anthill
Interface AntFactory

All Superinterfaces:

Clearable

All Known Implementing Classes:

GnutantFactory, GnutantFactory, GnutantFactory, MessorAntFactory, RandomAntFactory

public interface AntFactory

extends Clearable

Factory interface for creating ants. This interface is used by nest to create ants which will be used to satisfy requests in the Anthill network.

Version:

$Revision: 1.8 $

Author:

Alberto Montresor

Field Summary

static String

NAME Identifier used in the configuration files

Method Summary

Ant[]

getAnts(RequestId rid, Object request, NestId requestor) Factory method for creating a set of ants aimed at satisfying a particular request.

Methods inherited from interface anthill.util.Clearable

clear

Field Detail

NAME

public static final String NAME

Identifier used in the configuration files

See Also:

Constant Field Values

Method Detail

getAnts

public Ant[] getAnts(RequestId rid,
                     Object request,
                     NestId requestor)
              throws IllegalArgumentException

Factory method for creating a set of ants aimed at satisfying a particular request. Multiple ants created for the same request are completely independent. The interpretation of the request is left to ant implementations.

Parameters:

request - the object containing the request to be satisfied

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - if the ants generated by this factory are not capable to deal with the specified request.