de.aristaflow.adept2.model.execution

Interface Enquiry

All Superinterfaces:

java.io.Serializable

public interface Enquiry
extends java.io.Serializable

An enquiry allows an agent to suspend a running activity, annotate it with a question and delegate it to other agents who can then reply the question or help the originator in solving the problem. One of the recipients resumes the activity, executes the activity (partially), suspends it again and sends it back with a reply for the originator.
This resembles delegation but differs in the stacking, that is, a delegation does not need to be replied, but an enquiry does.

Recipients of enquiries may also finish the activity. In this case a reply is still needed and the reply will also be forwarded to the corresponding originator of the enquiry. This is done until the enquiry stack is empty and the first originator has received the corresponding reply. Since the enquiry can not be resumed in this case (it has already been finished), the receiver can remove it by replying (without providing a reply at all).

This interface represents one enquiry and encapsulates the necessary data, that is, the initiator of an enquiry, the recipients of an enquiry as well as the question/comment of the initiator and the corresponding reply.

Author:

Ulrich Kreher

Field Summary

Fields

Modifier and Type	Field and Description
static long	serialVersionUID Generated ID for serialisation.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
QualifiedAgent	getOriginator() Gets the agent who has initiated this enquiry.
java.lang.String	getQuestion() Gets the question (and therefore the reason) for this enquiry.
java.util.Set<QualifiedAgent>	getRecipients() Gets the agents who receive this enquiry.
QualifiedAgent	getReplier() Gets the agent that has replied this enquiry.
java.lang.String	getReply() Gets the reply for this enquiry which is set by the recipients of this enquiry.

Field Detail

serialVersionUID

static final long serialVersionUID

Generated ID for serialisation.

See Also:

Constant Field Values

Method Detail

getOriginator

QualifiedAgent getOriginator()

Gets the agent who has initiated this enquiry.

Returns:

The agent who has initiated this enquiry.

getRecipients

java.util.Set<QualifiedAgent> getRecipients()

Gets the agents who receive this enquiry. There may be several recipients of the enquiry but only one agent will actually deal with it. This is equal to the behaviour of an activated node that has items in several worklists but only one agent will execute the node.

Returns:

A set of agents that receive this enquiry.

getQuestion

java.lang.String getQuestion()

Gets the question (and therefore the reason) for this enquiry. This is set by the initiator of this enquiry.

Returns:

The question of this enquiry as set by the initiator. This may be the empty string (not null).

getReply

java.lang.String getReply()

Gets the reply for this enquiry which is set by the recipients of this enquiry.

Returns:

The reply for the question of this enquiry as set by the replier. This will be null if this enquiry has not been replied yet, otherwise it will be a valid string (including the empty string).

getReplier

QualifiedAgent getReplier()

Gets the agent that has replied this enquiry.

Returns:

The agent that replied this enquiry. This will be null if this enquiry has not been replied yet.