A series of posts about those things. Oldest posts first.

Coordinating economic networks Part 3

Configuring the software

We want this software to work for many different kinds of economic networks. Plus, the New York Textile Lab, the currently planned users, may change and develop new requirements.

Two main configuration features are in the upcoming software roadmap (and have been implemented in previous Valueflows software):
* Type objects, and
* Facets.

Type objects

Type objects came from game programming:

In typical object-oriented programming, Classes are built into the program code and cannot be changed, nor can new ones be invented, without more programming.

Type objects allow regular users to create their own custom types without any programming.

Valueflows has three levels. The Knowledge level is all made up of Type Objects and their relationships.

(Lynn reminds me that in many systems, some of those would be Master Files. The diff is that Type Objects have built-in methods (logic, code) while Master Files don't. But the ideas are definitely related.)

Levels of Valueflows

ResourceSpecifications

These are user-defined resource types like “Brown Alpaca Wool” or “Shima Seiki knitting machine”. A particular network might need lots of those, and more may be found or invented all the time.

ProcessSpecifications

How does some Resource get created? What ResourceSpecifications would be used for inputs and ouputs? Etc.

Recipes

Recipes are combinations of Resource and Process Specifications used to create new Resources. They are also used for automated planning, as explained in Part 2.

Facets

Facets are lists of user-defined fields that can be added to data obects to flexibly add more information. For example, a ResourceSpecification like Brown Alpaca Wool might have Facets for different measurable properties of the wool, like denier.
Or in a food network, Apples might have facets for Variety and Growing Method.

Here are some the facets from Sensorica's NRP system:

Sensorica facets

Might help to open the image in another tab so you can enlarge it for readability. But as you can see, Sensorica uses their facets a lot.