Custom shift rotations and sequence rules for ESS, and “datasets” replace runs (v0.53.5)

Today, we’re announcing version v0.53.5 of the Timefold Platform and v1.11.3 of the Timefold models.

This new version of the Timefold Platform comes with these platform improvements:

Terminology update - from “runs” to “datasets”
: We are renaming “runs” to “datasets” throughout the platform and documentation. We are doing this in preparation for new functionality coming later. (This will include the ability to easily make changes to a dataset, or comparing optimized datasets with reference datasets.) Both in the UI, in the documentation, in the OpenAPI specs of the models, and in the API responses you will see related changes. Any changes to the model API’s are backwards compatible.
Dataset ID improvements
: From the overview of datasets you can now easily filter on dataset id, and on the detail page of a dataset we’ve added a quick copy-to-clipboard option.
Step count smart termination
: We have added a smart termination that stops the solve operation after a predetermined amount of steps. This termination is not recommended for production use, but useful to benchmark your models, configurations and datasets. You can configure the termination via a configuration profile in the Platform UI or directly when submitting datasets.
Stability improvements
: We have made several stability improvements for more graceful shutdowns and restarts when solving fails for a reason (e.g. insufficient memory). When solving fails for a reason, and needs to be restarted, we’ve fixed a problem where sometimes logs of previous solves weren’t always preserved.

Next to that, this new version of the Timefold Platform comes with updates to these Timefold Models:

Field Service Routing (v1 | Stable)

Output itinerary item discriminator: We have fixed the OpenAPI spec for the OutputItineraryItem. It now contains the discriminator field. This field is either set to VISIT or BREAK depending on what the OutputItineraryItem’s `id field refers to.
Terminology update - from “runs” to “datasets”
: Related to the aforementioned rename of “runs” to “datasets” a couple of changes were made to this model’s API. Check the changelog for the details. All changes are backwards compatible.

Employee Shift Scheduling (v1 | Stable)

Custom shift rotations
: We have added support for defining custom shift rotations. Compared to existing weekly rotations, the custom rotations allow for flexibility in the rotation period length. This feature can help formulate rotation periods such as: “Minimum 14 days of morning, or afternoon shifts” or “Maximum 30 days of morning, or afternoon shifts”. Check the changelog for more details.
Sequence rules
: We have improved capabilities of Consecutive days worked rules to support definition of shift sequences. This feature can help formulate use cases such as: “At least 2 days off after a sequence of night shifts”, “Prefer sequences of morning shifts without days off in between”, “Start a new morning or afternoon sequence on Monday”. Check the changelog for more details.

Deprecation of builtInRotationPeriod in shift rotation rules
: The
builtInRotationPeriod
attribute has been deprecated in favor of
rotationPeriod
in Shift rotation rules. See migrating from 1.10.0 to 1.11.0 for more details on required configuration changes.
Terminology update - from “runs” to “datasets”
: Related to the aforementioned rename of “runs” to “datasets” a couple of changes were made to this model’s API. Check the changelog for the details. All changes are backwards compatible.

Please let us know if you have feedback.