Overview of graph-based policy retrieval

Copying a policy from the PAS to ClaimCenter involves two steps: policy search and policy retrieval. As of this release, Cloud API does not provide any functionality to assist in policy search. This action must still be executed using other technologies. Cloud API does provide functionality that can assist in policy retrieval. This functionality is implemented through a series of plugins.

Plugin architecture that makes no use of graph-based retrieval

For an instance of ClaimCenter that does not use graph-based policy retrieval, there is one relevant plugin.

IPolicySearchAdapter plugin

  • The plugin class must be implemented by the insurer.

  • The plugin implements the following methods:

    • searchPolicies

      • This method receives a set of search criteria and returns Policy Summaries for all PAS policies meeting the criteria.

    • retrievePolicyFromPolicySummary

      • This method receives a PolicySummary and returns a Policy consisting of information from the PAS policy corresponding to the PolicySummary.

    • retrievePolicyFromPolicy and retrievePolicySummaryFromPolicy

This is illustrated in the following diagram.


Plugin architecture when graph-based retrieval is not used

Plugin architecture that makes use of graph-based retrieval

An instance of ClaimCenter can make use of graph-based policy retrieval. When it does, it is not necessary for all policies to use graph-based policy retrieval. You can use graph-based policy retrieval for some policy types and alternative approaches for other policy types. For this type of instance, there are three relevant plugins.

ICloudRetrievePolicy plugin

  • The plugin class is implemented by the insurer.

  • The plugin implements the following methods:

    • shouldUseGraphRetrieveForPolicyType

      • This method determines whether the policy is retrieved using a graph or a traditional method.

    • getPolicyGraph

      • This method takes a policy summary, retrieves the relevant policy information from the PAS, and then converts it into JSON that adheres to the Cloud API Policy graph schema.

    • convertPolicyToSummary

IFallbackPolicySearchPlugin plugin

  • The plugin class is implemented by the insurer. (It implements the same interface as the IPolicySearchAdapter plugin.)

  • The plugin implements the following methods:

    • searchPolicies

      • This method receives a set of search criteria and returns Policy Summaries for all PAS policies meeting the criteria.

    • retrievePolicyFromPolicySummary

      • For policies retrieved from using a non-graph approach, this method receives a PolicySummary and returns a Policy consisting of information from the PAS policy corresponding to the PolicySummary.

    • retrievePolicyFromPolicy and retrievePolicySummaryFromPolicy

IPolicySearchAdapter plugin(Note that this plugin is relevant for both instances that never use graph retrieval and for instances that make at least some use of graph retrieval.)

  • The plugin class is implemented by an internal Java class provided by Guidewire.

  • The plugin implements the following methods:

    • searchPolicies

      • This method calls IFallbackPolicySearchPlugin.searchPolicies

    • retrievePolicyFromPolicySummary

      • This method calls ICloudRetrievePolicyPlugin.shouldUseGraphRetrieveForPolicyType.

      • If it returns true, then it calls ICloudRetrievePolicyPlugin.getPolicyGraph.

      • If it returns false, then it calls IFallbackPolicySearchPlugin.retrievePolicyFromPolicySummary

    • retrievePolicyFromPolicy and retrievePolicySummaryFromPolicy

The following sections illustrate how the search and retrieval operations are executed.

Policy search

The following diagram illustrates how ClaimCenter searches for policies.

  1. ClaimCenter calls IPolicySearchAdapter.searchPolicies.

  2. This method calls IFallbackPolicySearchPlugin.searchPolicies.

  3. This method sends policy search criteria to the PAS and returns a set of PolicySummaries matching the criteria. This is the same for both the traditional and graph-based approaches.


Plugin architecture when graph-based retrieval is used - policy search

Policy retrieval

The following diagram illustrates how ClaimCenter retrieves policies.

  1. ClaimCenter calls IPolicySearchAdapter.retrievePolicyFromPolicySummary.

  2. This method calls ICloudRetrievePolicyPlugin.shouldUseGraphRetrieveForPolicyType. This method returns a Boolean value.

  3. If it returns true, ClaimCenter calls ICloudRetrievePolicyPluin.getPolicyGraph. This method uses the policy summary to retrieve information about the policy from the PAS and transform it into JSON that adheres to the Policy graph schema. This is then saved to the database.

  4. If it returns false, ClaimCenter calls IFallbackPolicySearchPlugin.retrievePolicyFromPolicySummary. This non-graph-based method uses the policy summary to retrieve information about the policy from the PAS and transform it into a Policy object. This is then saved to the database.


Plugin architecture when graph-based retrieval is used - policy retrieval