How to change OptaWeb Employee Rostering solver configuration

Question

I have a problem with solver configuration. Whether it is possible add to configuration employeeRosteringSolverConfig.xml e.g. heuristics or other algorithms. Because when it adds configurations, application don't run. is it not possible at the moment?

Answer 1

Yes it is possible change solver configuration in the OptaWeb Employee Rostering application.

You get the error because you used Weakest Fit, which is a construction heuristic algorithm that requires the domain model to support planning value strength comparison, which is not implemented in this application. Please read the documentation and choose a different construction heuristic algorithm or experiment with local search configuration.

If you want to use Weakest Fit, you can implement strength comparison yourself. Employees are the planning values. What would be a strong value with a great potential to be assigned to a shift and what would be a weak value that is difficult to be assigned to a shift? Maybe we can compare employees based on their skill sets. Employees with just one or two skills are "weaker" - we want to assign them first because later in the construction phase, with less shifts to choose from, it would be more difficult to assign these "weak" employees. Stronger employees with more skills can be assigned later because they are more versatile.