
Ask HN: Constraint Solving Libraries for Automated Scheduling? - nathanhammond
I've been searching for an existing scheduling solution where the primary goal isn't filling set shift times, but instead supplying a certain amount of coverage at each hour of the day based upon a set of constraints (listed here: http://www.nathanhammond.com/a-scheduling-problem).<p>There are two existing categories of businesses that come to mind that might have this type of use pattern:<p><pre><code>    * Medical facilities
    * Call centers
</code></pre>
I've reached out (via phone!) to multiple companies that provide services to these business categories but I've been told by salespeople that they either don't have this sort of functionality, that it is so specifically tailored to the target market as to be useless to me, that I shouldn't be pursuing this (!), or they assume that because I'm doing this for a non-profit I'm not willing to pay for it (my money is just as green!).<p>At this point (unless you're aware of somebody that will sell their product to me) I was wondering what tools I should use to build this.<p>My first thought was to use something like Prolog, but because I'm not expecting there to be a "perfect" solution, I don't know how I would make that work.<p>After a bit of research I found Drools Planner which appears to be the 800lb gorilla, but before heading down that path I was wondering if any of you were aware of other lighter-weight tools that would make this easier to build in my spare time?<p>Thanks!
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steve_g
Preactor is a comercial scheduling software suite. I haven't used any of the
tools, but they sound like what you need.

They have a free product that you can play around with. Good luck!

<http://www.preactor.com/Express/Default.aspx>

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nathanhammond
Downloading now to see what it looks like.

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ge0ffrey
Drools planner is lightweight: use simple score calculation and you need only
about 5 jars (planner, xstream and apache commons jars)

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verdatel
This might help --> <https://www.shiftdata.com/>

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nathanhammond
Amusingly, these are the folks who told me I shouldn't be pursuing this. I
don't know who it was I talked to over there, but he was very quick to dismiss
me. I have an outstanding trial request with them in any case to poke at it as
they seemed the most promising.

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ott2
Search for constraint programming solutions to "nurse rostering" problems.

