Actor (JActor 4.5.0 API)

All Known Subinterfaces:

ActorName, Factory, Properties, Publisher, Subscriber, TargetActor

All Known Implementing Classes:

JActorName, JAFactory, JANBLock, JAProperties, JAPublisher, JASubscriber, JLPCActor
```
public interface Actor
```
Actors are objects which send messages to each other and which process only one message at a time. Messages are either requests or responses. When an actor sends a request to another actor, it expects to receive a single response unless an exception has been thrown.
When an actor sends a message it provides a callback to handle the response. The callback may be invoked either immediately or later. After sending a message, an actor may send additional messages or return control, at which point it may receive other requests or pending responses.
An actor typically interleaves the processing of multiple requests. To process a request to completion, an actor may need to send requests to other actors (in series or parallel) and process the responses to those requests. Actors process requests and responses as they are received whenever the actor is not busy processing a message. There is no way to block incoming requests. Actors are thread-safe, but message processing is not atomic.
Some actors are asynchronous. Requests sent to an asynchronous actor are processed on a different thread. Actors which perform heavy computation or which do I/O should be asynchronous. Asynchronous actors play an important role in vertical scalability, allowing a program to make effective use of multiple hardware threads. But care should be used, as asynchronous message passing tends to be slow.

Method Summary

Methods
Modifier and Type	Method and Description
`void`	`acceptEvent(APCRequestSource requestSource, Request request)` Wraps and enqueues an unwrapped request in the requester's inbox.
`void`	`acceptRequest(APCRequestSource requestSource, Request request, RP rp)` Wraps and enqueues an unwrapped request in the requester's inbox.
`String`	`getActorType()` Returns the actor type.
`JLPCActor`	`getAncestor(Class targetClass)` Returns A matching ancestor from the parent chain.
`ActorFactory`	`getFactory()` Returns the factory.
`Mailbox`	`getMailbox()` Returns the actor's mailbox.
`JLPCActor`	`getMatch(Class targetClass)`
`JLPCActor`	`getParent()` Returns the actor's parent.
`boolean`	`hasDataItem(String name)` Returns true when the concurrent data of the actor, or its parent, contains the named data item.
`void`	`setInitialBufferCapacity(int initialBufferCapacity)` Set the initial capacity for buffered outgoing messages.

- Method Detail
  - acceptRequest
```
void acceptRequest(APCRequestSource requestSource,
                 Request request,
                 RP rp)
                   throws Exception
```
    Wraps and enqueues an unwrapped request in the requester's inbox.
    
    Parameters:
    requestSource - The originator of the request.
    request - The unwrapped request to be sent.
    rp - The request processor.
    
    Throws:
    
    Exception
  - acceptEvent
```
void acceptEvent(APCRequestSource requestSource,
               Request request)
                 throws Exception
```
    Wraps and enqueues an unwrapped request in the requester's inbox.
    
    Parameters:
    requestSource - The originator of the request.
    request - The unwrapped request to be sent.
    
    Throws:
    
    Exception
  - setInitialBufferCapacity
```
void setInitialBufferCapacity(int initialBufferCapacity)
```
    Set the initial capacity for buffered outgoing messages.
    
    Parameters:
    initialBufferCapacity - The initial capacity for buffered outgoing messages.
  - hasDataItem
```
boolean hasDataItem(String name)
```
    Returns true when the concurrent data of the actor, or its parent, contains the named data item.
    
    Parameters:
    name - The key for the data item.
    
    Returns:
    True when the concurrent data of the actor, or its parent, contains the named data item.
  - getMailbox
```
Mailbox getMailbox()
```
    Returns the actor's mailbox.
    
    Returns:
    The actor's mailbox.
  - getActorType
```
String getActorType()
```
    Returns the actor type.
    
    Returns:
    The actor type, or null.
  - getFactory
```
ActorFactory getFactory()
```
    Returns the factory.
    
    Returns:
    The factory, or null.
  - getParent
```
JLPCActor getParent()
```
    Returns the actor's parent.
    
    Returns:
    The actor's parent, or null.
  - getAncestor
```
JLPCActor getAncestor(Class targetClass)
```
    Returns A matching ancestor from the parent chain.
    
    Parameters:
    targetClass - A class which the ancestor is an instanceof.
    
    Returns:
    The matching ancestor, or null.
  - getMatch
```
JLPCActor getMatch(Class targetClass)
```

Interface Actor

Method Summary

Method Detail

acceptRequest

acceptEvent

setInitialBufferCapacity

hasDataItem

getMailbox

getActorType

getFactory

getParent

getAncestor

getMatch