gov.nasa.arc.brahms.vm.api.common
Interface IGroup

All Superinterfaces:

IActiveClass, IActiveConcept, IConcept, IType, IUserDefinedType

public interface IGroup
extends IActiveClass

The concept of a "group" in Brahms is similar to the concept of a template or class in object-oriented programming. A group represents a collection of 'agents' that can perform similar work and have similar beliefs. A group defines the work activities (activity frames and thought frames), the initial-beliefs of members in the group and the initial-facts in the world. The difference with classes in object-oriented programming is that the relationship between a group and its members is not an IS-A relationship, but a MEMBER-OF relationship. This is why we speak of "a member of a group" instead of "an instance of a group."

Version:

$Revision: 1.1 $ $Date: 2009/11/23 18:38:31 $ $Author: rnado $

Author:

Ron van Hoof

See Also:

IActiveClass

Field Summary

Fields inherited from interface gov.nasa.arc.brahms.vm.api.common.IUserDefinedType

UDT

Method Summary

java.util.List<IAgent>	getMembers(boolean includeMemberGroups) Returns a list of all of this group's member agents.
IAgent	newAgent(java.lang.String name, IContext actionCtx) newAgent creates a new agent, makes it a member of this group and returns the new agent.

Methods inherited from interface gov.nasa.arc.brahms.vm.api.common.IActiveConcept

hasThoughtframes, hasWorkframes

Methods inherited from interface gov.nasa.arc.brahms.vm.api.common.IConcept

getAttribute, getAttributes, getRelation, getRelations, isLocal

Methods inherited from interface gov.nasa.arc.brahms.vm.api.common.IType

getName, getType

Method Detail

newAgent

IAgent newAgent(java.lang.String name,
                IContext actionCtx)
                throws ExternalException

newAgent creates a new agent, makes it a member of this group and returns the new agent. The new agent is given the specified name. If the name already exists a unique number will be attached to the name.

Parameters:

name - the name of the new agent

actionCtx - the IContext for the action

Returns:

IAgent the new agent being a member of this group

Throws:

ExternalException - if the creation of the new agent fails

getMembers

java.util.List<IAgent> getMembers(boolean includeMemberGroups)
                                  throws ExternalException

Returns a list of all of this group's member agents. If includeMemberGroups is set to true it will also include all the agents that are members of the groups that are members of this group.

Parameters:

includeMemberGroups - true to include member agents of member groups, false to only return agents that are direct members of this group

Returns:

List the list of member agents, an empty list if there are none

Throws:

ExternalException - if an internal error occurs