Plugins

What a plugin can do

  • Add a new class to AiiDA’s entry point groups, including:: calculations, parsers, workflows, data types, verdi commands, schedulers, transports and importers/exporters from external databases. This typically involves subclassing the respective base class AiiDA provides for that purpose.

  • Install new commandline and/or GUI executables

  • Depend on, and build on top of any number of other plugins (as long as their requirements do not clash)

What a plugin should not do

An AiiDA plugin should not:

  • Change the database schema AiiDA uses

  • Use protected functions, methods or classes of AiiDA (those starting with an underscore _)

  • Monkey patch anything within the aiida namespace (or the namespace itself)

Failure to comply will likely prevent your plugin from being listed on the official AiiDA plugin registry.

If you find yourself in a situation where you feel like you need to do any of the above, please open an issue on the AiiDA repository and we can try to advise on how to proceed.

Guidelines for plugin design

CalcJob & Parser plugins

The following guidelines are useful to keep in mind when wrapping external codes:

  • Start simple.
    Make use of existing classes like Dict, SinglefileData, … Write only what is necessary to pass information from and to AiiDA.
  • Don’t break data provenance.
    Store at least what is needed for full reproducibility.
  • Expose the full functionality.
    Standardization is good but don’t artificially limit the power of a code you are wrapping - or your users will get frustrated. If the code can do it, there should be some way to do it with your plugin.
  • Don’t rely on AiiDA internals. Functionality at deeper nesting levels is not considered part of the public API and may change between minor AiiDA releases, breaking your plugin.
  • Parse what you want to query for.
    Make a list of which information to:
    1. parse into the database for querying (Dict, …)

    2. store in the file repository for safe-keeping (SinglefileData, …)

    3. leave on the computer where the calculation ran (RemoteData, …)

What is an entry point?

The setuptools package (used by pip) has a feature called entry points, which allows to associate a string (the entry point identifier) with any python object defined inside a python package. Entry points are defined in the setup.py file, for example:

...
entry_points={
   "aiida.data": [
       # entry point = path.to.python.object
       "mycode.mydata = aiida_mycode.data.mydata:MyData",
   ]
}
...

Here, we add a new entry point mycode.mydata to the entry point group aiida.data. The entry point identifier points to the MyData class inside the file mydata.py, which is part of the aiida_mycode package.

When installing a python package that defines entry points, the entry point specifications are written to a file inside the distribution’s .egg-info folder. setuptools provides a package pkg_resources for querying these entry point specifications by distribution, by entry point group and/or by name of the entry point and load the data structure to which it points.

Why entry points?

AiiDA defines a set of entry point groups (see AiiDA entry point groups below). By inspecting the entry points added to these groups by AiiDA plugins, AiiDA can offer uniform interfaces to interact with them. For example:

  • verdi plugin list aiida.workflows provides an overview of all workflows installed by AiiDA plugins. Users can inspect the inputs/outputs of each workflow using the same command without having to study the documentation of the plugin.

  • The DataFactory, CalculationFactory and WorkflowFactory methods allow instantiating new classes through a simple short string (e.g. quantumespresso.pw). Users don’t need to remember exactly where in the plugin package the class resides, and plugins can be refactored without users having to re-learn the plugin’s API.

AiiDA entry point groups

Below, we list the entry point groups defined and searched by AiiDA. You can get the same list as the output of verdi plugin list.

aiida.calculations

Entry points in this group are expected to be subclasses of aiida.orm.JobCalculation. This replaces the previous method of placing a python module with the class in question inside the aiida/orm/calculation/job subpackage.

Example entry point specification:

entry_points={
   "aiida.calculations": [
      "mycode.mycode = aiida_mycode.calcs.mycode:MycodeCalculation"
   ]
}

aiida_mycode/calcs/mycode.py:

from aiida.orm import JobCalculation
class MycodeCalculation(JobCalculation):
   ...

Will lead to usage:

from aiida.plugins import CalculationFactory
calc = CalculationFactory('mycode.mycode')

aiida.parsers

AiiDA expects a subclass of Parser. Replaces the previous approach consisting in placing a parser module under aiida/parsers/plugins.

Example spec:

entry_points={
   "aiida.calculations": [
      "mycode.mycode = aiida_mycode.parsers.mycode:MycodeParser"
   ]
}

aida_mycode/parsers/myparser.py:

from aiida.parsers import Parser
class MycodeParser(Parser)
   ...

Usage:

from aiida.plugins import ParserFactory
parser = ParserFactory('mycode.mycode')

aiida.data

Group for Data subclasses. Previously located in a subpackage of aiida/orm/data.

Spec:

entry_points={
   "aiida.data": [
      "mycode.mydata = aiida_mycode.data.mydat:MyData"
   ]
}

aiida_mycode/data/mydat.py:

from aiida.orm import Data
class MyData(Data):
   ...

Usage:

from aiida.plugins import DataFactory
params = DataFactory('mycode.mydata')

aiida.workflows

Package AiiDA workflows as follows:

Spec:

entry_points={
   "aiida.workflows": [
      "mycode.mywf = aiida_mycode.workflows.mywf:MyWorkflow"
   ]
}

aiida_mycode/workflows/mywf.py:

from aiida.engine.workchain import WorkChain
class MyWorkflow(WorkChain):
   ...

Usage:

from aiida.plugins import WorkflowFactory
wf = WorkflowFactory('mycode.mywf')

Note

For old-style workflows the entry point mechanism of the plugin system is not supported. Therefore one cannot load these workflows with the WorkflowFactory. The only way to run these, is to store their source code in the aiida/workflows/user directory and use normal python imports to load the classes.

aiida.cmdline

verdi uses the click_ framework, which makes it possible to add new subcommands to existing verdi commands, such as verdi data mydata. AiiDA expects each entry point to be either a click.Command or click.CommandGroup. At present extra commands can be injected at the following levels:

Spec for verdi data:

entry_points={
   "aiida.cmdline.data": [
      "mydata = aiida_mycode.commands.mydata:mydata"
   ]
}

aiida_mycode/commands/mydata.py:

import click
@click.group()
mydata():
   """commandline help for mydata command"""

@mydata.command('animate')
@click.option('--format')
@click.argument('pk')
create_fancy_animation(format, pk):
   """help"""
   ...

Usage:

verdi data mydata animate --format=Format PK

Spec for verdi data structure import:

entry_points={
   "aiida.cmdline.data.structure.import": [
      "myformat = aiida_mycode.commands.myformat:myformat"
   ]
}

aiida_mycode/commands/myformat.py:

import click
@click.group()
@click.argument('filename', type=click.File('r'))
myformat(filename):
   """commandline help for myformat import command"""
   ...

Usage:

verdi data structure import myformat a_file.myfmt

aiida.tools.dbexporters

If your plugin package adds support for exporting to an external database, use this entry point to have aiida find the module where you define the necessary functions.

aiida.tools.dbimporters

If your plugin package adds support for importing from an external database, use this entry point to have aiida find the module where you define the necessary functions.

aiida.schedulers

We recommend naming the plugin package after the scheduler (e.g. aiida-myscheduler), so that the entry point name can simply equal the name of the scheduler:

Spec:

entry_points={
   "aiida.schedulers": [
      "myscheduler = aiida_myscheduler.myscheduler:MyScheduler"
   ]
}

aiida_myscheduler/myscheduler.py:

from aiida.schedulers import Scheduler
class MyScheduler(Scheduler):
   ...

Usage: The scheduler is used in the familiar way by entering ‘myscheduler’ as the scheduler option when setting up a computer.

aiida.transports

aiida-core ships with two modes of transporting files and folders to remote computers: ssh and local (stub for when the remote computer is actually the same). We recommend naming the plugin package after the mode of transport (e.g. aiida-mytransport), so that the entry point name can simply equal the name of the transport:

Spec:

entry_points={
   "aiida.transports": [
      "mytransport = aiida_mytransport.mytransport:MyTransport"
   ]
}

aiida_mytransport/mytransport.py:

from aiida.transports import Transport
class MyTransport(Transport):
   ...

Usage:

from aiida.plugins import TransportFactory
transport = TransportFactory('mytransport')

When setting up a new computer, specify mytransport as the transport mode.

Plugin test fixtures

One concern when running tests for AiiDA plugins is to separate the test environment from your production environment. Typically tests should be run against an empty AiiDA database.

AiiDA ships with tools that take care of this for you. They will:

  • start a temporary postgres server

  • create a new database

  • create a temporary .aiida folder

  • create a test profile

  • (optional) reset the AiiDA database before every individual test

thus letting you focus on testing the functionality of your plugin without having to worry about this separation.

Note

The overhead for setting up the temporary environment is of the order of a few seconds and occurs only once per test session. You can control the database backend for the temporary profile by setting the AIIDA_TEST_BACKEND environment variable, e.g. export AIIDA_TEST_BACKEND=sqlalchemy.

If you prefer to run tests on an existing profile, say test_profile, simply set the following environment variable before running your tests:

export AIIDA_TEST_PROFILE=test_profile

Note

In order to prevent accidental data loss, AiiDA only allows to run tests on profiles whose name starts with test_.

AiiDA ships with a number of fixtures in aiida.manage.tests.pytest_fixtures for you to use.

In particular:

  • The aiida_profile() fixture initializes the TestManager and yields it to the test function. Its parameters scope='session', autouse=True cause this fixture to automatically run once per test session, even if you don’t explicitly require it.

  • The clear_database() fixture depends on the aiida_profile() fixture and tells the received TestManager instance to reset the database. This fixture lets each test start in a fresh AiiDA environment.

  • The temp_dir() fixture returns a temporary directory for file operations and deletes it after the test is finished.

  • … you may want to add your own fixtures tailored for your plugins to set up specific Data nodes & more.