Supplier.java

/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2004-2008 Gabor Bergmann and Daniel Varro
 * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
 * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
 * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 *
 * Contributors:
 *    Gabor Bergmann - initial API and implementation
 *******************************************************************************/

package org.eclipse.incquery.runtime.rete.network;

import java.util.Collection;

import org.eclipse.incquery.runtime.rete.index.ProjectionIndexer;
import org.eclipse.incquery.runtime.rete.tuple.Tuple;
import org.eclipse.incquery.runtime.rete.tuple.TupleMask;

/**
 * @author Gabor Bergmann
 * 
 *         A supplier is an object that can propagate insert or revoke events towards receivers.
 */
public interface Supplier extends Node {

    /**
     * pulls the contents of this object in this particular moment into a target collection
     */
    public void pullInto(Collection<Tuple> collector);

    /**
     * appends a receiver that will continously receive insert and revoke updates from this supplier
     */
    void appendChild(Receiver receiver);

    /**
     * removes a receiver
     */
    void removeChild(Receiver receiver);

    /**
     * Instantiates (or reuses, depending on implementation) an index according to the given mask. Intended for internal
     * use; clients should invoke through Library.accesProjectionIndexer() instead to enable reusing.
     */
    ProjectionIndexer constructIndex(TupleMask mask);

    /**
     * lists receivers
     */
    Collection<Receiver> getReceivers();

}