Has your team ever faced limitations in conducting an LCA study because only one user can work on an LCA model at a time?

The LCA Collaboration Server facilitates the development of LCA studies in distributed teams and is not only a milestone for openLCA but offers innovative features and opportunities for LCA practitioners that are unparalleled by any LCA software. In combination with the LCA Collaboration Server, users of openLCA (≥1.7) are now able to work simultaneously on an LCA study while tracking each other’s changes in a synchronised database.

What exactly is the LCA Collaboration Server?

The LCA Collaboration Server is a server application that complements openLCA (the LCA desktop application). It facilitates exchange and synchronisation of LCA data (e.g. flows, processes, product systems or entire LCA models) between users who work from different computers, enabling distributed, collaborative LCA modelling. The Collaboration Server introduces industry-established concepts from software development to the LCA world, with e.g. on-demand tracking of changes as well as comparison of databases and optional merging of data. It is so far unique. The Collaboration Server is available for free. Support is available on demand.

Features of the collaboration server include:

• Multi-user development of LCA models
• Track changes feature
• Visualisation of changes (diff-tool) for informed decline/acceptance of changes
• Versioning to allow roll-backs
• Advanced user rights management system
• Own hosting allows to retain full control over data

How can the LCA Collaboration Server be for free?

The LCA Collaboration Server was developed by GreenDelta GmbH on behalf of the United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA) which is reknown for the LCA Digital Commons. Without support from the USDA, GreenDelta would not be able to offer the LCA Collaboration Server for free to LCA practioners worldwide.

Manual

To help openLCA users get started with the LCA Collaboration Server we wrote a manual which covers the most important topics regarding the LCA Collaboration Server:

• Introductory information
• How to set up an LCA Collaboration Server
• Basic workflow
• Features of the LCA Collaboration Server
• Conclusion and Outlook
• Installation instructions
• Hardware requirements

Download a copy of the LCA Collaboration Server manual here.

Webinar

In April, we organised a webinar for participants of the LCA Collaboration Server release candidate test. During the webinar, we explained the most important features of the LCA Collaboration Server and demonstrated the workflow. The webinar is available on YouTube.

Support and hosting

Please use ask.openlca.org for non-confidential support requests or resort to one of our service contracts for prioritised and guarantueed support via e-mail or telephone. GreenDelta offers hosting of an LCA Collaboration Server for third parties. Get in touch via gd@greendelta.com for more information.

openLCA 1.7.2

Along with the LCA Collaboration Server, we are releasing a brand new version of openLCA which features several usability and performance improvements.

Stored inventory results

Previously calculated inventory results (quick calculations) are now stored. If you work with the LCA Collaboration Server, calculated inventory results are shared along with product systems.

Improved tab system

A right-click on a tab now offers various tab management options that improve the usability of openLCA.

Performance improvements

Our developers implemented the Julia library to improve openLCA’s performance through multithreading. openLCA now makes the most out of your hardware and calculates results even faster.

Inter Process Communication (IPC)

The menu entry developer tools offers the new feature IPC Server, – a platform-independent data exchange interface via http. IPC Server allows to run openLCA services via the Python’s standard library.

Extended-ILCD support

openLCA 1.7.2 is the first publicly available LCA software that supports the new E-ILCD format. The latter has been developed as part of the European Commission’s Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) pilots.

Download the LCA Collaboration Server & openLCA 1.7.2

Both, the LCA Collaboration Server and openLCA 1.7.2, are available for download via our download page.