uk.ac.starlink.connect
Interface Connector

public interface Connector

Interface for logging in to a remote facility.

Since:

18 Feb 2005

Method Summary

Icon	getIcon() Returns an icon which labels this connector.
AuthKey[]	getKeys() Returns an array of authorization keys whose values are required to attempt a connection.
String	getName() Returns the name of the type of facility to which this connector can connect.
Connection	logIn(Map authValues) Attempts to open a connection.

Method Detail

getName

String getName()

Returns the name of the type of facility to which this connector can connect.

getIcon

Icon getIcon()

Returns an icon which labels this connector. The icon should preferably be 20x20 pixels. Null may be returned if you have no suitable icon.

Returns:

icon for this connector

getKeys

AuthKey[] getKeys()

Returns an array of authorization keys whose values are required to attempt a connection. These will commonly include name and password keys, but there may be others.

Returns:

authorization keys

logIn

Connection logIn(Map authValues)
                 throws IOException

Attempts to open a connection. The supplied authValues map contains an entry for each of the keys returned by getKeys(), with the entry's value being the value for that key. Thus the values will typically be the user's name, password, etc. The values will be either String or char[] values or null (char[] may be used for hidden values for security reasons).

Parameters:

authValues - AuthKey->value map containing connection information

Returns:

a live connection object

Throws:

IOException - if there was some error, for instance authorization failure