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OpenStudio(R) Extension Gem

This gem repository serves as a base for single purpose repositories that host API methods, CLI tools, and OpenStudio measures which leverage those methods and tools. Other derivative extension gem repositories will depend on this repository and inherit/mix-in needed functionality. The repository is formatted as a gem to allow for semantic versioning via Bundle. The repository includes methods for testing, documentation, and build tasks.

Overview

The OpenStudio Extension Gem contains methods and patterns to extend OpenStudio. It is a template that can be used to create other extension gems.

Derivative extension gems should include this gem to access common functionality, such as:

  • OpenStudio CLI functionality such as list_measures and update_measures
  • adding documentation and license files to measures
  • adding core resource files to measures
  • correct structure for contributing content to the Building Component Library (BCL)

Extension gems will contain a small group of related measures. Each extension gem will be the unique location to find these measures, and will be responsible for testing and maintaining the measures as well as indexing them on BCL.

Usage

The openstudio-extension gem is meant to be used as a base for creating new gems to use with OpenStudio. The intention is to standardize best practices and common patterns in one location rather than try to synchronize them across many independent gems.

Existing gems such as openstudio-standards and openstudio-workflow may be refactored to depend on openstudio-extension in the future. The immediate use of openstudio-extension will be for new gems. New gems that may be considered a part of OpenStudio and potentially distributed with OpenStudio in the future should be named as openstudio-#{gem-name}, e.g. openstudio-model-articulation is a gem to implement model articulation methods for OpenStudio.
Other gems that extend OpenStudio for specific applications or other domains should be named separately, e.g. buildingsync is an extension of OpenStudio specifically for use with BuildingSync files.

Each OpenStudio extension gem should define its own module name to ensure that there are no code collisions with other extension gems. If the gem name is prefixed with openstudio- then the module name can be nested under the OpenStudio module.

openstudio-model-articulation buildingsync
module OpenStudio module ModelArticulation class ModelArticulation < OpenStudio::Extension::Extension module BuildingSync class BuildingSync < OpenStudio::Extension::Extension

Installation

To use the latest version of this and other extension gems, you will need Ruby 2.7.x and OpenStudio 3.1.0 or greater. For earlier versions, view the compatibility matrix below.

Windows Installation

Install Ruby with Devkit using the RubyInstaller for Ruby 2.7.2 (x64).

Make sure that you select option 3: MSYS2 and MINGW development toolchain during the installation process.

Check the ruby installation returns the correct Ruby version (2.7.x):

ruby -v

Install bundler from the command line

gem install bundler -v 2.1

Install OpenStudio. Create a file C:\ruby-2.7.2-1-x64-mingw32\lib\ruby\site_ruby\openstudio.rb and point it to your OpenStudio installation by editing the contents. E.g.:

require 'C:\openstudio-3.1.0\Ruby\openstudio.rb'

Verify your OpenStudio and Ruby configuration:

ruby -e "require 'openstudio'" -e "puts OpenStudio::Model::Model.new"

Mac Installation

It is recommended that you install rbenv to easily manage difference versions of Ruby. rbenv can be installed via Homebrew:

brew install rbenv
rbenv init
rbenv install 2.7.2

Also install bundler

gem install bundler -v 2.1

Install OpenStudio.

Add the RUBYLIB environment variable to your bash_profile (or similar) file. It should point to the Ruby folder within the OpenStudio Application you just downloaded (replace 3.1.0 with the version you are using):

export RUBYLIB=/Applications/OpenStudio-3.1.0/Ruby

Compatibility Matrix

OpenStudio Extension Gem OpenStudio Ruby
0.8.0 3.8 3.2
0.7.1 3.7 2.7
0.7.0 3.7 2.7
0.6.0 3.5 2.7
0.6.0 3.5 2.7
0.5.1 3.4 2.7
0.5.1 3.3 2.7
0.4.0 - 0.4.4 3.2 2.7
0.3.0 - 0.3.2 3.1 2.5
0.2.0 - 0.2.6 3.0 2.5
0.1.6 and below 2.9 and below 2.2.4

Contents

The OpenStudio Extension Gem (this repo) contains methods that can be shared across and extended by other derivative extension gems.

Directory Structure

Extension gem and the derivative extension gem should have the following directory structure:

├── doc_templates

├── init_templates

├── lib

│       ├── data

│       ├── files

│       ├── measures

│       └── openstudio

│                └── extension

│                          └── core

└── spec

               ├── files

               └── openstudio

                         └── core

doc_templates contains copyright and license file templates that can be copied and added to each measure.
The derivative extension gems should have their own doc_templates directory.

init_templates are used with the init-new-gem rake task to create a derivative extension gem directory structure.

lib contains data

  • data contains custom data for the gem
  • files contains files referenced by measures or workflows
  • measures contains the measures included in the gem.
  • openstudio and openstudio\extension contain the code related to this gem.
  • openstudio\extension\core contains core resource files shared across a variety of measures.

Your gem should list its gem dependencies (including openstudio-extension) in its gemspec file. This is what is used to determine dependencies for consumers of your gem.
You should only list actual dependencies of your gem in the gemspec. You can list specific sources for your gems (e.g. on github, local file) in your Gemfile. If you are writing an application rather than a gem, you can only have a Gemfile. You do not need a gemspec unless you are releasing your code as a gem. Once you have included openstudio-extension as a dependency of your gem, you can inherit common rake tasks into your application's Rakefile.

Core Library

The core folder located at lib\openstudio\extension contains core resource files shared across a variety of measures. The files should be edited in the OpenStudio-extension-gem, and the rake task (bundle exec rake openstudio:measures:copy_resources) should be used to update the measures that depend on them. Note that this folder is for 'core' functionality; if a measure's requires a new one-off function, this should be developed in place, within the measure's resources folder.

Having a single repository for all measures, such as the OpenStudio-measures repo, can be cumbersome to test and keep up to date. In this new framework, each extension gem will contain one or more related measures. The gem will be the new 'home' of these measures, and the repo owner will be responsible for testing and keeping the measures up to date.

In the short term, in order to preserve the PAT/OS App functionality, resource files will still be copied directly into the measures, and these measures will be indexed on the BCL.

Rake Tasks

Common Rake Tasks that are available to derivative extension gems include:

Rake Task Description
openstudio:bcl:search_measures Search BCL
openstudio:change_log[start_date,end_date,apikey] Print the change log from GitHub. Specify dates in yyyy-mm-dd format
openstudio:list_measures List all measures in the calling gem
openstudio:measures:add_license Add License File to measures in the calling gem
openstudio:measures:add_readme Add README.md.erb file if it and the README markdown file do not already exist for a measure
openstudio:measures:copy_resources Copy the resources files to individual measures in the calling gem
openstudio:measures:update_copyright Update copyright on measure files in the calling gem
openstudio:runner:init Create a runner.conf file running simulations
openstudio:test_with_docker Use openstudio docker image to run tests
openstudio:test_with_openstudio Use openstudio system ruby to run tests
openstudio:update_measures Run the CLI task to check for measure updates and update the measure xml files

These can all be invoked from the derivative gem by running the following command in a terminal:

bundle exec rake <name_of_rake_task>

To list all available rake tasks:

bundle exec rake -T

Derivative Extension Gems

The following table contains all current extension gems.

Name Gem Name Repo
OpenStudio Extension Gem openstudio-extension https://github.com/NREL/OpenStudio-extension-gem
OpenStudio Common Measures Gem openstudio-common-measures https://github.com/NREL/openstudio-common-measures-gem
OpenStudio Model Articulation Gem openstudio-model-articulation https://github.com/NREL/openstudio-model-articulation-gem
OpenStudio AEDG Gem openstudio-aedg https://github.com/NREL/openstudio-aedg-gem
OpenStudio Calibration Gem openstudio-calibration https://github.com/NREL/openstudio-calibration-gem
OpenStudio EE Gem openstudio-ee https://github.com/NREL/openstudio-ee-gem
OpenStudio Load Flexibility Measures Gem openstudio-load-flexibility-measures https://github.com/NREL/openstudio-load-flexibility-measures-gem
URBANopt Core Gem urbanopt-core https://github.com/urbanopt/urbanopt-core-gem
URBANopt GeoJSON Gem urbanopt-geojson https://github.com/urbanopt/urbanopt-geojson-gem
URBANopt Reporting Gem urbanopt-reporting https://github.com/urbanopt/urbanopt-reporting-gem
BuildingSync Gem buildingsync https://github.com/BuildingSync/BuildingSync-gem

Initializing a new Extension Gem

The OpenStudio-extension gem can be used to easily initialize a new derivative extension gem.

  • First, call the rake task:

    bundle exec rake init_new_gem
    • Enter the name of the gem repository (use dashes between words and the repo name should end with '-gem')
    • Enter the location of the directory where the gem directory should be created The rake task will create the gem directory and stub out the required files.
  • You can then obtain a github repository and commit the newly created gem directory to it

Coding Conventions

  • Name your extension gem repo: OpenStudio--gem. Use dashes between words. Example: OpenStudio-extension-gem
  • Name the actual gem: openstudio-. 'openstudio' should be lowercase. Use dashes between words. Example: openstudio-extension
  • Use lowercase snake_case for methods and variables.
  • Use CamelCase for classes and modules. (Keep acronyms like HTTP, RFC, XML uppercase.)
  • All files and classes should have underscores (no dashes) and (lowercase snake_case)
  • Dashes should be used in module names

Contributing measures to the BCL

Register your extension gem repo with the BCL Manifest and follow the instructions to contribute content to the BCL.

Include in a project

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'openstudio-extension'

And then execute:

$ bundle install
$ bundle update

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install 'openstudio-extension'

Contributing

Please review the OpenStudio Contribution Policy if you would like to contribute code to this gem.

Releasing the gem

  • Update CHANGELOG.md
  • Run rake rubocop:auto_correct
  • Update version in /lib/openstudio/extension/version.rb
  • Create PR to master, after tests and reviews complete, then merge
  • Locally - from the master branch, run rake release
  • On GitHub, go to the releases page and update the latest release tag. Name it “Version x.y.z” and copy the CHANGELOG entry into the description box.

TODO

  • Capture useful output from Travis (measure dashboard results, log files, zip of build products, etc) and put it somewhere (s3? naming convention?)
  • Extension::files_dir DLM: I think this can have a default implementation, right?
  • Extension::minimum_openstudio_version DLM: should we rename? should people overwrite this in their class?
  • Cleanup task after running tests (may need to be in the OpenStudio Measure Tester)
  • Add tests to the extension/core