Package com.ibm.able.platform

The com.ibm.able.platform package provides a set of classes that allows a distributed platform consisting of platform services and agents to be configured and run across physical systems.

See:
Description

Interface Summary

AblePersistenceSupportProcessor	This interface must be implemented by all objects wishing to interface with the AblePersistenceSupport object.
AblePlatformAgent	This class defines the base interface, or behavior, which all ABLE platform agents must support, especially if they are to be created and managed through Able's Agent Lifecycle Service.
AblePlatformService	This interface is implemented by platform services provided by ABLE.
AblePlatformServiceEventGenerator	This interface is implemented by platform services that generate service events that can be listened for by the general public; methods are provided to allow listeners of service events to register and deregister with the implementing service.
AblePlatformServiceEventListener	This interface specifies the means by which service event listeners can accept AblePlatformServiceEvents from service event generators for processing.
AblePlatformSupport	This class specifies the remote interface to ABLE platform infrastructure objects, one of which "lives" inside each agent pool participating in the overall ABLE platform.
AgentLifeCycleService	The AgentLifeCycleService interface defines the operations that can be requested of an Agent Lifecycle Service.
AgentLoggingService	The AgentLoggingService interface defines the operations that can be requested of an ABLE platform Agent Logging Service.
PlatformPersistenceService	The PlatformPersistenceService interface defines the operations that can be requested of the platform persistence service object.
PlatformSupportService	The PlatformSupportService interface defines the operations that can be requested of a Platform Support Service.
RmiAblePlatformService	This interface is implemented by remote platform services provided by ABLE.
RmiAblePlatformServiceEventGenerator	This interface is implemented by remote platform services that generate service events that can be listened for by the general public; methods are provided to allow listeners of service events to register and deregister with the implementing service.
RmiAgentLifeCycleService	The RmiAgentLifeCycleService interface defines the operations that can be requested of a remote Agent Lifecycle Service.
RmiAgentLoggingService	Defines the behavior of an RMI Agent Logging Service.
RmiPlatformPersistenceService	Defines the behavior of an RMI Platform Persistence Service.
RmiPlatformSupportService	The RmiPlatformSupportService interface defines the operations that can be requested of a remote Platform Support Service.
RMIVerifiableDirectoryService	Defines the behavior of a Verifiable Directory Service.
RMIVerifiableNamingService	Defines the behavior of a Verifiable Naming Service.
VerifiableAgentDirectoryService	A platform entity will grab a RMIVerifiableDirectoryProxy to communicate to the VerifiableDirectoryService.
VerifiableAgentName	An agent name which can be verified as created by a VerifiableAgentNamingService.
VerifiableAgentNamingService	An agent name is said to be verifiable if it holds a private key that matches a public key which the VerifiableAgentNamingService holds onto and trusts.

Class Summary

AbleAgentCapability	The AbleAgentCapability class defines a role or behavior that an AblePlatformDefaultAgent can take on.
AbleAgentClassDescription	An instance of this class contains information about an individual agent that the Agent Lifecycle Service may create within the distributed platform; a platform console (or some other object) can obtain a collection of AgentClassDescription objects from the Agent Lifecycle Service and then use the descriptions in conjunction with the Agent Lifecycle Service to create instances of new agents within the platform.
AbleAgentSituation	The AbleAgentSituation class defines a situation that an AblePlatformDefaultAgent with an AgentCapability may encounter.
AbleAgentSituationReport	Captures the entire context of an AgentSituation in which an agent currently finds itself, including any response information needed by the agent before the agent takes any action on the situation.
AbleBasicService	The base class of all ABLE-provided platform services, such as the VerifiableAgentDirectoryService, the VerifiableAgentNamingService, and the AgentLifeCycleService; this class is inserted between the JAS RMIBasicService and all ABLE-supplied services to provide common function to the ABLE-supplied services.
AbleCreatedAgentEntry
AbleJasMessageListener	This class provides a simple JAS message listener, or message "inbox", for all AblePlatformDefaultAgent objects; each AblePlatformDefaultAgent has at least one of these listeners, which, by default, is setup by the agent to call back to the containing agent's receiveMessage(TransportMessage) method.
AblePersistenceSupport	AblePersistenceSupport is a support Object that others can use to persist information.
AblePlatform	The AblePlatform class provides constants and class methods to support the distributed platform of the IBM Agent Building and Learning Environment (ABLE); in addition to static methods that help determine the values of certain preferences set by the user in the platform preference file, methods are provided to obtain the platform's service root and to look up services individually.
AblePlatformDefaultAgent	This class provides an enhanced implementation of a JSR 87 (Java Agent Services or JAS) compliant agent, but also inherits all the capabilities of an AbleDefaultAgent; as a JAS agent, the agent obtains a globally unique AgentName from the Agent Naming Service, registers a description with the Agent Directory Service, and is able to send and receive messages through the Message Transport System.
AblePlatformDefaultAgentBeanInfo	This class provides BeanInfo for the AblePlatformAgentBeanInfo class.
AblePlatformDefaultAgentCustomizer	This class provides the customizer for the Platform tab.
AblePlatformDefaultAgentPanel	This class provides the panel for the Jas Default Agent.
AblePlatformMessageBundle	This class contains national language messages for Able platform code.
AblePlatformPreferences	This class encapsulates and provides (mostly read-only) access to the end-user's platform operating preferences.
AblePlatformServiceEvent	This class defines events generated by those ABLE-supplied platform services that implement the AblePlatformServiceEventGenerator interface.
AblePlatformServiceEventListenerProxy	This class defines a listener of platform service events; an instance of this class can serve as a proxy between a generator of platform service events and some listener of those events where the listener can't or doesn't want to make itself visible across a remote interface.
AblePlatformSupportImpl	This class provides constants for ABLE platform code; provides access to "internalized" preferences regarding the platform; provides class methods to obtain the JAS Service Root; provides methods to obtain instances of this same class running in other agent pools; and the class itself, when instantiated as an object, can act as a helper to other instances of itself running elsewhere.
AbleSecureKey	In a secure platform, VerifiableAgentNames will be used to authenticate the caller when calling secure methods.
AbleSecuritySupport	AbleSecuritySupport is a support object that others can use to provide security for their objects.
RmiAgentLifeCycleServiceFactory	This class either finds or creates, as needed, an RMI version of an Agent Lifecycle Service object, and returns it in a proxy object.
RmiAgentLifeCycleServiceProxy	An RMI Agent Lifecycle Service Proxy contains a reference to an RMI version of an Agent Lifecycle Service (known as the delegate); the proxy contains methods identical to the methods in the actual service such that when a method is called on the proxy, the proxy forwards the call on to the actual service, but the proxy traps all RemoteExceptions that might be thrown by the service, turns the RemoteExceptions into AgentLifeCycleFailure exceptions, and then rethrows the new exception.
RmiAgentLifeCycleSystem	RmiAgentLifeCycleSystem is the implementation of an Agent Lifecycle Service; the Service can be used to get a list of agents that are permitted to run on the platform, and then start instances of particular agents in particular agent pools.
RmiAgentLoggingServiceFactory	This class creates RMI versions of Agent Logging Service objects, and returns them in proxy objects.
RmiAgentLoggingServiceProxy	The RMIAgentLoggingServiceProxy is a proxy for the RMI implementation of the AgentLoggingService.
RmiAgentLoggingSystem	This is the implementation of an RMI-based Agent Logging Service.
RmiPlatformPersistenceServiceFactory	This class creates RMI versions of Platform Persistence Service objects, and returns them in proxy objects.
RmiPlatformPersistenceServiceProxy	An RMI Platform Persistence Service proxy contains a reference to an RMI version of a Platform Persistence Service.
RmiPlatformPersistenceSystem	Whee, after all those interfaces and proxies, here is the real, nitty-gritty implementation of an RMI-based Platform Persistence Service.
RmiPlatformSupportServiceFactory	This class either finds or creates, as needed, an RMI version of an Platform Support Service object, and returns it in a proxy object.
RmiPlatformSupportServiceProxy	An RMI Platform Support Service Proxy contains a reference to an RMI version of a Platform Support Service (known as the delegate); the proxy contains methods identical to the methods in the actual service such that when a method is called on the proxy, the proxy forwards the call on to the actual service, but the proxy: traps all RemoteExceptions that might be thrown by the service, turns the RemoteExceptions into PlatformSupportService exceptions, and then rethrows the new exception.
RmiPlatformSupportServiceSystem	RmiPlatformSupportServiceSystem is the implementation of a Platform Support Service; see PlatformSupportService for details.
RMIVerifiableDirectoryProxy	An RMIVerifiableDirectoryProxy contains a reference to an RMI version of a VerifiableDirectoryService.
RMIVerifiableDirectoryServiceFactory	A ServiceFactory for either acquiring or creating a VerifiableDirectoryService based upon the RMIVerifiableDirectoryService.
RMIVerifiableDirectorySystem	A verifiable adapter for AgentDirectoryService.
RMIVerifiableNamingProxy	The RMIVerifiableNamingProxy is a proxy for the RMI implementation of the AgentNamingService.
RMIVerifiableNamingServiceFactory	A ServiceFactory for either acquiring or creating a VerifiableAgentNamingService based upon the RMIAgentNamingService.
RMIVerifiableNamingSystem	The RMIVerifiableNamingSystem is a remote object that implements the RMIVerifiableNamingService interface.
VerifiableAgentNameImpl	The implementation of a name created by the VerifiableAgentNamingService.

Exception Summary

AgentLifeCycleException	This class is the generic exception associated with all agent lifecycle services.
AgentLifeCycleFailure	An AgentLifeCycleFailure is thrown when an Agent Lifecycle operation fails due to a problem with the Agent Lifecycle Service infrastructure.
AgentLoggingException	AgentLoggingException is the generic exception associated with all ABLE platform Agent Logging services.
PlatformPersistenceException	The PlatformPersistenceException is the generic exception associated with all platform persistence operations.
PlatformPersistenceFailure	The PlatformPersistenceFailure is thrown when a platform persistence operation fails due to a problem with the platform persistence service infrastructure.
PlatformSupportServiceException	PlatformSupportServiceException is the generic exception associated with the ABLE Platform Support Service.

Package com.ibm.able.platform Description

The com.ibm.able.platform package provides a set of classes that allows a distributed platform consisting of platform services and agents to be configured and run across physical systems. Services provided include

• Verifiable Agent Naming Service to hand out non-spoofable, verifiable, globally unique names to agents and allow other agents to verify those names.
• Verifiable Agent Directory Service to allow agents to globally advertise their capabilities.
• Message Transport System and Services to allow agents to send and receive messages.
• Agent Lifecycle Service to create and run configured agents in specific agent pools and manage those agents.
• Persistence Service to allow agents and services to persist vital data so that they may recover themselves in the event of a catastrophe.

In addition, a base AblePlatformDefaultAgent is provided from which distributed agents can be easily created. An agent derived from AblePlatformDefaultAgent automatically obtains a unique agent name from ABLE's Verifiable Agent Naming Service, registers an agent description with ABLE's Verifiable Agent Directory Service and can hold conversations with other platform compliant agents using the supplied JAS Message Transport System. AblePlatformDefaultAgent-derived agents may also communicate via direct remote method invocation (RMI).

Further documentation about this package can be found in The ABLE Agent Platform.

Last modified: Tue Jan 25 10:30:27 Central Standard Time 2005