Glossary for Orion Development

Cubes

Basic computational components used to construct a programmed workflow for execution in Orion. Cubes communicate with one another via messages and transmit data using defined input and output ports. Cubes can be written in Python, from scratch, using OpenEye APIs. These APIs, as well as ready-made cubes for general computation tasks, are provided as part of the Orion Platform package. Ready-made cubes for scientific computations are available in the OpenEye Snowball package.

Floes

Programmed workflows for execution by the web-based Orion workflow engine. Many ready-made floes are developed and delivered by OpenEye, for execution in the Orion environment. For documentation of ready-made floes and their use, see the Orion Suites and Modules Guide. Floes can be developed using Orion programming interfaces (APIs) and can use either ready-made cubes delivered with OpenEye software or cubes of your own, developed with the guidance of the Orion Programming Guide.

Scripts

Python programs are conventionally called scripts due to the fact that they are usually interpreted and not precompiled. For most purposes, script and program are the same in Python, and this documentation may use either term to refer to a file of Python source code.

Modules

In Python, modules are files with the file type .py. A Python module can, and usually does, define multiple Python classes, methods, and other objects. For more information, see the official Python documentation, such as https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/modules.html.

Packages

In Python, packages are sets of Python scripts (programs) organized in a directories that also includes an __init__.py script. The __init__.py script runs when the directory is opened; it may import objects used by scripts in the package and perform other useful initial tasks for the packages’ scripts. Floe packages for use in Orion are specific examples of Python packages.