Opal Toolkit

File Release Notes and Changelog

Release Name: 2.0alpha1

Notes: We are pleased to release the 2.0alpha1 version of Opal for testing purposes. Opal2 is a complete redesign of Opal 1.x to support a plug-in based model at the back-end where resource providers can be added in easily at the back-end. State management is now provided via Hibernate, which means that the dashboard will work out of the box using the in-memory HSQL database. WSDL improvements include support for MIME attachments and URLs for application inputs. Opal 2.0 is not backwards compatible with Opal 1.x due to the modifications required to the WSDL. We anticipate a few more changes to the WSDL before the stable release. This release is mostly to provide the users a feel for the upcoming changes. Sincerely, Opal Team

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Changes: Version 2.0alpha1 - Opal Core - Complete re-design of the Opal implementation to support a plug-in based model at the back-end where resource providers (Fork, Globus, DRMAA) can be plugged in easily at the back-end - State management with the help of Hibernate, which supports an in-memory and disk-based database (HSQL DB) by default. This enables the complete functionality of the Opal dashboard out of the box - WSDL modifications to support - MIME attachments and file URLs for inputs, in addition to legacy style Base64 encoding - Addition of max wall clock time in the application configuration - Argument validation on a per application basis, via the application configuration - Optional selection of resource provider on a per application basis - Added a set of JUnit tests - The list of Opal service deployed can be also be abtained at /opal2/opalServices.xml in Atom 1.0 format - Opal GUI - Number of CPUs can now be specified via the submission form Version 1.9.3: - Opal Dashboard: - Fixed a bug in the submission form where input file parameters were not properly handled on the command line - Fixed a bug in the automatic interface generation where an exception was thrown if the number of flags were zero - Fixed a bug where the usage information wasn't displayed correctly for the automatically generated interface - Fixed a locale issue in the formatting of dates used by the statistics tab of the dashboard - Opal Services: - Fixed a bug where the job status was being retrieved incorrectly during a destroy() operation when a database was being used to persist state - Updated command-line argument validation client to now account for groups - Improved clean task of the build.xml file, now it deletes also the generated JavaDoc Version 1.9.2: - Opal Dashboard: - The simple submission form now supports upload of multiple input files - The output page after job submission is now opened in a new window - The help section of the submission form now displays HTML tags correctly - The list of jobs currently running is plotted as a bar graph, with different colors for every service - Better error reporting if database connection can not be established for statistical purposes - The summary page now displays the lifetime for the user data to be available on the remote cluster (by reading a parameter from the opal.properties file) - Corrected the "load-on-startup" order of the servlets - an incorrect order could potentially cause a database connection error - Opal Services: - In earlier versions of Opal, the Tomcat server had to be installed on an NFS partition visible to all compute nodes. This is no longer required as long as a working directory is NFS mounted, and symbolically linked to a location within the Tomcat "webapps" directory - Job outputs can optionally be archived by setting a parameter (data.archive) inside the opal.properties file - General: - The code should now compile and run with Java 1.4 and older JSP compilers Version 1.9 alpha: - Opal Dashboard: it is a web based interface that provide an easy way to check the status of the opal installation - If an external database has been used the Dashboard can also display chart with access and usage statistics - Dynamic Interface Generation for Opal: This web based interface allows user to invoke Opal based service directly from their browser. It is also possible to create customized submission form based on the command line syntax - Modified and streamlined the install and upgrade process - now bundling axis webapp with Opal, thus reducing an external prerequisite