By reading this chapter, you can get information about the following items:
What is E-Cell Session Script (ESS). |
How to run ESS in scripting mode. |
How to use ESS in GUI mode. |
How to automate a simulation run by writing an ESS file. |
How to write frontend software components for E-Cell in Python. |
An E-Cell Session Script (ESS) is a Python script which is loaded by a E-Cell Session object. A Session instance represents a single run of a simulation.
An ESS is used to automate a single run of a simulation session. A simple simulation run typically involves the following five stages:
Loading a model file.
Usually an EML file is loaded.
Pre-simulation setup of the simulator.
Simulator and model parameters, such as initial values of Variable objects and property values of Process objects, are set and/or altered. Also, data Loggers may be created in this phase.
Running the simulation.
The simulation is run for a certain length of time.
Post-simulation data processing.
In this phase, the resulting state of the model after the simulation and the data logged by the Logger objects are examined. The simulation result may be numerically processed. If necessary, go back to the previous step and run the simulation for more seconds.
Data saving.
Finally, the processed and raw simulation result data are saved to files.
An ESS file usually has an extension '.py'.