public interface IChannel
extends ILocationAware, IUserAware, IBufferHandler, INotifier, Closeable

A bidirectional communications channel for the asynchronous exchange of buffers. A channel is lightweight and virtual in the sense that it does not necessarily represent a single physical connection like a TCP socket connection. The underlying physical connection is represented by a channel multiplexer.

Class Diagram:

An example for opening a channel on an IConnector and sending an IBuffer:

 // Open a channel
 IChannel channel = connector.openChannel();
 short channelID = channel.getIndex();

 // Fill a buffer
 Buffer buffer = bufferProvider.getBuffer();
 ByteBuffer byteBuffer = buffer.startPutting(channelID);
 byteBuffer.putDouble(15.47);

 // Let the channel send the buffer without blocking
 channel.sendBuffer(buffer);
 

An example for receiving IBuffers from channels on an IConnector:

 // Create a receive handler
 final IBufferHandler receiveHandler = new IBufferHandler()
 {
   public void handleBuffer(IBuffer buffer)
   {
     ByteBuffer byteBuffer = buffer.getByteBuffer();
     IOUtil.OUT().println("Received " + byteBuffer.getDouble());
     buffer.release();
   }
 };

 // Set the receive handler to all new channels
 connector.addListener(new ContainerEventAdapter()
 {
   protected void onAdded(IContainer container, Object element)
   {
     IChannel channel = (IChannel)element;
     channel.setReceiveHandler(receiveHandler);
   }
 });