The distribution is made of two elements: a zipped file that contains merge modules that install COBIA Runtime (also known as COBIA Core), and an installation package of COBIA Software Development Kit (SDK).
COBIA Runtime can be freely used and redistributed. It consists of middleware components that will be installed on the end-user’s computer during installation of COBIA-based Process Modelling Environments (PMEs) and Process Modelling Components (PMCs) developed by a software provider. The COBIA Runtime is intended to be distributed with and utilized by third-party software. The archive also contains an installation package that deploys the contents of the above mentioned merge modules.
The COBIA Software Development Kit (SDK) is provided as a stand-alone installation package which distributes a set of components and tools that are used by a software developer to create software that utilizes COBIA as the middleware for CAPE-OPEN interoperability. The SDK includes tools to compile the source code of interfaces developed using the CAPE-OPEN Interface Definition Language (IDL) specifically adapted to COBIA. KBC Advanced Technologies and Heat Transfer Research Inc. reported on their use of these tools at the CAPE-OPEN 2020 Annual Meeting.
Development and maintenance of COBIA is conducted by AmsterCHEM for CO-LaN.
Version 1.2.0.1 resolves the following tickets:
- Ticket 32: COBIA_CodeGen.exe cannot locate SDK
- Ticket 35: COBIA should link to static MSVC runtimes
- Ticket 37: Crash on obtaining temperature-dependent property list in WaterPP
- Ticket 38: Invalid response from GetPhaseInfo in WaterPP
- Ticket 39: Crash on saving package from test PME
- Ticket 40: PMC registration fails for all users
- Ticket 44: Fix to PMC self-registration for all users in header files
The tickets mentioned above include issues found and documented by early adopters of COBIA, such as Heat Transfer Research Inc. that CO-LaN thanks for their report. Tickets also refer to issues in code examples provided in COBIA SDK. Additionally, during the development of version 1.2.0.1, CO-LaN was able to improve the build process of COBIA distribution, making it as automatic as possible in order to facilitate upcoming releases.
CO-LaN encourages software developers to use version 1.2.0.1.