DiscoveryGroupManagement.java

/*
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
 * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
 * distributed with this work for additional information
 * regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file
 * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
 * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
 * with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * 
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 * 
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package net.jini.discovery;

import java.io.IOException;

/**
 * This interface defines methods and constants related to the management
 * of the sets of lookup services that are to be discovered using the
 * multicast discovery protocol; that is, lookup services that are
 * discovered by way of group discovery. The methods of this interface
 * define how an entity retrieves or modifies the set of groups associated
 * with those lookup services.
 *
 * @author Sun Microsystems, Inc.
 */
public interface DiscoveryGroupManagement {

    /**
     * Convenience constant used to request that attempts be made to
     * discover all lookup services that are within range, and which
     * belong to any group.
     */
    public static final String[] ALL_GROUPS = null;
    /**
     * Convenience constant used to request that discovery by group
     * membership be halted (or not started, if the group discovery
     * mechanism is simply being instantiated).
     */
    public static final String[] NO_GROUPS = new String[0];

    /** 
     * Returns an array consisting of the elements of the managed set
     * of groups; that is, the names of the groups whose members are the
     * lookup services to discover. If the managed set of groups is empty,
     * this method will return the empty array. If there is no managed set
     * of groups, then null is returned; indicating that all groups are to
     * be discovered. This method returns a new array upon each invocation.
     *
     * @return <code>String</code> array consisting of the elements of the
     *         managed set of groups
     * @see #setGroups
     */
    public String[] getGroups();
 
    /**   
     * Adds a set of group names to the managed set of groups. Elements in
     * the input set that duplicate elements already in the managed set
     * will be ignored. Once a new name is added to the managed set,
     * attempts will be made to discover all (as yet) undiscovered lookup
     * services that are members of the group having that name. If the empty
     * array (NO_GROUPS) is input, the managed set of groups will not change.
     *
     * Note that any entity that invokes this method must have
     * <code>DiscoveryPermission</code> on each of the groups in the
     * new set, otherwise a <code>SecurityException</code> will be
     * propagated through this method.
     *
     * @param groups <code>String</code> array consisting of the group names
     *               to add to the managed set.
     *
     * @throws java.io.IOException because an invocation of this method may
     *         result in the re-initiation of the discovery process, which can
     *         throw an <code>IOException</code> when socket allocation occurs.
     * 
     * @throws java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException this exception 
     *         occurs when there is no managed set of groups to augment.
     *         That is, the current managed set of groups is <code>null</code>.
     *         If the managed set of groups is <code>null</code>, all groups
     *         are being discovered; thus, requesting that a set of groups be
     *         added to the set of all groups makes no sense.
     *
     * @throws java.lang.NullPointerException this exception occurs when
     *         either <code>null</code> is input to the <code>groups</code>
     *         parameter, or one or more of the elements of the
     *         <code>groups</code> parameter is <code>null</code>. If a
     *         <code>null</code> is input, then the entity is effectively
     *         requesting that "all groups" be added to the current managed
     *         set of groups; which is not allowed. (Note that if the entity
     *         wishes to change the managed set of groups from a finite set
     *         of names to "all groups", the <code>setGroups</code> method
     *         should be invoked with <code>null</code> input.)
     * @see #removeGroups
     */
    public void addGroups(String[] groups) throws IOException;

    /**   
     * Replaces all of the group names in the managed set with names from
     * a new set. Once a new group name has been placed in the managed
     * set, if there are lookup services belonging to that group that have
     * already been discovered, no event will be sent to the entity's
     * listener for those particular lookup services. Attempts to discover
     * all (as yet) undiscovered lookup services belonging to that group
     * will continue to be made.
     * <p>
     * If null (<code>ALL_GROUPS</code>) is input to this method, then
     * attempts will be made to discover all (as yet) undiscovered lookup
     * services that are within range, and which are members of any group.
     * If the empty array (<code>NO_GROUPS</code>) is input, then group
     * discovery will cease until this method is invoked with an input 
     * parameter that is non-<code>null</code> and non-empty.
     *
     * Note that any entity that invokes this method must have
     * <code>DiscoveryPermission</code> on each of the groups in the
     * new set, otherwise a <code>SecurityException</code> will be
     * propagated through this method.
     *
     * @param groups <code>String</code> array consisting of the group
     *               names that will replace the current names in the
     *               managed set.
     *
     * @throws java.io.IOException because an invocation of this method may
     *         result in the re-initiation of the discovery process, which can
     *         throw an <code>IOException</code> when socket allocation occurs.
     * @see #getGroups
     */
    public void setGroups(String[] groups) throws IOException;

    /**   
     * Deletes a set of group names from the managed set of groups. If the
     * empty array (<code>NO_GROUPS</code>) is input, this method takes
     * no action.
     *
     * @param groups <code>String</code> array consisting of the group names
     *               that will be removed from the managed set.
     *
     * @throws java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException this exception 
     *         occurs when there is no managed set of groups from which
     *         remove elements.
     *
     * @throws java.lang.NullPointerException this exception occurs when
     *         <code>null</code> is input to the <code>groups</code>
     *         parameter.
     * @see #addGroups
     */
    public void removeGroups(String[] groups);
}