How to configure more than one Planning Variable(Mixed Mode) in a Planning Entity?

[kentbill]

Hi, everyone。

I'm building a program similar to the Food-Packaging in quickstarts.
In the planning entity - Line, there are two planning variables: a basic variable - operator, and a list variable - jobs. However, I'm getting the following exception when building the solver.

15:34:50.707 [-8081-exec-1] ERROR Servlet.service() for servlet [dispatcherServlet] in context with path [] threw exception [Request processing failed: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: The entity (class com.easyplan.planning.domain.PrimaryResource) has both basic and list variables and cannot be deduced automatically.
Maybe customize the phase configuration and add separate construction heuristic phases for each variable.] with root cause
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: The entity (class com.easyplan.planning.domain.PrimaryResource) has both basic and list variables and cannot be deduced automatically.
Maybe customize the phase configuration and add separate construction heuristic phases for each variable.
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.constructionheuristic.DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.findValidListVariableDescriptor(DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.java:126)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.constructionheuristic.DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.buildDefaultEntityPlacerConfig(DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.java:108)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.constructionheuristic.DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.lambda$getBuilder$0(DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.java:63)
	at java.base/java.util.Optional.orElseGet(Optional.java:364)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.constructionheuristic.DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.getBuilder(DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.java:63)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.constructionheuristic.DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.buildPhase(DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.java:83)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.constructionheuristic.DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.buildPhase(DefaultConstructionHeuristicPhaseFactory.java:39)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.phase.PhaseFactory.buildPhases(PhaseFactory.java:80)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.solver.DefaultSolverFactory.buildPhaseList(DefaultSolverFactory.java:240)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.solver.DefaultSolverFactory.buildSolver(DefaultSolverFactory.java:145)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.api.solver.SolverFactory.buildSolver(SolverFactory.java:118)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.solver.DefaultSolverManager.validateSolverFactory(DefaultSolverManager.java:66)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.impl.solver.DefaultSolverManager.<init>(DefaultSolverManager.java:52)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.api.solver.SolverManager.create(SolverManager.java:93)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.api.solver.SolverManager.create(SolverManager.java:71)
	at ai.timefold.solver.core.api.solver.SolverManager.create(SolverManager.java:57)

I'm using solverConfig.xml. How should I configure these two planning variables in the XML file so that the solver can recognize them?

In fact, I didn't find how the variables - operator and jobs are configured in the Food-Packaging example. Could someone tell me where they are configured so that the solver can recognize them? I can't find any information about them in application.properties.

Thanks in advance!

[TomCools]

Hi @kentbill , what version of the solver are you running? The combination of List and Regular planning variables in the same entity hasn't been around forever, so if you are using an older version, it might be you just need to upgrade.

[kentbill]

Hello, @TomCools, I am using version 1.29.0.

[TomCools]

They are being picked up correctly by the solver in a Quarkus setup (where the solverConfig.xml is auto-generated if not provided).
I'll try to have a look how we do it behind the scenes.

[TomCools]

Could you maybe share your solverConfig.xml? Is the entity added correctly? I can't immediately see why this shouldn't work.

[kentbill]

Hi, @TomCools , thanks so much for your help.

The following is the PlanningEntity, which contains planning variables

@PlanningEntity
public class PrimaryResource {
 	.
	.
	.
     // a basic planning variable
    @PlanningVariable(valueRangeProviderRefs = "auxiliaryResourceRange")
    private AuxiliaryResource auxiliaryResource;

    private List<AuxiliaryResource> availableAuxiliaryResourceList;

    // the planning list variable
    @PlanningListVariable(valueRangeProviderRefs = {"mfgOrderRange"})
    private List<ManufactureOrder> manufactureOrderList;

   private List<ManufactureOrder> availableManufactureOrderList;
        .
	.
	.
// the value range for manufactureOrderList
@ValueRangeProvider(id = "mfgOrderRange")
    public List<ManufactureOrder> getAvailableManufactureOrderList() {
        return availableManufactureOrderList;
    }

// the value range for auxiliaryResource
@ValueRangeProvider(id = "auxiliaryResourceRange")
    public List<AuxiliaryResource> getAvailableAuxiliaryResourceList() {
        return availableAuxiliaryResourceList;
    }
        .
	.
	.
)

It is similar to the Food-Packaging example in the QuickStarts,
The class PrimaryResource has a basic planning variable - AuxiliaryResource , and a planning list variable - List.
Both ManufactureOrer and AuxiliaryResource are the planning entities as well; they contain some shadow variables.

And this is the solverConfig.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<solver xmlns="https://timefold.ai/xsd/solver" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="https://timefold.ai/xsd/solver https://timefold.ai/xsd/solver/solver.xsd">
  <environmentMode>FAST_ASSERT</environmentMode> <!-- To slowly prove there are no bugs in this code -->
  
  <solutionClass>com.easyplan.planning.domain.OrderPlanning</solutionClass>
  <entityClass>com.easyplan.planning.domain.PrimaryResource</entityClass>
  <entityClass>com.easyplan.planning.domain.ManufactureOrder</entityClass>
  <entityClass>com.easyplan.planning.domain.AuxiliaryResource</entityClass>

  <scoreDirectorFactory>
    <constraintProviderClass>com.easyplan.planning.constraint.OrderPlanningConstraintProvider</constraintProviderClass>
  </scoreDirectorFactory>


  <termination>
    <terminationCompositionStyle>OR</terminationCompositionStyle>
    <secondsSpentLimit>120</secondsSpentLimit>
    <unimprovedSecondsSpentLimit>30</unimprovedSecondsSpentLimit>
  </termination>

  <constructionHeuristic>
    <unionMoveSelector>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        <valueSelector variableName="manufactureOrderList"/>
      </changeMoveSelector>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        <valueSelector variableName="auxiliaryResource"/>
      </changeMoveSelector>
    </unionMoveSelector>
  </constructionHeuristic>
  <localSearch>
    <unionMoveSelector>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        <valueSelector variableName="manufactureOrderList"/>
      </changeMoveSelector>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        <valueSelector variableName="auxiliaryResource"/>
      </changeMoveSelector>
    </unionMoveSelector>
  </localSearch>
  
</solver>

[kentbill]

Is there more detailed configuration about mixed mode in the documentation? Or a similar example in the quickstart? Below is the content about the move selector in my configuration file. However, it doesn't work correctly; after completing the CH phase, the values ​​of both basic planning variable and planning list variable for all planning entity objects are still null, so the LS phase couldn't start.

  <constructionHeuristic>
    <queuedEntityPlacer>
      <entitySelector id="placerEntitySelector">
        <entityClass>com.easyplan.planning.domain.PrimaryResource</entityClass>
      </entitySelector>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        <entitySelector mimicSelectorRef="placerEntitySelector"/>
        <valueSelector variableName="auxiliaryResource"/>
      </changeMoveSelector>
    </queuedEntityPlacer>
  </constructionHeuristic>
  <constructionHeuristic>
    <queuedValuePlacer>
      <valueSelector variableName="manufactureOrderList"/>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        <entitySelector>
          <entityClass>com.easyplan.planning.domain.PrimaryResource</entityClass>
        </entitySelector>
      </changeMoveSelector>
    </queuedValuePlacer>
  </constructionHeuristic>

  <localSearch>
    <unionMoveSelector>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        <valueSelector variableName="manufactureOrderList"/>
      </changeMoveSelector>
      <changeMoveSelector>
        <valueSelector variableName="auxiliaryResource"/>
      </changeMoveSelector>
    </unionMoveSelector>
  </localSearch>

The exception info:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Local Search phase (2) needs to start from an initialized solution, but planning list variable (PrimaryResource.manufactureOrderList variable) has (743) unexpected unassigned values.  
Maybe there is no Construction Heuristic configured before this phase to initialize the solution.

I only found the following section in the documentation about the mixed mode. Is there more detailed information about it?

https://github.com/TimefoldAI/timefold-solver/blob/main/docs/src/modules/ROOT/pages/optimization-algorithms/construction-heuristics.adoc#13-mixed-modeling-and-construction-heuristics