IBM ILOG Optimization Solutions Accelerator

IBM ILOG Optimization Solutions Accelerator provides components that
allow the execution and customization of IBM Industry Optimization
Solutions developed with IBM ILOG ODM Enterprise V3.7.0.1.

IBM ILOG Optimization Solutions Accelerator consists of two editions:
the "Client Edition" and the "Server Edition".

------------------------------------------------------------------------


    IBM ILOG Optimization Solutions Accelerator Client Edition V3.7.0.1

The client edition consists of the following components:

 1.

    Advanced Interactive Gantt

    This Visualization component provides an abstract ODM custom Gantt
    view that greatly reduces the effort required to build interactive
    scheduling applications. This component extends the Gantt component
    provided by ODM Enterprise to add some features not found in the ODM
    Enterprise Gantt component. This component is built using IBM ILOG
    JViews Gantt delivered with ODM Enterprise V3.7 and can be extended
    using the APIs from the Solutions Accelerator and JViews.

 2.

    ODM View Utilities

    This component provides a set of utilities to support the execution
    of custom views provided in the IBM Industry Optimization Solutions,
    particularly filtered aggregated Chart Views.

 3.

    Data Exchange

    This component provides the capability to define and orchestrate
    advanced data import/export jobs between ODM and external
    components. It requires IBM DB2 V9 or V10 (including IBM DB2
    Express-C V9 or V10).

 4.

    SPSS Modeler Connector

    This component provides the capability to execute ODM Enterprise
    custom tasks based on SPSS Modeler Streams. The component requires
    IBM SPSS Modeler Client 14.2 or later or IBM SPSS Modeler Server
    14.2 and IBM SPSS Modeler Batch 14.2, or later versions.

 5.

    Support for Microsoft Excel Scenario Source

    This component provides the capability to load Microsoft Excel
    spreadsheets into an ODM Enterprise Scenario or to export ODM
    Enterprise Scenario tables to Microsoft Excel. The component uses a
    structural pattern based on the ODM Data Table Schema to load or
    export the Excel data.

    This component requires Apache POI version 3.9, which can be
    downloaded here: http://poi.apache.org/download.html

    The following POI libraries need to be copied to the lib/external
    folder of the Solutions Accelerator Client Edition installation
    directory:

      * poi-3.9-20121203.jar
      * poi-ooxml-3.9-20121203.jar
      * poi-ooxml-schemas-3.9-20121203.jar
      * xmlbeans-2.3.0.jar
 6.

    Custom ODM/OPL Mapping

    This component provides the capability to connect pre-existing OPL
    models with ODM Enterprise Data Services. The component includes a
    custom plug-in for the ODM Enterprise Developer Edition IDE and a
    runtime to interpret the custom mapping.

 7.

    ODM Enterprise Customization Utilities

    This component provides a set of utility classes that help with the
    customization of an ODM Enterprise application.

The libraries for the Client Edition can be found here:

   |<install_dir>/ODME37/SolutionClient/lib| <lib>

The Java Reference Manual for the Client Edition can be found here:

   |<install_dir>/ODME37/SolutionClient/doc/html/en-US/refjava/html/index.html|
<doc/html/en-US/refjava/html/index.html>

------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Getting Started


      Using the Gantt Component

The Gantt component is an abstract base class that implements a custom
view for an ODM Enterprise application. It makes it possible to display
resources and activities in a Gantt custom view and provides
application-specific actions, styles, and interactions in the Gantt
component.

 1.

    Deriving the Gantt view.

    Each Gantt custom view must derive the class |GanttView|
    <doc/html/en-US/refjava/html/com/ibm/optx/client/gantt/view/GanttView.html>.

    The Gantt view must be declared in the |views.odmvw| file. An
    example is shown below (note that the "id" and the "prefix" must be
    identical):

       <view display="Gantt View" icon="ganttview.png" id="schedule">
        <customView implementationClassName="psched.views.ScheduledActivitiesGantt">
          <arguments>
            <arg name="prefix" value="schedule"/>
            <arg name="customProperties" value="/custom.properties"/>
          </arguments>
          <dependencies/>
        </customView>
      </view>
      

 2.

    Configuring the Gantt view.

    Some basic configuration of the Gantt view is possible using the
    |custom.properties| application file. An example properties file can
    be found here <gantt/custom.properties>.


      Using the ODM-OPL Custom Mapping Editor

ODM Enterprise applications generated from the Industry Optimization
Solutions Asset Portal rely on a specific logic to manage the mapping
between the Application Data Model and OPL models.

The motivation for this specific logic is to deal with situations where
the development of the input and output OPL element data structures is
not driven by the Application Data Model format (as is the case with the
standard ODM Enterprise workflow when creating a project).

There are cases in which high quality OPL models already exist for
solving a problem. The Application Data Model for this problem would be
focused on a business-oriented representation, which may differ
significantly from the OPL data models:

  * Additional information that is irrelevant for optimization may be added.
  * The definition of primary keys may be different in the Application
    Data Model and OPL models.

The Application Data Model contains all the entities that are required
to populate the input data structures of the OPL models and to retrieve
data elements as output. The new mapping logic is used to connect
pre-existing OPL models with Application Data Models.

A new type of file, identified with the |.cpsodmopl| extension, has been
added to ODM Enterprise projects in order to support this new mapping
logic. The ODM-OPL Custom Mapping Editor is available to open and edit
the content of these new mapping |.cpsodmopl| files.

Once you have installed the IBM ILOG Optimization Solutions Accelerator,
the user documentation for the ODM-OPL Custom Mapping Editor is
accessible from the Help menu of the IBM ILOG ODM Enterprise IDE.


      Executing SPSS Modeler tasks

The SPSS Modeler connector provided in the Solutions Accelerator Client
Edition makes it possible to execute custom tasks running with IBM SPSS
Modeler locally using the ODM Enterprise Planner edition or partially
remotely using IBM SPSS Modeler server. SPSS Modeler tasks are
configured the same way whether they run locally using ODM Enterprise
Planner, partially remotely with IBM SPSS Modeler server, or fully
remotely using IBM ILOG Optimization Server (see IBM ILOG Optimization
Solutions Accelerator Server Edition).

An SPSS Modeler task covers these typical activities:

  * Export ODM scenario data to an SPSS Modeler stream. For example, map
    tables of an ODM scenario to a |.csv| file used as input by an SPSS
    Modeler stream and map values of ODM parameter tables to parameters
    of the stream.
  * Configure, run, and control SPSS Modeler Batch execution.
  * Import SPSS Modeler stream output files to ODM scenario tables.
  * Notify end users of task progress and log details in case of
    configuration or execution errors.

The SPSS Modeler connector uses the SPSS Modeler Batch executable
(|clemb.exe|) to execute the SPSS Modeler tasks. This executable is
provided in SPSS Modeler Client and as a separate module SPSS Modeler
Batch of SPSS Modeler Server.

For documentation on SPSS Modeler task configuration and execution see
the package
|<install_dir>/ODME37/SolutionServer/doc/html/com/ibm/optx/shared/datax/spss/package-summary.html|
<doc/html/en-US/refjava/html/com/ibm/optx/shared/datax/spss/package-summary.html>


For documentation on ODM to SPSS Modeler stream mapping see the package
|<install_dir>/ODME37/SolutionServer/doc/html/com/ibm/optx/shared/datax/config/package-summary.html|
<doc/html/en-US/refjava/html/com/ibm/optx/shared/datax/config/package-summary.html>



      Using Microsoft Excel Scenario Source

A custom Excel data source is provided to import data in an ODM
Enterprise Scenario, using a structural pattern that is based on the ODM
Data Table Schema.

The custom data source must be defined in the |.odmds| configuration
file as shown below:

    <scenarioSource id="Excel Data Source" inAdd="true" inReplace="true">
      <template>
        <message>Load data from Excel template file {0}</message>
        <args>
           <arg type="string" id="filename" defaultValue="ECRData_1.0.xls"/>
        </args>
      </template>
      <customSource javaClass="com.ibm.optx.shared.utils.xls.ExcelTemplateScenarioUpdater">
        <initargs>
          <arg name="executedTask" value="optimizeOverallRepositioning"/>
        </initargs>
      </customSource>
    </scenarioSource>
  

The |initargs| section of the |customSource| is used to configure values
in the Parameters table of the scenario.