Application

The main class is the BDSSApplication, an envisage.Application subclass, which is in charge of loading the plugins, and also adding the relevant core plugins to make the whole system run. Specifically it loads:

• The FactoryRegistryPlugin, which is where all external plugins will put their classes.

• Depending on the –evaluate switch, a relevant execution plugin:

  • OptimizeOperation: Invokes the MCO.

  • EvaluateOperation: performs a single point evaluation, that is, executes the pipeline only once.

Note: the design requiring the --evaluate switch assumed a “Dakota” model of execution (external process controlled by Dakota). In the current Enthought Example plugin we use both the --evaluate strategy and direct control, where all the calculation is performed without spawning additional processes other than the initial force_bdss.

The BDSSApplication contains the following structure:

At the application level, there are three main attributes of type:

• WorkflowFile: contains the Workflow object, as well as the ability to read, write from file

• IOperation: determines the operation that will be performed by the BDSS

• IFactoryRegistry: contains references to all IFactory classes that are contributed by currently installed plugins. This object is constructed from by the BDSSApplication, using the Envisage plugins installed in the local environment, but is actually used by WorkflowReader to instantiate serialised Workflow objects from file.

Upon start up, the BDSSApplication performs the following process:

Operations

The IOperation interface defines the requirements for an operation that can be performed by the BDSS. The BaseOperation class provides this interface and contains useful routines that are used to set up both internal and external communication routes. Currently we have 2 subclasses of this base class: EvaluateOperation and OptimizeOperation.

The OptimizeOperation (the default operation performed by the force_bdss) is designed to work alongside a BaseMCO subclass, that defines an optimization method to be performed on a Workflow instance.

The EvaluateOperation (invoked by using the --evaluate flag with the force_bdss command line application) is designed to work alongside a BaseMCOCommunicator subclass that determines how to send and receive MCO parameters and KPIs.