Creating new component

Follow these step to create a new component that participates in simulation in the platform.

1. Make sure you understand the basic concepts of the platform (see Basic concepts at Manual for developer)
2. Outputs: Decide what information the component should generate as result messages
3. Inputs: Resolve what information the component needs as the input to generate the result messages
   • This information comes from other components
   • This is optional, because not all components need input
4. Topics: Specify the topics the component uses to communicate
   • This is based on "outputs" and "inputs"
   • Re-use existing topics if and only if appropriate
   • Specify new topics as needed
     • See Conventions of naming
     • Make sure the names do not conflict with existing topic names (see Topics (core) and Topics (energy))
5. Messages: Determine which data is communicated with "topics"
   • This is based on "outputs" and "inputs"
   • Re-use existing message structures if possible
     • See Message structures (core) and the existing messages at Message type names (core) and Message type names (energy)
   • Specify new message structures as needed
     • See Conventions of messaging
6. Choose whether to manage the execution by the platform or externally
   • See Platform managed and externally managed components
7. Develop the component
   • Follow the workflow in pages Workflow of start and end and Workflow of component in simulation
   • When developing a component using Python, it is advisable to to use the Simulation Tools package. For details about developing a new component using the package, see the instructions and the template file for a new component.
   • An example of a platform managed component, called SimpleComponent, has been made by using the Simulation Tools package and the available documentation. The repository, https://github.com/simcesplatform/simple-component, contains documentation about the development steps taken during the development of the example component.
   • During the component development, things that might have to considered:
     • Environment: Determine what variable information the component must know about the environment (if anything)
     • Parameters: Determine what parametrizable properties the component has (if any)
8. Create a component manifest file using the instructions on page Creating a component manifest file.
9. For platform managed component, build and publish a Docker image for the component. See page Building Docker image for a component for instructions on how to accomplish that.
10. Update the documentation
    • Document the communication and the workflow of the component. See the page for Static time series resource for an example.
    • Document any new message types that are used by the component. See the page for Epoch message for an example.
    • Document the topics used by the component and them to the list topics, for example to Topics (energy).
    • Document a new Start message block for the component. See Dummy Component block for an example.
    • For externally managed component, provide full installation instructions for the component.