Chapter 7. Configure the Solver for employee rostering

You can create and edit Solver configurations in Decision Central. The Solver configuration designer creates a solver configuration that can be run after the project is deployed.

Prerequisite

Red Hat Decision Manager has been downloaded and installed. You have created and configured all of the relevant assets for the employee rostering example.

Procedure

In Decision Central, click Menu → Projects, and click on your project to open it.
In the Assets perspective, click Create New Asset → Solver configuration
In the Create new Solver configuration window, type the name EmployeeRosteringSolverConfig for your Solver and click Ok.
This opens the Solver configuration designer.
In the Score Director Factory configuration section, define a knowledge base that contains scoring rule definitions. The employee rostering sample project uses defaultKieBase.
1. Select one of the knowledge sessions defined within the knowledge base. The employee rostering sample project uses defaultKieSession.
Click Validate in the upper-right corner to check the Score Director Factory configuration is correct. If validation fails, address any problems described in the error message, and try again to validate until the configuration passes.
Click Save to save the Solver configuration.

For more information about configuring a Solver, see Installing and configuring Red Hat Business Optimizer.

7.1. Configure Solver termination for the employee rostering project

You can configure the Solver to terminate after a specified amount of time. By default, the planning engine is given an unlimited time period to solve a problem instance.

The employee rostering sample project is set up to run for 30 seconds.

Prerequisite

You have created all relevant assets for the employee rostering project and created the EmployeeRosteringSolverConfig solver configuration in Decision Central as described in Chapter 7, Configure the Solver for employee rostering.

Procedure

Open the EmployeeRosteringSolverConfig from the Assets perspective. This will open the Solver configuration designer.
In the Termination section, click Add to create new termination element within the selected logical group.
Select the Time spent termination type from the drop-down list. This is added as an input field in the termination configuration.
Use the arrows next to the time elements to adjust the amount of time spent to 30 seconds.
Click Validate in the upper-right corner to check the Score Director Factory configuration is correct. If validation fails, address any problems described in the error message, and try again to validate until the configuration passes.
Click Save to save the Solver configuration.

For more information about configuring a Solver or Solver termination, see Red Hat Decision Manager Red Hat Business Optimizer Guide.

7.2. Register the Solver using the REST API

Once the solver configuration is created and the project is deployed to the decision server, you can create a Solver and submit planning problems. This can be done by accessing the project KIE container’s capabilities through the decision server’s remote APIs. You can create a Solver from the solver configuration file, then submit a planning problem to it and request the best solution at any time.

Each Solver is capable of optimizing one planning problem at a time.

Prerequisites

You must have the the kie-server role in order for the admin credentials mentioned in this examples to work. For more information about the kie-server role, see Installing and configuring Red Hat Business Optimizer.
The employee rostering project has been set up and deployed according to the previous chapters in this document.
The Solver has been configured as instructed in Chapter 7, Configure the Solver for employee rostering and Section 7.1, “Configure Solver termination for the employee rostering project”.
You have successfully built and deployed the employee rostering project. For more information about deploying the employee rostering sample project in the workbench, see Chapter 1, Deploy the employee rostering sample project in Decision Central.

Procedure

Create a HTTP request using the following header:

authorization: admin:admin
X-KIE-ContentType: xstream
content-type: application/xml

Register the Solver using the following request:
PUT
http://localhost:8080/kie-server/services/rest/server/containers/employeerostering_1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/solvers/EmployeeRosteringSolver
Request body
```
<solver-instance>
  <solver-config-file>employeerostering/employeerostering/EmployeeRosteringSolverConfig.solver.xml</solver-config-file>
</solver-instance>
```

Submit a request to the Solver:

POST

http://localhost:8080/kie-server/services/rest/server/containers/employeerostering_1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/solvers/EmployeeRosteringSolver/state/solving

Request body

<employeerostering.employeerostering.EmployeeRoster>
  <employeeList>
    <employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
      <name>John</name>
      <skills>
        <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
          <name>reading</name>
        </employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
      </skills>
    </employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
    <employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
      <name>Mary</name>
      <skills>
        <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
          <name>writing</name>
        </employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
      </skills>
    </employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
    <employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
      <name>Petr</name>
      <skills>
        <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
          <name>speaking</name>
        </employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
      </skills>
    </employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
  </employeeList>
  <shiftList>
    <employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
      <timeslot>
        <startTime>2017-01-01T00:00:00</startTime>
        <endTime>2017-01-01T01:00:00</endTime>
      </timeslot>
      <requiredSkill reference="../../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
    </employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
    <employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
      <timeslot reference="../../employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift/timeslot"/>
      <requiredSkill reference="../../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee[3]/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
    </employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
    <employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
      <timeslot reference="../../employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift/timeslot"/>
      <requiredSkill reference="../../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee[2]/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
    </employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
  </shiftList>
  <skillList>
    <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill reference="../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
    <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill reference="../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee[3]/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
    <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill reference="../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee[2]/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
  </skillList>
  <timeslotList>
    <employeerostering.employeerostering.Timeslot reference="../../shiftList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift/timeslot"/>
  </timeslotList>
  <dayOffRequestList/>
  <shiftAssignmentList/>
</employeerostering.employeerostering.EmployeeRoster>

Request the best solution to the planning problem:

GET

http://localhost:8080/kie-server/services/rest/server/containers/employeerostering_1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/solvers/EmployeeRosteringSolver/bestsolution

Example response

<solver-instance>
  <container-id>employee-rostering</container-id>
  <solver-id>solver1</solver-id>
  <solver-config-file>employeerostering/employeerostering/EmployeeRosteringSolverConfig.solver.xml</solver-config-file>
  <status>NOT_SOLVING</status>
  <score scoreClass="org.optaplanner.core.api.score.buildin.hardsoft.HardSoftScore">0hard/0soft</score>
  <best-solution class="employeerostering.employeerostering.EmployeeRoster">
    <employeeList>
      <employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
        <name>John</name>
        <skills>
          <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
            <name>reading</name>
          </employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
        </skills>
      </employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
      <employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
        <name>Mary</name>
        <skills>
          <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
            <name>writing</name>
          </employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
        </skills>
      </employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
      <employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
        <name>Petr</name>
        <skills>
          <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
            <name>speaking</name>
          </employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill>
        </skills>
      </employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee>
    </employeeList>
    <shiftList>
      <employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
        <timeslot>
          <startTime>2017-01-01T00:00:00</startTime>
          <endTime>2017-01-01T01:00:00</endTime>
        </timeslot>
        <requiredSkill reference="../../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
      </employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
      <employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
        <timeslot reference="../../employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift/timeslot"/>
        <requiredSkill reference="../../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee[3]/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
      </employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
      <employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
        <timeslot reference="../../employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift/timeslot"/>
        <requiredSkill reference="../../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee[2]/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
      </employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift>
    </shiftList>
    <skillList>
      <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill reference="../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
      <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill reference="../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee[3]/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
      <employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill reference="../../employeeList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Employee[2]/skills/employeerostering.employeerostering.Skill"/>
    </skillList>
    <timeslotList>
      <employeerostering.employeerostering.Timeslot reference="../../shiftList/employeerostering.employeerostering.Shift/timeslot"/>
    </timeslotList>
    <dayOffRequestList/>
    <shiftAssignmentList/>
    <score>0hard/0soft</score>
  </best-solution>
</solver-instance>

For more information about creating containers, Solvers, and submitting problems through the decision server REST API, see Installing and configuring Red Hat Business Optimizer.

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Chapter 7. Configure the Solver for employee rostering

7.1. Configure Solver termination for the employee rostering project

7.2. Register the Solver using the REST API

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