CO-LaN has developed a new version (2.0) of a set of reusable installers for the CAPE-OPEN Type Libraries and associated .NET Primary Interop Assemblies. The installers are intended for use by all vendors of process simulation software which implements the CAPE-OPEN interoperability standards and by end-users of CAPE-OPEN-compliant software to ensure consistent installation, registration and removal of the implementation of the CAPE-OPEN specifications on an end-user’s machine.

The textual CAPE-OPEN interface standards are transcribed and defined in IDL files which are then compiled to Type Libraries, and the Type Libraries are referenced by the implementations of CAPE-OPEN compliant software. Initially CAPE-OPEN implementations were implemented using Microsoft COM technology but more recently .NET implementations are being made which raises the requirement for COM .NET interoperability. This requirement is satisfied by providing Primary Interop Assemblies (PIA) which are .NET assemblies that provide a .NET definition of the CAPE-OPEN interfaces derived from the CAPE-OPEN Type Libraries and which allow .NET code to call Microsoft COM components via their interfaces.

To ensure consistent installation and removal of these shared CAPE-OPEN components on a user’s machine and between providers, CO-LaN has developed various installation packages for the Type Libraries and PIAs. The packages install the necessary files and create the necessary registry entries to define the CAPE-OPEN interfaces and to provide access to them via Type Libraries and PIAs on various Operating Systems in both 32- and 64-bit form. The installation packages are based on Windows Installer technology and are provided in the form of reusable merge modules (.msm) intended for use by software providers and as installation packages (.msi) for manual installation by end-users of CAPE-OPEN software.

The installers are made publicly available for download from a repository.