Y2022-36: Manager and versioning

01 NOVEMBER 2022

The Methods & Tools Special Interest Group met from 3 pm till 4:30 pm Central European Time.

Agenda:

  • Manager Common interface specification
  • Versioning protocol

Participants
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (represented by Bill BARRETT), AmsterCHEM (represented by Jasper van BATEN), Bryan Research & Engineering (represented by Michael HLAVINKA), Michel PONS (contractor to CO-LaN as Chief Technology Officer).

Highlights

Manager Common interface specification

Methods & Tools SIG acknowledged the handing over of the Manager Common interface specification by Thermo SIG. Bill BARRETT and Michael HLAVINKA, who both have not been involved in the development of the draft within Thermo SIG, will now review the document.

Versioning

Modifications were brought to the Versioning protocol document in section 5.2 that describes how the selection is made of the CAPE-OPEN version applicable for transactions between a PME and a PMC.

A PMC may support multiple versions of CAPE-OPEN and the PME decides which of these versions is the most compatible with its own support of CAPE-OPEN versions. Methods & Tools SIG emphasized that, when an end-user is selecting which PMC to use in a flowsheet managed by a PME, it is the PMC which is selected, not the CAPE-OPEN version supported by the PMC. Hence care must be exercized by PME developers so that the end-user is not bothered by which CAPE-OPEN version is going to be used in the interaction between the PME and the PMC, except if the end-user asks for such information to be provided. This has consequences on how the list of available PMCs is displayed by the PME to the end-user.

Section 5.3 was also modified. It tackles how CAPE-OPEN version impacts de-persistence of a flowsheet and its contents. Indeed the PME and the PMC(s) contained in a flowsheet may have evolved in terms of CAPE-OPEN version support in between sessions, i.e. since the flowsheet was persisted. The mechanism to handle changes has been described but still need to be revised.

Next meeting of Methods & Tools SIG is scheduled for November 8, 2022.

Contact

Picture of Bill BARRETT (US EPA representative) in December 2018Contact Bill BARRETT (representative of US Environmental Protection Agency, leader of the Methods & Tools Special Interest Group) should you wish to join the Methods & Tools Special Interest Group. Its charter is: “Improve integration, and expand utilization of Computer-Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) applications within the enterprise through identification and resolution of existing cross-cutting issues with the CAPE-OPEN platform, develop mechanisms for use of CAPE within other application domains, and incorporate advances in information technology into the CAPE-OPEN platform.”