The Most Powerful and Flexible Solver SDK Version Ever
As an existing customer, you already know that we’ve consistently enhanced the capacity, speed and range of problems both our Excel-based and SDK-based Solvers can handle, helping you get better solutions, more quickly, with our very affordable tools. In V12.0 we've gone much further, extending Solver SDK Platform to include a Web Service API and a pre-built Solver Server, capable of accepting and executing requests to solve optimization and simulation models from multiple clients concurrently.
Next Steps: Learn more and try Solver SDK Platform V12.0
Solver SDK Platform is a Software Development Kit you can use to bring optimization and simulation power to your application written in a wide range of programming languages: C/C++, C#, VB.NET and Visual Basic, Java, MATLAB, and now PHP and JavaScript. The SDK uses the same Solver Engines as our Excel-based Solvers, which are upgrades for the Solver in Excel that we developed for Microsoft. You can solve problems hundreds to thousands of times larger than the basic Excel Solver, at speeds anywhere from several times to hundreds of times faster.
Object-Oriented API in Multiple Languages, Now Including PHP and JavaScript
Solver SDK Platform offers both a conventional procedural API and a new, higher level, object-oriented API that simplifies and speeds application development. You can work with ‘objects’ such as a Problem, Solver, Model, Variable, and Function, and write higher level statements such as problem.VarDecision.NonNegative and problem.Solver.Optimize. In V12.0, we've added a new Web Service API that uses the same objects, properties and methods.
Solve Excel Workbook Models without Excel
Your Solver SDK Platform application can open an Excel workbook containing an optimization/simulation model, created using the standard Excel Solver or any of Frontline’s Solvers for Excel, solve it on a server without using Excel, and (new in V12.0) save the Excel workbook, updated to contain the final solution. Even non-programmers can use the SDK to 'deploy' an Excel-based solution to many end users.
New XML/SOAP-Based Web Service API
The new Web Service API in V12.0 is based on XML and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) standards. The Solver Server included with the SDK exposes a standard WSDL (Web Service Description Language) file that many compilers can use to automatically build “client-side proxy” code to call the Web Service, as if it were a local optimization or simulation library. It’s straightforward to create a ‘zero-footprint’ application that defines a model on a web page, for use in a browser or mobile phone, and solves the model using the Web Service.
But to make things even easier, we've included ‘client-side wrappers’ for C/C++, C# and Java that make calls to the Web Service APIs identical to calls to the local SDK library, plus new (optional) client-side wrappers in PHP and JavaScript, to simplify your life if you're working in those languages.
Solver Server Queues and Processes Multiple Requests
Solver Server accepts multiple, concurrent connections from Web Service clients, handles API calls to define a model ‘on the fly’ or upload a model in as an MPS, LP, or OSiL file or an Excel workbook, and queues these requests as ‘jobs’ for execution. Depending on the available licenses, it will create multiple ‘worker threads’ to process these jobs, running optimizations and simulations, and queuing the results for return to the callers. Your Web Service clients can stay connected and obtain progress information on the solution of their models, or disconnect after sending the problem and re-connect later to retrieve the results.
Frontline Solvers for Excel V12.0 as Web Service Clients
A client for the SDK’s Web Service API, able to ‘talk to’ Solver Server V12.0, is built-in to each of Frontline’s Solvers for Excel V12.0: Risk Solver Platform, Premium Solver Platform, Risk Solver Pro and Premium Solver Pro. This allows Frontline’s Excel users to take advantage of the Solver Server without doing any programming. Users can simply select ‘Run on a Solver Server’ from the dropdown menu below the Optimize and Simulate buttons on the Ribbon.
Admin Client to Easily Administer Solver Servers
An administrative client program for the Solver Server is also included with the SDK V12.0. Using this client, you can easily check the status and progress of optimization and simulation requests queued for execution or completed, allocate ‘certificates’ to clients that enable them to make use of the Solver Server’s licenses, and perform other tasks.
In summary, Solver SDK Platform V12.0 includes everything you need to start creating and solving optimization and simulation problems ‘over the wire’, as well as on local desktop PCs.