com.tensegrity.graph.model
Interface Port

public interface Port

In standard graph theory, an Edge is connected to two Node instances. Our framework provides an implementation for the concept of connection roles, which we call ports. Ports allow you to specify the types and cardinalities of edges that may connect to a Node.

The Port interface defines the characteristics of a single connection point to a Node from which an Edge instance is attached. In other words, an Edge connects to a Node via one of the many Port instances owned and managed by a Node, and not to the Node directly.

A Port uses a so-called PortDenotation, a named meta-level object which defines and returns the rules for incoming and outgoing connections, including their cardinalities.

Ports have identifiers which can be returned to clients who request them.

Constructing a Port is done by means of a GraphModelFactory, which will hide the particular implementation classes from client code.

Port objects that are dereferenced will be garbage collected.

Version:

$Id: Port.java,v 1.24 2005/12/09 15:04:52 KevinCVS Exp $

Author:

MichaelKegel

See Also:

PortDenotation

Method Summary

Port	deepCopy(Node node) Makes a deep copy of the Port.
PortDenotation	getDenotation() Returns the denotation object associated with this Port.
long	getID() Returns the id of the Port.
Port	getWrappedPort() Returns the reference to the wrapped port or null if no port is wrapped.

Method Detail

getID

public long getID()

Returns the id of the Port.

Returns:

the id of the Port.

getDenotation

public PortDenotation getDenotation()

Returns the denotation object associated with this Port.

Returns:

the associated PortDenotation object of this Port.

Find more information in the class documentation

getWrappedPort

public Port getWrappedPort()

Returns the reference to the wrapped port or null if no port is wrapped. If null is returned, then this indicates that this instance is a leaf-port. If a value different from null is returned, it indicates that this port wraps the returned port instance.

Returns:

reference to the wrapped port or null if no port is wrapped.

Find more information in the class documentation

deepCopy

public Port deepCopy(Node node)

Makes a deep copy of the Port.

Parameters:

node - the Node to associate the copy with.

Returns:

deep copy of the Port.