First steps

OpenMOLE deals with a few number of building blocks that can be composed to describe a workflow. To get an overview of those building blocks you can read the page dedicated to their presentation.

This first tutorial simply explains how to create those building blocks in the graphical user interface.

The Mole

In OpenMOLE a mole is the little name for a workflow.

Building a mole simply consists in building at least 1 task, which can be connected to others by the mean of transitions. A Mole is represented as a scene, on which tasks, transitions, prototypes, samplings and environments are exposed.

To build a mole :

> click on File > New Mole and give it a name in the popup dialog. Note that, building any kind of the following 4 components implies to first build a Mole scene (it will be automatically done if you haven’t done it).

A mole is runnable if it contains at least 1 task and if a starting capsule is defined (it is necessary to know where  the workflow starts!). You can build as many moles as you which in a single OpenMOLE instance, following the same steps.

Build a component (Task, Prototype, Sampling, Environment)

The mechanism is identical to create a Task, a Prototype, a Sampling or an Environment. You certainly already noticed the four menus on the top of the main frame. These four menus contain all the avialable implementation of the building blocks. For instance, Prototype contains: Int, Double, String …

So to use a building block:

> first click on one of the proposed categories (for instance Double in the Prototype menu),

> if no Mole scene is defined, a new one is created as explained in the previous section (just give a name for it),
> the panel of the component that you selected appears (for instance a property panel for a Double Prototype). Note that, at this moment, the instance is not created.
> enter at least a name for the component,
> click on create.

The instance has just been created: the create link becomes a delete link and the name of the instance appears in the corresponding top menu. To delete the instance

> click on the delete link in the same manner. If this instance is already used in a Mole or by other instances, a message will warn you. If the instance is removed, it will no longer be accessible and be removed from your workflows.

If you created a Double Prototype for instance called myDouble, it appears in the Prototype menu and is now ready to be used to parameterize the workflow.

Note that any created component is available for all the Moles of your project.

Component life cycle

Once created, the properties of a component can be displayed, modified at any time. To do this, just select it from the top menus. The property panel will appear and makes it possible to modify the component’s characteristics.

To close this panel:

>click on the green cross next to the name field. When the panel is closed an autosave is done, so that all modified data are taken into account.

Save and load your work

To save your OpenMOLE workspace:

> click on File > Save,
> choose a file path and click on OK. All data has been saved in an xml file.

To load a previously saved xml project :

> click on File > Load,
> find your xml file and click OK. All your data is restored.

Note that the compatibility of the xml file is not guaranteed yet (and generally broken) from one major version to another. This backward compatibility should be implemented for the future 1.0 version.

 Component help

All the required fields for a given component are documented and examples are given. This documentation can be found on this website as well as in a tooltip, which appears when the cursor is located over the mysterious field.