# OPA DOCUMENTATION

## Purpose of this Page

Initial text descriptions are being posted here prior to enhancement in markdown for posting on GitLab.

## Potential Utility of OPA for ERA Operations

The Earth Reserve Assurance (ERA) Framework requires a transparent approach to the assessment of proposed ERA projects, and to their ongoing monitoring through time. Both of these general functions were designed into the original OPA workflow.

## Outline of Available Documentation and Code

Potvin's original (pre-UML) pseudocode from 1999 was prepared as an employee at IDRC https://idrc.ca/en. The earlier name of OPA (Online Proposal Appraisal) was OLA (OnLine Appraisal).  This was programmed into CFML (ColdFusion), the language chosen by my tech colleague at IDRC Mark Faul. 

OPA quickly got picked up by the World Bank for their Global Development Network. It is mentioned on pg 23 of the organization's 10th Anniversary report. https://idl-bnc-idrc.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/10625/37210/127854.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y GDN then relied on and maintained OPA-cf our of Bangalore India for a decade, mainly by  Saurabh Khandelwal. He now works at 3ie https://www.3ieimpact.org/about-us/meet-the-team/saurabh-khandelwal In the past he has sent me the OPA-cf source code via a .zip email attachment but email security blocks .exe files -- so I now have sent him a request to post it on GitLab or on an FTP site. The workflow design remains 'as good as new'.

OPA was re-written into Java by Obi Anizor https://sourceforge.net/u/anizor/profile/  for use as an HR recruitment and review platform.

OPA-Java on Sourceforge:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/opa-java-omoli/

https://sourceforge.net/projects/opa/

https://sourceforge.net/p/opa/news/2004/02/what-is-opa/

There are several other sites offering it; here's a Japanese site with both the Linux and Windowns configurations: https://www.pudn.com/detail/5238757

The last time I advanced it was in 2009 when I worked at Canada's Treasury Board Secretariat: I arranged this 'bounty' program for fixes with the Free Software Foundation: 

https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/credil-contest-2009

OPA was also re-written into PHP by a team involving developers in the Netherands and in Uganda. But most attention went to the Java code stream and the PHP one was abandoned.

## Technical and Non-Technical Documentation on OPA

Various files are being put here for now:

https://xalgorithms.redminepro.net/projects/opa/documents