Simple .NET implementation of the Petri Net Markup Language (PNML), limited to Place-Transition-(PT)-Nets

Check out SimplePNML for JVM to handle PNML files from JVM languages like Java, Kotlin or Groovy!

The Petri Net Markup Language (PNML) was developed as an interchange format for petri nets and can describe the logical relations between the components as well as information required for visualization. It is highly extendable and provides support for a variety of different petri net types, which comes with the price of high complexity. Since most use cases and applications are focused on Place-Transition-(PT)-Nets, this library provides a simple way to access and modify this kind of petri nets programmatically.

SimplePNML implements the elements and relations defined by the PNML specification as simple classes with their respective properties.

The additional class Document is a container that represents a PNML file and its content. The utility functions of the static class PNML can be used to read and write Document instances:

Document example = PNML.Read(new FileInfo("example.pnml"));
PNML.Write(example, Console.Out);

As an example, the following code can be used to print the identifiers of all places on the first page of the first net in a given Document:

example.Nets.First().Pages.First().Places
    .ForEach(place => Console.Out.WriteLine(place.Id));

To build new petri nets just create the required PNML elements. While possible, it is not necessary to explicitly define identifiers for the elements, as they will be generated automatically (using Guid.NewGuid().ToString()).

// Create a place, a transition and an arc
Place place = new Place() 
{
	Id = "my-place",
    InitialMarking = new Label("1")
};
Transition transition = new Transition()
{
	Id = "my-transition"
};
Arc arc = new Arc()
{
	// no explicit identifier
    Inscription = new Label("1")
};

// Let the arc connect the place and the transition
arc.Connect(place, transition);

// Add all the elements to a new page
Page page = new Page();
page.Places.Add(page);
page.Transitions.Add(transition);
page.Arcs.Add(arc);

• The element relations can be accessed as properties.
• Some names are changed to follow language-specific naming conventions:
  • Methods are named using PascalCase.
  • Enum members are named using PascalCase.

This software is licensed under the MIT license.