Monday, July 18, 2005

Released version 0.3.1

Both the library and the GUI have been "co-released" under the same version number: 0.3.1. There were many changes in the library (code cleanup, bugfixes, new features and performance optimizations).

Changes to the library include:
  • Reimplemented serialization/deserialization mechanism using generic configuration objects (all available algorithms are now serializable).
  • om_console accepts two new keywords "Output model" (file name to store the serialized model) and "Input model" (file name to load a serialized model instead of using "WKT format", "Species file", "Species" and "Map").
  • New framework for test cases available (depends on the SWIG/Python interface).
  • Moved normalization from the individual raster files to the "environment" object.
  • Implemented Model and Algorithm separation (new interface called Model abstracts the portion of Algorithm used for evaluations).
  • Implemented reference-counting smart pointers for all major objects.
  • Fixed various problems with memory leaks and uninitialized values.
  • Removed CSM Kaiser-Gutman from build.
  • Removed SWIG/Java binding from build.
  • Projected maps now have the mask extent and cell size of a specified "map format".
  • Major restructuring of directories, file locations and file names.

Changes to the GUI include:
  • Compatibility with the new library version.
  • Models are automatically serialized (XML file).
  • A new report is generated (and saved in HTML) after each modelling process.

Saturday, July 2, 2005

BDWorld using openModeller in a GRID environment

Demonstration sessions during the BiodiversityWorld (BDWorld) GRID Workshop showed openModeller being used as a GRID component. The workshop has been held at the National e-Science Centre in Edinburgh on June 30th and July 1st, 2005.

BDWorld is developing an advanced GRID-based problem solving environment to facilitate scientific research in biodiversity informatics. Use cases may include modelling species distributions, conservation prioritization and study of evolutionary changes.

BDWorld provides a flexible workflow interface based on Triana with several pre-defined GRID components available. Components can be assembled in many different ways to build customized workflows and achieve the desired results.