Also see:

doBehavior

 public AgentImpl() throws RemoteException 
{
           
        super();
	loadIcon();
	description = new Description( this, this.getName() );
}

Basic constructor for agents. This only gets called once in an agent's lifetime, when it is first created. It is not called when the agent arrives at a new host.

Also see:

doLocalSetup Note - because of Java syntax rules, all subclasses must explicitly declare a constructor, even if all it does is call the superclass constructor.

 public  void addActionCommand(ActionCommand com) 
{
	commandList.addElement( com.getName() );
	commands.put( com.getName(), com );
}

Add a popup menu item or non-graphical equivalent to the agent's behavior.

 public  void blockUntilReady() 
{
	while( !isReady() ) {
	    try {
		synchronized( this ) {
		    wait();
		} 
	    } catch( InterruptedException error ) { }
	}
}

this method should block until the agent is ready -- it just sits in the wait method until it gets notified from the setIsReady method

 public  void configure(Object o,
    Description desc) 
{

}

Override this function to let an agent configure itself from a Description. This method is called by Hive if the agent was created through The user's Global.CellDescription file. If you want to load a configuration by hand, see Global.getConfigAsXMLDocument().

 public boolean connectTo(Agent otherAgent) 
{
	Debug.notice( "there is no default connection for an agent." );
	return false;
}

Tell this agent to connect to some other agent. It is up to the agent to define the semantics of what this means. By default, AgentImpl just prints an error message and returns false.

 public  void diePlease() 
{
	myCell.killAgent( (AgentImpl)this );
}

Ask the agent to politely die -- by default, the agent just relays the call to the server and asks it tkill itself

 public  void disconnectFrom(Agent otherAgent) 
{
	Debug.notice( "there is no default disconnection for an agent." );
}

Disconnects this agent from the specified other agent. It is up to the agent to define the semantics of what this means. By default, AgentImpl just prints an error message and returns false.

 public  void disconnectFromAll() 
{
	Debug.notice( "there is no default disconnection for an agent." );
}

Disconnects this agent from all agents. It is up to the agent to define the semantics of what this means. By default, AgentImpl just prints an error message and returns false.

 abstract public  void doBehavior()
Do the basic behavior for an agent, the agent's main loop.
Override this to provide your particular agent's behavior.
Note: the doBehavior loop should not exit. Please call
waitUntilDeath() at the end of this method, this will prevent
the Cell from believing this agent prematurely exited.

 public  void doLocalCleanup() 
{

}

Command the agent to free its local resources here. It may or may not equal what happens when the agent is supposed to die -- but here would be the appropriate place to free File descriptors, and stop threads, but do not do anything related to the agent community -- do not notify them that this agent is about to die. When this method terminates, this agent should be ready to be killed

 public  void doLocalSetup() throws AgentInitializationException 
{

}

Handle the setup when an agent arrives on a host -- it is appropriate to allocate system resources (file descriptors, etc) here and even to locate other agents that this agent needs to communicate with.

 public Vector getActionCommands() 
{
 
	return commandList;
}

Get the names of the ActionCommands this agent uses in the order in which they were entered.

 public CellAddress getAddress() 
{
	return myAddress;
}

return the address that i'm at

 public RemoteCell getCell() 
{
	return (RemoteCell)myCell;
}

Return the cell I'm living on.

 public ComponentManagerShadow getComponentManagerShadow() throws ShadowNotFoundException 
{
	return (ComponentManagerShadow)myCell.getShadow( (ComponentManagerShadowImpl.class).getName() );
}

A convenience method to return the ComponentManagerShadow or throws an exception if one is not present.

 public Description getDescription() 
{
	return description;
}

Return the semantic description of this agent.

 public SerializableImage getIcon() 
{
	return icon;
}

Return the SerializableImage object that is the agent's icon.

 public String getIconName() 
{
 
	return iconName;
}

Get the value of iconName.

 public String getName() 
{
	if( description != null ) {
	    Description desc = description.semanticContext();
	    if( desc != null )
		if( description.selectFirst( "nickname" ) )  // NOTE: OK for now, but should probably make this "name" later.
		    return description.getMatch().getText();
	}
	return Global.shortClassName(this);
}

get a "name" for this agent -- if the description contains a nickname, then we should return that, else we return the short string of the name

 public ThreadGroup getThreadGroup() 
{
	return agentThreadGroup;
}

Return the thread group that we are in

 public boolean invokeActionCommand(String com) 
{
	if( commands.containsKey( com ) ) {
	    ((ActionCommand)commands.get( com )).invoke();
	    return true;
	}
	return false;
}

Invoke an action command by name. Currently, this will only be called in a baseUICanvas or its non-graphical equivalent.

 public boolean isReady() 
{
	return readyFlag;
}

this flag tells another object whether this agent is ready to do its stuff. the semantics of being ready are left up to the agent's author, however the only restriction is that the agent should -not- report that it is ready until the server calls setIsReady( true ) on this agent

 public boolean isTimeToStop() 
{
        return timeToStop;
}

Tell if the agent been told to stop.

 public Vector listAllIncomingConnections() 
{
	Debug.warning( "there is no default connection list for an agent." );
	return new Vector();
}

Return a vector of all the agents that are connected to me. It is up to the agent to define the semantics of what this means. By default, AgentImpl just prints an error message and returns false.

 public Vector listAllOutgoingConnections() 
{
	Debug.warning( "there is no default connection list for an agent." );
	return new Vector();
}

Return a vector of all that agents that i am connected to. It is up to the agent to define the semantics of what this means. By default, AgentImpl just prints an error message and returns false.

 protected  void loadIcon() 
{
 	InputStream is = null;
	if( iconName.equals( "" ) ) {
	    icon = IconLoader.loadIcon( this.getClass() );
	    return;
	} else {
	    is = Global.getConfigAsInputStream( iconName );    // Tries to load it from the user's home directory
	    if( is == null ) {
		Debug.notice( "trying to get user-specified icon from directory in CLASSPATH" );
		is = getClass().getResourceAsStream( iconName ); // Tries to load it from the current directory
	    }
	}
	if( is == null ) {
	    // Note: if these warnings are ever thrown, something has
	    // gone very wrong... (UnknownAgent.ppm not in
	    // hive/agent/icons)
	    Debug.warning( "no icon found for " + this.getClass().toString() + ", substituting " + IconLoader.defaultIconName );
	    is = getClass().getResourceAsStream( IconLoader.defaultIconName );
	    if( is == null ) {
		Debug.critical( IconLoader.defaultIconName + " doesn't exist therefore agent icons are broken -- using a blank icon." );
		icon = new SerializableImage( new int[]{ 1 }, new java.awt.Dimension( 1, 1 ) );
		return;
	    }
	}
	// OK, got the file as a stream, let's parse the PPM out and cast it into SerializableImage.
	try {
	    icon = new PPM( is );
	} catch( Exception ex ) { 
	    Debug.critical( "error loading agent's icon: " + ex ); 
	}
}

Load the icon for an agent off of disk. If the agent is class net.hivecell.hive.FooAgent then this looks for net.hivecell.hive/icons/FooAgent.ppm in the class path or Jar file. If that doesn't exist, then a default is substituted.

 public  void moveTo(CellAddress address) throws AgentDeliveryException 
{
	//	Debug.notice( Global.shortString( this ) + ".moveTo(" + address + ")" );
        myCell.moveAgent( this, address );
}

Move this agent to a new host. this basically moves the call up to the cell who handles it

 public  void onDying() 
{

}

Used to notify the agent that it is about to be killed

 public  void onMoving() 
{

}

Used to notify the agent that it is about to be moved

 public  void setCell(Cell c) 
{
	if( myCell != null )
	    Debug.warning( "setCell() was called on " + Global.shortString( this ) + " when it had a cell set!" );
	myCell = c;
	myAddress = myCell.getAddress();
}

Set the cell flag on the agent. Normally user code should not call this - creation code in the cell should handle this

 public  void setDescription(Description desc) 
{
 
	desc.noContext();
	this.description = new Description( this, desc.getNode() );
}

Set the semantic deescription of this agent. we take the xml description, rip it apart and make sure the description of the xml description is the right thing

 public  void setIconName(String v) 
{
	this.iconName = v; 
	loadIcon();
}

Set the value of iconName.

 public final  void setIsReady(boolean flag) 
{
	readyFlag = flag;
	synchronized( this ) {
	    notifyAll();
	}
}

This method tells the world that this agent is ready for operation. Deciding when an agent is ready is up to the agent's author, however the agent should -not- report that it is ready until it can be connected to, receive and send events, and perform any other special duties it needs to. setIsReady(true) is called automatically when the agent's doLocalSetup is done in Cell.java runAgentThread().

 public  void setThreadGroup(ThreadGroup tg) 
{
	this.agentThreadGroup = tg;
}

Set the thread group of this agent. Normally user code should not call this -- the creation methods in the server will set this properly

 public final  void setTimeToStop(int flag) 
{
	timeToStop = true;
	stopCode = flag;
	synchronized( this ) {
	    notifyAll();
	}
}

Sets the time to stop flag

 protected  void waitUntilDeath() 
{
	while( !timeToStop ) 
	    synchronized( this ) {
		try {
		    wait();
		} catch( InterruptedException error ) { }
	    }
}

Used at the end of the doBehavior method. Simply wait until the timeToStop flag has been set and the notify method has been called so we can exit properly, This should be done, otherwise the agnet will fall out of its doBehavior loop, and the Cell will "clean" the agnet up