CSIRO PUBLISHING www.publish.csiro.au/journals/fpb Functional Plant Biology, 2008, 35, 751–760 OpenAlea: a visual programming and component-based software platform for plant modelling Christophe Pradal A,D, Samuel Dufour-Kowalski B, Frédéric Boudon A, Christian Fournier C and Christophe Godin B ACIRAD, UMR DAP and INRIA, Virtual Plants, TA A-96/02, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. BINRIA, UMR DAP, Virtual Plants, TA A-96/02, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. CINRA, UMR 759 LEPSE, 2 place Viala, 34060 Montpellier cedex 01, France. DCorresponding author. Email:
[email protected] This paper originates from a presentation at the 5th International Workshop on Functional–Structural Plant Models, Napier, New Zealand, November 2007. Abstract. The development of functional–structural plant models requires an increasing amount of computer modelling. All these models are developed by different teams in various contexts and with different goals. Efficient and flexible computational frameworks are required to augment the interaction between these models, their reusability, and the possibility to compare them on identical datasets. In this paper, we present an open-source platform, OpenAlea, that provides a user-friendly environment for modellers, and advanced deployment methods. OpenAlea allows researchers to build models using a visual programming interface and provides a set of tools and models dedicated to plant modelling. Models and algorithms are embedded in OpenAlea ‘components’ with well defined input and output interfaces that can be easily interconnected to form more complex models and define more macroscopic components. The system architecture is based on the use of a general purpose, high-level, object-oriented script language, Python, widely used in other scientific areas.