DREAM plugins

Each DREAM project requires a special plugin module, implementing the evaluation of proposals and other project-specific functions. This plugin can be written in C/C++ or other languages and is linked with DREAM Suite as a dynamic library. To simplify the development of this module, DREAM Suite can generate a skeleton of the plugin module, which should be then modified according to needs of the particular project.

Main functions of the DREAM Plugin module and the order in which they are called

Function defining DREAM input parameters (required, called always)

InitPlugin - Plugin initialization (can connect an external server, etc.)
GetInputParams - Defines initial/default values of DREAM parameters
InitData - Prepares input data needed for the calculation. Called only once.

Functions defining other input data (optional, called according to project settings)

GetMinMaxData
GetNormalData
GetPriorData
GetPriorDataCustom
GetMeasurementData
GetBayesData

Function evaluating each proposal during DREAM calculation (required, called always)

EvaluateProposal

Additional information can be found in the documentation to programming interfaces IDreamDataSource and IDreamEvaluator.

Plugin types and implementation in other languages

We believe that C/C++ is the ideal programming language for the development of DREAM Suite plugin modules. However, DREAM Suite plugins can be also written in other languages, such as Fortran, MATLAB and other. To demonstrate this feature, we have created a special interface that allows users to implement DREAM plugins using MATLAB *.m files. MATLAB plugin examples can be found in library D2 of demo examples. Other interfaces (e.g. for Python, etc.) can be developed later according to demands of DREAM Suite users.