v1.6.12-alpha 2023-05-09

Fixes

v1.6.11-alpha 2023-05-08

Fixes

v1.6.10-alpha 2023-05-05

Fixes

v1.6.9-alpha 2023-05-05

Fixes

v1.6.8-alpha 2023-05-04

Fixes

v1.6.7-alpha 2023-05-04

Fixes

v1.6.6-alpha 2023-05-04

Fixes

v1.6.5-alpha 2023-05-03

Fixes

v1.6.4-alpha 2023-05-03

Fixes

v1.6.3-alpha 2023-05-03

Fixes

v1.6.2-alpha 2023-05-02

Added

Changed

v1.6.1-alpha 2023-04-27

Added

Changed

Fixed

v1.6.0-alpha 2023-04-11

Upgrade Notes

Added

Changed

Removed

v1.5.3-alpha 2023-03-16

Fixed

Changed

Added

v1.5.2-alpha 2023-03-15

Changed

v1.5.1-alpha 2023-03-13

Changes

Fixes

v1.5.0-alpha 2023-03-10

Upgrade Notes

Changes

Adds

Removes

Fixes

v1.4.1-alpha 2023-03-02

Fixes

v1.4.0-alpha 2023-02-28