You must have a solid working knowledge of Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle BPM Suite, and Oracle Business Rules before modifying the Oracle TRM Top Approver Ruleset. For information on these products, see:

- Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Rules
- Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle SOA and Oracle Business Process Management Suite

Oracle Travel Request Management uses the Top Approver Rule, in the Top Approver Ruleset, which includes a condition (IF) statement and an action (THEN) statement. Globals are used to set pre-defined values for certain conditions and actions.

The condition statements ensure the travel request ID and ApprovalRulesOutcomeType are specified. The action statement sets the ApprovalRulesOutcomeType to the Top Approver Title and Travel Type for Top Approver values as defined in the globals. For example, you set Top Approver Title to Vice President and Travel Type for Top Approver to INT. When William Shakespear submits a travel request for international travel, his request is set with Top Approver Title as Vice President. Based on the rule, his request goes up to level three for approval, but does not go past the Vice President. If Victor Hugo submits an international travel request, then his request is not set with a Top Approver Title as there is no Vice President in his organization chain.

You can modify the existing ruleset, conditions, or actions. Take caution before modifying a condition or action, it can require source code changes. Travel request processing fails if this ruleset is deleted. To modify the ruleset, conditions, or actions, see "Editing Rules in an Oracle Business Rules Dictionary at Run Time," in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Rules.