How to use Third-Party Solvers (lpsolve) from the Excel Solver Foundation Add-In ?

Question

Hello,

I would like to try lpsolve from the Excel Solver Foundation Add-In, using OML.
Is that possible?
And eventually, how could I do that?
I checked that transfering the   LpSolvePlugIn.dll   and   lpsolve55.dll   to the MSF Plugins folder is not enough.

Thanks,

Michel

 

Answer 1

Finally, it was not so difficult.
For lpsolve, everything was already available on this site:

http://www.peno.be/MSF/

I first compiled the LpSolvePlugIn.dll  for  dotnet 4.0, using the sources from lp_solve_5.5_MSF_source.
I then copied LpSolvePlugIn.dll   and the lpsolve55.dll  to  the MSF  Plugins  folder.
I tested this installation on an SFS test project.

To get the lpsolve directive available in Excel, I used the procedure described there:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/solverfoundation/archive/2011/09/15/using-plug-in-solvers-in-solver-foundation-3-1-for-excel.aspx

For lpsolve, I simply created a   MicrosoftSolverFoundationForExcel.dll.config   file and dropped it in the MSFforExcel  folder.
Here is the content of this file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="MsfConfig"
             type="Microsoft.SolverFoundation.Services.MsfConfigSection, Microsoft.Solver.Foundation, Version=3.0.2.10889, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
             allowLocation="true" allowDefinition="Everywhere" allowExeDefinition="MachineToApplication"
             restartOnExternalChanges="true" requirePermission="true" />
  </configSections>
  <MsfConfig>
    <MsfPluginSolvers>
      <MsfPluginSolver name="lpsolve" capability="MILP" assembly="LpSolvePlugIn.dll"
                       solverclass="SolverFoundation.Plugin.LpSolve.LpSolveSolver"
                       directiveclass="SolverFoundation.Plugin.LpSolve.LpSolveDirective"
                       parameterclass="SolverFoundation.Plugin.LpSolve.LpSolveParams" />
    </MsfPluginSolvers>
  </MsfConfig>
</configuration>

Opening Excel confirmed that the lpsolve directive was then available in Excel in the MSF model pane, and it worked.

Michel