New default smart termination, and multiple new capabilities for ESS (v0.39.1)

Today, we’re announcing version v0.39.1 of the Timefold Platform and models.

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

New smart termination “Diminished returns” as default
: There is now a new smart termination option for runs. It’s enabled for all models by default. “Diminished returns” terminates the solver early if expected improvements are minimal. It is used if no “unimproved time” configuration is set. See documentation for more details.
Improved troubleshooting script
: Improved troubleshooting script and documentation for self-hosted installations to help report version information.
Smaller bugfixes and improvements, including a fix for filtering on deleted runs, and tags that contain an underscore. Additionally we now show the optimization gain on a run also as a relative percentage, when you hover over the optimization gain in the sidebar.

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

Employee Shift Scheduling (v1 | Stable)

Shift rotations
: We have added the ability to define rotations for shift types. Use this to make sure that the employee’s shift types rotate in consecutive periods, for example, "morning" shifts on week 1 and "evening" shifts on week 2. See “New and noteworthy” for details.
Better handling of consecutive days off
: We have introduced 2 new constraints for better handling of consecutive days off. This feature allows a minimum of consecutive number of days off per period to be set on contracts. See “New and noteworthy” for details.
Ability to ensure an "even" start time for all employees
: We have added the ability to limit the variation in shift start times. It checks whether the time between the earliest shift start and the latest shift start in this period is larger than the period rule’s shiftStartTimeDifferenceInMinutesMax. See “New and noteworthy” for details.
Metrics for shift groups
: We have added separate metrics to know how many shift groups were assigned and unassigned.
Demo data updates
: A series of updates have been made to the available demo datasets. The BASIC demo dataset has been removed in favour of the CONTRACT_RULES dataset. The CONTRACT_RULES demo dataset has been extended to a full week (7 days, 60 shifts) for 13 employees. The demo data is now more representative of real working rules, including contract patterns, maximum hours worked per day, maximum hours worked per week, preferences, and unavailabilities.
New smart termination “Diminished returns” as default
: “Diminished returns” terminates the solver early if expected improvements are minimal. This termination is the new default. See “Upgrading to the latest versions” for details.
Removed unchanged justifications from the recommendations API response
: The recommendations API response no longer includes matchesDiff entries for unchanged justifications to improve clarity and lower the size of the response.

Field Service Routing (v1 | Stable)

New smart termination “Diminished returns” as default
: “Diminished returns” terminates the solver early if expected improvements are minimal. This termination is the new default. See “Upgrading to the latest versions” for details.
Removed unchanged justifications from the recommendations API response
: The recommendations API response no longer includes matchesDiff entries for unchanged justifications to improve clarity and lower the size of the response.

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