1. A programmable apparatus for use in a computing environment, the apparatus comprising: a business rules engine coupled to a processor in a mainframe system and at least one data storage medium, the business rules engine including at least one rule executable by the mainframe system in a mainframe computing environment, the business rules engine having at least one rule stored therein based on an extensible language; a business rules engine builder interface coupled to a processor in a distributed computing environment, the business rules engine builder interface accessing the business rules engine, the business rules engine builder interface permitting selection from among different rules collections in the business rules engine and modification of the at least one rule based on a selection of at least one configurable parameter of the at least one rule; and wherein at least one of the rules defined with the business rules engine builder interface is associated with modifying an aspect of the business rules engine builder interface itself and the aspect of the business rules engine builder interface is modified based on state data in the mainframe system that is changed during a user session; and wherein the business rules engine supports execution in the mainframe computing environment of at least one rule defined with the business rules engine builder interface in the distributed computing environment.