org.jcsp.net
Class NodeAddressID

java.lang.Object
  org.jcsp.net.NodeAddressID

All Implemented Interfaces:

Serializable, Cloneable

Direct Known Subclasses:

TCPIPAddressID

public abstract class NodeAddressID
extends Object
implements Serializable, Cloneable

JCSP.NET communication protocol implementations must provide a concrete implementation of this class. The instances of the class implementations should hold address information for JCSP Node LinkServer processes. For example, a TCP/IP implementation would most likely hold an IP address and port number.

There is no defined way in this class as to how NodeAddressID objects should be created. The JCSP infrastructure never looks at the underlying address information, it simply needs to be able compare one address with another. The equals(Object) should be implemented in such a way that this can be achieved.

Implementations of the ProtocolID class should implement the createAddressID(String, boolean) method so that NodeAddressID objects for that protocol can be created from a String. The boolean parameter indicates whether or not the address is globally unique.

Author:

Quickstone Technologies Limited

See Also:

Serialized Form

Constructor Summary

NodeAddressID()

Method Summary

Object	clone() Returns a clone of the instance of the class implementing this interface.
abstract boolean	equals(Object obj) Compares the instance of the class implementing this interface with another object.
protected static NodeAddressID	getAddressIDFromString(String stringForm) This is is a static method that should be overriden by concrete implementations of this class.
abstract ProtocolID	getProtocolID() Returns the ProtocolID for the protocol that is associated with this NodeAddressID.
protected abstract String	getStringForm() Deprecated. This is going to be removed from the API. The purpose of this mechanism was so that channel information could be encoded into anonymous channels' channel names.
abstract int	hashCode() Returns a hash code for this object.
abstract boolean	isGloballyUnique() Returns true if this NodeAddressID is known to be unique within the global org.jcsp.net domain.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

finalize, getClass, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

NodeAddressID

public NodeAddressID()

Method Detail

equals

public abstract boolean equals(Object obj)

Compares the instance of the class implementing this interface with another object. This should return true if the other object represents the same address.

Overrides:

equals in class Object

Parameters:

obj - another object that should be another NodeAddressID.

Returns:

true if the other object is another NodeAddressID representing the same address.

hashCode

public abstract int hashCode()

Returns a hash code for this object. Two NodeAddressID objects should return the same hash code if they equal as governed by the rules for the equals(Object) method.

Overrides:

hashCode in class Object

Returns:

an int hash code.

clone

public Object clone()
             throws CloneNotSupportedException

Returns a clone of the instance of the class implementing this interface.

Overrides:

clone in class Object

Returns:

a clone of the object that this is being called on.

Throws:

CloneNotSupportedException - if the implementation class does not support the clone method.

getProtocolID

public abstract ProtocolID getProtocolID()

Returns the ProtocolID for the protocol that is associated with this NodeAddressID.

Returns:

this NodeAddressID object's ProtocolID.

isGloballyUnique

public abstract boolean isGloballyUnique()

Returns true if this NodeAddressID is known to be unique within the global org.jcsp.net domain.

A Node may have several addresses. If a Node is on an internal network that is connected to the Internet, it may have one local address and one address that is accessible from the Internet. The Internet address may be globally unique whereas the local address may be duplicated in other internal networks. The NodeAddressID object representing the Internet address should return true when this method is called whereas the NodeAddressID representing the local address should return false.

Returns:

true iff this NodeAddressID is globally unique.

getStringForm

protected abstract String getStringForm()

Deprecated. This is going to be removed from the API. The purpose of this mechanism was so that channel information could be encoded into anonymous channels' channel names.

Returns a String that contains all information necessary for reconstucting this object from a String. The object is reconstructed by calling the static getAddressIDFromString(String) method.

Returns:

a String that can be passed to the static getAddressIDFromString(String) method in order to reconstuct the object.

getAddressIDFromString

protected static NodeAddressID getAddressIDFromString(String stringForm)
                                               throws IllegalArgumentException

This is is a static method that should be overriden by concrete implementations of this class. Ideally this method would be abstract but the language does not allow abstract static methods.

The method constructs a NodeAddressID object from a String that is in the form of that returned by the getStringForm() method. The object returned by this method should equal the object that returned the String when its getStringForm() methdo was called.

Parameters:

stringForm - the String used to construct the NodeAddressID.

Returns:

a newly constructed NodeAddressID object.

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - if the String supplied is invalid.