quasar
quasar
Quick OPC UA Server Generation Framework
quasar generates complete OPC UA servers from a single Design XML file. From that design it produces C++ address space classes, device logic scaffolding, configuration parsing, and a CMake build system – so you focus on your device logic, not boilerplate.
Developed at CERN, quasar is used across multiple laboratories and experiments to build reliable control and monitoring systems.
Quick start
Clone
git clone --recursive https://github.com/quasar-team/quasar
The --recursive flag is required – quasar uses LogIt as a git submodule.
Build
./quasar.py set_build_config <path/to/config.cmake>
./quasar.py build
Run
./build/bin/OpcUaServer --config_file bin/config.xml
How it works
Design/Design.xml
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DesignInspector (xpath) + Oracle (type mappings)
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Jinja2 templates (23 transforms)
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Generated C++ source (AddressSpace, Device bases, Configuration, CMake)
Design.xml is the single source of truth. Generated code goes into AddressSpace/, Device/generated/, and Configuration/. User-owned device logic lives in D<Class> files which are never overwritten.
Features
- Design-driven code generation – one XML file drives the entire server
- Two OPC UA backends – open-source open62541 or commercial Unified Automation SDK
- Device logic separation – generated base classes with safe defaults; user code is never overwritten
- Built-in validation – XSD schema checks plus semantic rules on your design
- Module system – enable or disable optional components (calculated variables, archiving, etc.)
- Cross-platform – Linux (x86-64, ARM64), Windows, and Yocto embedded builds
Prerequisites
- Python 3 with lxml, Jinja2, colorama - CMake 3.16+ - C++11 compiler - Boost - xsdcxx (CodeSynthesis XSD)Documentation
Full documentation is available at quasar.docs.cern.ch, covering the design manual, command reference, build system, and video tutorials.
License
This project is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for details.
Contact
Primary contact: quasar-developers@cern.ch