INHERITANCE OF RULES ACROSS HIERARCHICAL LEVELS

Rules, such as condition-action rules, are configured at different levels of a hierarchy. For example, a top level site administrator may configure rules, lower level administrators may configure rules and end users may configure rules. Rules created at a higher hierarchical level are automatically inherited by lower hierarchical levels in the same branch of the hierarchy. The source of the inherited rule is indicated with its display such that the hierarchical level of creation can readily be determined. The inherited rule(s) may be toggled on/off at the lower hierarchical levels but edits to inherited rule(s) are restricted. Instead, a copy of any inherited rule may be made to create a local copy of the rule that is editable. Rules may be ordered and when a lower hierarchical level inherits the rules, the ordering is preserved. The lower level may toggle on/off the execution of each rule within the ordering.