NOTICE GeniusWebPython is due for release on august 2, 2021

GeniusWebPython

GeniusWeb is an open architecture for negotiation via the internet. The core of the architecture is a JSON based communication protocol that standardizes the communication messages comprising a negotiation.

This project contains a c-python-3-based implementation of GeniusWeb core objects. It allows easy (de)serialization of many data structures needed for negotiation in GeniusWeb. Some data structures have not yet been implemented in GeniusWebPython, this will be done as needed. Please contact us if you need some missing classes.

A specification and full reference implementation of the GeniusWeb core is available ​here

Overview of the available core objects

Most classes in the python core are explained in the java reference implementation:

class	wiki reference
issuevalue	see ​wiki issuevalue
inform	see ​wiki inform
actions	see ​wiki actions
deadline	see ​wiki deadline
progress	see ​wiki progress
connection	see ​wiki connection
party	see ​wiki party and see below for details on writing a party
partystdio	a module to support running a party using pythons stdin and stdout
profile	see ​https://tracinsy.ewi.tudelft.nl/pubtrac/GeniusWeb/wiki/WikiStart#profile
profileconnection	see ​https://tracinsy.ewi.tudelft.nl/pubtrac/GeniusWeb/wiki/WikiStart#ProfileConnectionFactory
references	see ​https://tracinsy.ewi.tudelft.nl/pubtrac/GeniusWeb/wiki/WikiStart#References

Example Parties

Example parties can be found here. Many of these are also included with the basic ​parties server to provide basic functionality.

Below is a table showing the currently available example parties and their properties. Notice, "Supported profile types" gives the class names of all supported types, so for instance "PartialOrdering" means all subclasses of PartialOrdering which also includes all UtilitySpaces.

Party	Protocol	Supported profile types	Parameters (default value)
RandomParty	SAOP, Learn	LinearAdditive	minPower (2), maxPower (infinity). Used to control voting behaviour
stupidparty	SAOP	LinearAdditive	-

Writing a party

Example parties can be found here. You can easily clone a party with SVN using svn co https://tracinsy.ewi.tudelft.nl/pub/svn/GeniusWebPython/exampleparties/randomparty/ (this clones randomparty, use a different name to fetch another example).

After cloning, create your venv and install the requirements, eg

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

You can now run the junit tests.

You may have to take different or additional steps if you use an IDE like eclipse with pydev, or pycharm.

A party is compiled with python. Compile with python3 setup.py sdist. This gives you a you get a dist/yourparty-X.Y.Z.tar.gz that can be copied into the pypartiesserver for deployment.

The basic structure of a party that supports the SAOP behaviour looks like this

class RandomParty (DefaultParty):
    """
    Offers random bids until a bid with sufficient utility is offered
    """
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.getReporter().log(logging.INFO,"party is initialized")
        self._profile = None
        self._lastReceivedBid:Bid = None

    def notifyChange(self, info: Inform):
        #self.getReporter().log(logging.INFO,"received info:"+str(info))
        if isinstance(info,Settings) :
            settings:Settings=cast(Settings,info)    
            self._me = settings.getID()
            self._protocol:str = str(settings.getProtocol().getURI())
            self._progress = settings.getProgress()
            if "Learn" ==  self._protocol:
                self.getConnection().send(LearningDone(self._me))
            else:
                self._profile = ProfileConnectionFactory.create(info.getProfile().getURI(), self.getReporter())
        elif isinstance(info, ActionDone):
            action:Action=cast( ActionDone,info).getAction()
            if isinstance(action, Offer):
                self._lastReceivedBid = cast(Offer, action).getBid()
        elif isinstance(info, YourTurn):
            self._myTurn()
            if isinstance(self._progress, ProgressRounds) :
                self._progress = self._progress.advance()
        elif isinstance(info, Finished):
            self.terminate()
        else:
            self.getReporter().log(logging.WARNING, "Ignoring unknown info "+str(info))


    def getCapabilities(self) -> Capabilities:
        return Capabilities( set([ "SAOP", "Learn"]), set(['geniusweb.profile.utilityspace.LinearAdditive']))

    def getDescription(self) -> str:
        return "Offers random bids until a bid with sufficient utility is offered"

    def _myTurn(self):
        if self._lastReceivedBid != None and \
            self._profile.getProfile().getUtility(self._lastReceivedBid) > 0.6:
            action = Accept(self._me, self._lastReceivedBid)
        else:
            for _attempt in range(20):
                bid = self._getRandomBid(self._profile.getProfile().getDomain())
                if self._isGood(bid):
                    break
            action = Offer(self._me, bid);
        self.getConnection().send(action)

    def _isGood(self, bid:Bid)->bool:
        profile = self._profile.getProfile()
        return profile.getUtility(bid) > 0.6

...

Notice, above is slightly simplified code, for fully working code check the source code.

A party receives and can send native python objects. This enables proper type checking of your implementation.

The party must follow the behaviours that it promises. The example above folows the SAOP behaviour.

Use the logger for outputting messages from your party. Warning: do not use stdin and stdout/print in your party. These are used for communicating with the partyserver. Using them will disturb that communication and most likely result in your party requesting illegal actions. Executing an illegal action will result in your party being killed by the protocol.

Logging

Logs are written to a file named RandomParty.log (replace RandomParty with your main class name) in the current working directory of the JVM (normally the directory from where you start up the tomcat server).

Throwing exceptions

A special warning is in place regarding throwing exceptions from your implementation, particularly from notifyChange. In line with the general Listener interface, exceptions are only logged and your party usually is immediately disconnected if it throws any exception. Make sure that you free up any used resources to avoid memory leaks if you really need to throw an exception.

Preparing the jar file

In order to put your party on the ​pypartiesserver for running, you need a tar.gz file of your party.

In contrast with java, python tar.gz files do not contain their dependent libraries. References to the dependent libraries are stored in the setup.py program inside the tar.gz file. The pypartiesserver runs a standard pip install <your.tar.gz> to install your party for use.

Your tar.gz file must contain a party.py program in the root of the project, defining a function party() that returns your main class, like this:

from randomparty.RandomParty import RandomParty
def party():
    return RandomParty

Of course you should replace RandomParty with your party's main class name but the file name must stay party.py.

GeniusWeb sources

Downloading source code

You can browse the GeniusWeb core sources directly using the browse button at the right top of this page.

You can download the source code of this component using

svn co https://tracinsy.ewi.tudelft.nl/pub/svn/GeniusWebPython

Normal developers that write new parties do not need to install the GeniusWeb source code. Even if you want to debug/trace into the GeniusWeb code -- for instance for debugging or understanding the inner workings of geniusWeb--, IDEs like Eclipse automatically allow this as the pip-installed libraries contain sources.