diva.pod

Interface Transmitter

All Superinterfaces:

PropertyContainer

public interface Transmitter
extends PropertyContainer

A Transmitter is an object used by a Pod to transmit data. Implementations of this interface will provide a means by which a Channel can be connected, and by which a Transmitter and Receiver can establish contact.

Transmitters can have string-named properties attached to them. These properties are defined to have meaning only within a given protocol, and can be used by clients to specify the behavior of a transmitter.

There are two sets of data that can be emitted by a Transmitter: data that was already in the Pod when the transmitter is enabled, and data that comes into being after the transmitter is enabled. By default, transmitters only emit the latter kind of data -- that is, changes in the Pod that occur after the transmitter is enabled. In some cases -- generators, in particular -- there is no such thing as "existing data." In other cases, a Pod contains an evolving set of data and is able to produce that data into its transmitters. These transmitters can be rewound, meaning that they will proceed to emit all the data in the Pod, and continue with data that changes. Usually, if a transmitter is going to be rewound, it should be rewound before connecting a channel, so that data is emitted in an order that will make sense to the receiver.

Version:

$Revision: 1.2 $

Author:

John Reekie

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
Channel	getChannel() Get the channel to which this transmitter is attached, or null if it isn't attached to anything.
Protocol	getProtocol() Get the protocol that this transmitter implements.
boolean	isRewindable() Get a flag indicating whether this transmitter can be rewound.
void	rewind() Rewind the transmitter.

Methods inherited from interface diva.util.PropertyContainer

getProperty, propertyNames, setProperty

Method Detail

getChannel

Channel getChannel()

Get the channel to which this transmitter is attached, or null if it isn't attached to anything.

getProtocol

Protocol getProtocol()

Get the protocol that this transmitter implements.

isRewindable

boolean isRewindable()

Get a flag indicating whether this transmitter can be rewound.

rewind

void rewind()

Rewind the transmitter. If the transmitter cannot be rewound, then an implementor can throw an exception.