Package org.jnetstream.protocol

A network protocol registry.

See:
Description

Interface Summary

BindingResolver	Resolves a binding to a protocol.
Bound<T>	Defines a method for checking a binding by value of a protocol.
Characteristic	Describes a characteristic of protocol.
Protocol	Contains basic information about a protocol such as a unique ID that is only valid in single VM and single instance, name of the protocol.
ProtocolBinding	Protocol binding is a link/binding between two different protocols.
ProtocolEntry
ProtocolGroup	Grouping of protocols as a family.
ProtocolInfo<T extends Header>	Defines access to a Protocol.
ProtocolInfo.Binding	Binding between protocols.
ProtocolInfo.ID	Defines a unique identification of a protocol.
ProtocolInfo.Info	Informational interface which provides information about the protocol.
ProtocolInfo.Registry	Protocol registry factory methods.
ProtocolLoader	A protocol loader is an object that is responsible for loading protocols.

Class Summary

Characteristic.BitCodec	A special utility method which can encode and decode a set of characteristics into a bitwise representation in a 32-bit unsigned integer.
DefaultProtocolEntry
NullField	An empty, no action, stub stand-in.
NullHeader	An empty, no action, stub stand-in.
NullProtocol	An empty, no action, stub stand-in.
ProtocolRegistry	Main protocol registry.

Enum Summary

Characteristic.Frame	Describes frame characteristics of a protocol.
Characteristic.Kind	Kind of protocol this is.
Characteristic.Physical	Describes the physical characteristics of the network.
Protocol.Builtin	A list of builtin protocols, used for testing and other purposes
ProtocolInfo.Suite	Enum structure which defines all of the jNetStream system defined protocol suites.

Exception Summary

ProtocolBindingException	An error occured during loading, unloading or discovery of a protocol binding.
ProtocolDeclarationException	Protocol contains valid NPL syntax, but declaration is in corrent in the corresponding circumstance.
ProtocolException
ProtocolNotFoundException	Simlar to FileNotFoundException, the protocol was not found by the ProtocolLoader.

Package org.jnetstream.protocol Description

A network protocol registry. You can access various protocol related services using this package. This package is responsible for finding and loading protocol definitions and their bindings. The runtime environment uses the ProtocolRepository to query about protocol bindings. Only protocols that are needed at any given time are loaded (ondemand protocol loading.) Thus jNetStream is much more efficient as only parts of the protocols are loaded when needed. All protocols once loaded are cached and are reused when needed again.

The main class is the ProtocolRegistry which allows a user to access most of the functionality. Using the ProtocolRegistry.getDefault() factory method, you get a working instance of the ProtocolRegistry which you can use to:

• Query for a list of all the known protocols. The list will contain protocols currently know, but not neccessarily loaded. Protocols are loaded only when needed, otherwise only a shell of a protocol is kept around.
• Query for a list of bindings for the protocols.
• Load user specified bindings. Bindings can also be unloaded and reset by the user. Again using methods defined in ProtocolRegistry.

jNetStream also defines a number of standard names for protocol suites. Protocol suite is a way to group all of the defined protocols by functionality. These protocol suite definitions actually correspond to directory structure in native filesystem or database by which all the protocol definitions are grouped. Also jNetStream expects protocol binding definitions to be placed in suite specific files. User defined suites are not part of this API, as this API only exposes the system defined suites. There is a large number of them which for the most part will address any protocol placement needs, but user can also define its own definitions as long as they do not conflict with these system defined ones.

To get a list of these system defined suites use the ProtocolSuite enum class. In pre Java5 environments this class defines all of the standard Java5 enum API and is upwards compatible. This means that the user is safe in using the ProtocolSuite API in both pre and post Java5 environments without getting compiler warnings or errors.