V.0.17.0 after cloning, got error "cannot import name 'FIELD_DATAFRAME' from 'business_rules.fields"

[JozefAerts]

After cloning repository, needed to install additional packages, but at the end, when doing "python core.py update-cache, I got the error:

File "D:\PycharmProjects\cdisc-rules-engine_2026-08-31\cdisc_rules_engine\check_operators\dataframe_operators.py", line 3, in
from business_rules.fields import FIELD_DATAFRAME
ImportError: cannot import name 'FIELD_DATAFRAME' from 'business_rules.fields' (C:\Users\Jozef\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\business_rules\fields.py)
Python version is 3.13.3
Current contents of fields.py in C:\Users\Jozef\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python313\site-packages\business_rules\ is:

FIELD_TEXT = 'text'
FIELD_NUMERIC = 'numeric'
FIELD_NO_INPUT = 'none'
FIELD_SELECT = 'select'
FIELD_SELECT_MULTIPLE = 'select_multiple'

I am missing something? Must something be added to this file?

[JozefAerts]

Looks as issue is related to

[SFJohnson24]

@JozefAerts per your first comment--it looks like you are running an incompatible version of python (3.13) with engine. I suspect this is what is causing your error. Engine does not use the plain busines-rules package from PyPi. I believe this is occurring due to a different dependency resolution behavior in the newer python version.

We have also moved away from requirements.txt and all our dependencies are in the pyproject.toml now. https://github.com/cdisc-org/cdisc-rules-engine/blob/main/docs/quick-start.md#3-install-dependencies please see our quickstart virtual environment steps.

[JozefAerts]

Thanks! So, I presume I will need to go back to Python 3.12, as 3.13 does not seem to be downward-compatible, and then generate the venv again?
It is evening here, so maybe, if I find time, try later tonight, or otherwise tomorrow morning.
Thanks again!
Jozef

[JozefAerts]

Thanks, made 3.12.10 the default. Continueing tomorrow.

[JozefAerts]

Solved, I cloned 0.17.1, then did the setup using Python 3.12.10 and everything works correctly now.
I just didn't realize that Python is not always well downward compatibility, or for the external libraries.

As I realize that some of my "functions requests" necessary for SEND rules have got a low priority, and I am now already better in Python, I will generate a separate branch, and try to add them myself.
We also had some requests for new "operations" from customers in order to be able to implement some of their "custom rules". These are relatively simple (e.g. checking whether a date/datetime is between a start date/time and end date/time in SV), so I hope to also work a bit on that.