BLIP/BLIPDispatcher.h
author Jens Alfke <jens@mooseyard.com>
Sat May 24 17:25:06 2008 -0700 (2008-05-24)
changeset 2 9fdd8dba529c
parent 0 9d67172bb323
child 8 6f539dd9921c
permissions -rw-r--r--
* Added more documentation.
* Minor API changes.
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//
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//  BLIPDispatcher.h
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//  MYNetwork
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//
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//  Created by Jens Alfke on 5/15/08.
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//  Copyright 2008 Jens Alfke. All rights reserved.
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//
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#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
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@class MYTarget, BLIPMessage;
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/** Routes BLIP messages to targets based on a series of rule predicates.
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    Every BLIPConnection has a BLIPDispatcher, which is initially empty but you can add rules
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    to it.
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    Every BLIPListener also has a dispatcher, which is inherited as the parent by every
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    connection that it accepts, so you can add rules to the listener's dispatcher to share them
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    between all connections.
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    It's not necessary to use a dispatcher. Any undispatched requests will be sent to the
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    BLIPConnection's delegate's -connection:receivedRequest: method, which can do its own
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    custom handling. But it's often easier to use the dispatcher to associate handlers with
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    request based on property values. */
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@interface BLIPDispatcher : NSObject 
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{
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    NSMutableArray *_predicates, *_targets;
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    BLIPDispatcher *_parent;
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}
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/** The inherited parent dispatcher.
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    If a message does not match any of this dispatcher's rules, it will next be passed to
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    the parent, if there is one. */
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@property (retain) BLIPDispatcher *parent;
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/** Adds a new rule, to call a given target method if a given predicate matches the message. */
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- (void) addTarget: (MYTarget*)target forPredicate: (NSPredicate*)predicate;
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/** Convenience method that adds a rule that compares a property against a string. */
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- (void) addTarget: (MYTarget*)target forValueOfProperty: (NSString*)value forKey: (NSString*)key;
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/** Removes all rules with the given target method. */
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- (void) removeTarget: (MYTarget*)target;
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/** Tests the message against all the rules, in the order they were added, and calls the
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    target of the first matching rule.
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    If no rule matches, the message is passed to the parent dispatcher's -dispatchMessage:,
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    if there is a parent.
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    If no rules at all match, NO is returned. */
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- (BOOL) dispatchMessage: (BLIPMessage*)message;
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/** Returns a target object that will call this dispatcher's -dispatchMessage: method.
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    This can be used to make this dispatcher the target of another dispatcher's rule,
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    stringing them together hierarchically. */
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- (MYTarget*) asTarget;
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@end