Volttron

This release candidate moves the VOLTTRON platform into Python version 3.6 ahead of Python 2.7's end of life. This is a major revision that touched multiple parts of the codebase. Please exercise this release candidate and report any issues with installation or execution to help us bring this to a full release.

A major focus of this release was converting to Python3. In addition, the following list highlights the most notable changes included in the 7.0 Release Candidate 1 added since the full release of version 6 (https://github.com/VOLTTRON/volttron/releases/tag/6.0)

- Python3 Upgrade
- Update libraries to appropriate and compatible versions
- String handling efficiency
- Encode/Decode of strings has been simplified and centralized
- Added additional test cases for frame serialization in ZMQ
- Syntax updates such difference in handling exceptions, dictionaries, sorting lists, pytest markers etc.
- Made bootstrap process simpler
- Resolved gevent monkey patch issues when using third party libraries

- RabbitMQ Message Bus
- Client code for integrating non-VOLTTRON applications with the message bus available at: https://github.com/VOLTTRON/external-clients-for-rabbitmq
- Includes support for MQTT, non-VOLTTRON Python, and Java based Rabbit MQ clients

- Config store secured
- Agents can prevent other agents from modifying their configuration store entry

**Known Issues** which will be dealt with for the final release:
- Python 3.7 has conflicts with some libraries such as gevent
- The VOLTTRON Central agent is not fully integrated into Python3
- CFFI library has conflicts on the Raspian OS which interferes with bootstrapping

This release is the culmination of a large body of work from multiple contributors in the community and includes new features, improved ease of use, and development support. The following list highlights the most notable changes included in 6.0:

- Maintained backward compatibility with communication between zmq and rmq deployments.
- Added DarkSky Weather Agent
- Web Based Additions
- Added CSR support for multiplatform communication
- Added SSL support to the platform for secure communication
- Backported SSL support to zmq based deployments.
- Upgraded VC to use the platform login.
- Added docker support to the test environment for easier Rabbitmq testing.
- Updated volttron-config (vcfg) to support both RabbitMQ and ZMQ including https based instances.
- Added test support for RabbitMQ installations of all core agents.
- Added multiplatform (zmq and rmq based platform) testing.
- Integrated RabbitMQ documentation into the core documentation.

Covered in 6.0 RC1 Release
- Message bus refactoring to support both ZMQ and RabbitMQ message bus
- RabbitMQ Message bus feature implementation
- SSL support
- Multiplatform communication with federation and shovel plugins
- Management plugin integrated with volttron-ctl
- Backward compatibility with ZeroMQ
- Added fncs subsystem (Allows co-simulation FNCS https://github.com/FNCS/fncs/tree/develop)
- Updated template generation
- Created a historian template vpkg init --template historian
- Added health status message when executing `vctl status`.
- Base historian now uses health subsystem and can report backlogged, cache_count, publishing and cache_full status keys.
- BACNet proxy and driver now support Change of Value Subscriptions
- Fixed VOLTTRON Central issue with colors being cycled improperly.
- Added driver support for dnp3 and mesa.
- Updated weather agent from volttron-applications repo (will be a larger update soon)
- Agent configurations can be written in yaml (no tabs in yaml) or json.
- Added a base MarketAgent and Market Service agent to allow simulation of market based pricing model

RabbitMQ Release Candidate

This release is the culmination of a large body of work from multiple contributors in the community and includes new features, improved ease of use, and development support. The following list highlights the most notable changes included in 6.0-Release Candidate 1:

- Message bus refactoring to support both ZMQ and RabbitMQ message bus
- RabbitMQ Message bus feature implementation
- SSL support
- Multiplatform communication with federation and shovel plugins
- Management plugin integrated with volttron-ctl
- Backward compatibility with ZeroMQ
- Added fncs subsystem (Allows co-simulation FNCS https://github.com/FNCS/fncs/tree/develop)
- Updated template generation
- Created a historian template vpkg init --template historian
- Added health status message when executing `vctl status`.
- Base historian now uses health subsystem and can report backlogged, cache_count, publishing and cache_full status keys.
- BACNet proxy and driver now support Change of Value Subscriptions
- Fixed VOLTTRON Central issue with colors being cycled improperly.
- Added driver support for dnp3 and mesa.
- Updated weather agent from volttron-applications repo (will be a larger update soon)
- Agent configurations can be written in yaml (no tabs in yaml) or json.
- Added a base MarketAgent and Market Service agent to allow simulation of market based pricing model

This release is the culmination of a large body of work from multiple contributors in the community and includes new features, improved ease of use, and development support. The following list highlights the most notable changes included in 5.1:

- Added fncs subsystem (Allows co-simulation FNCS https://github.com/FNCS/fncs/tree/develop)
- Updated template generation
- Created a historian template vpkg init --template historian
- Added health status message when executing `vctl status`.
- Base historian now uses health subsystem and can report backlogged, cache_count, publishing and cache_full status keys.
- BACNet proxy and driver now support Change of Value Subscriptions
- Fixed VOLTTRON Central issue with colors being cycled improperly.
- Added driver support for dnp3 and mesa.
- Updated weather agent from volttron-applications repo (will be a larger update soon)
- Agent configurations can be written in yaml (no tabs in yaml) or json.
- Added a base MarketAgent and Market Service agent to allow simulation of market based pricing model.

Maintenance update to pin pypi, virtualenv and spinx to known "good" versions.

Fixes 1668, 1660, 1669, and 1671

This release fixes issues with the bootstrap.py install process. This seems to have been a known issue with pyp'as bootstrap https://github.com/VOLTTRON/volttron/pull/1664