public class

Reference

extends Object
implements Serializable Cloneable
java.lang.Object
   ↳ javax.naming.Reference
Known Direct Subclasses

Class Overview

This class represents a reference to an object that is found outside of the naming/directory system.

Reference provides a way of recording address information about objects which themselves are not directly bound to the naming/directory system.

A Reference consists of an ordered list of addresses and class information about the object being referenced. Each address in the list identifies a communications endpoint for the same conceptual object. The "communications endpoint" is information that indicates how to contact the object. It could be, for example, a network address, a location in memory on the local machine, another process on the same machine, etc. The order of the addresses in the list may be of significance to object factories that interpret the reference.

Multiple addresses may arise for various reasons, such as replication or the object offering interfaces over more than one communication mechanism. The addresses are indexed starting with zero.

A Reference also contains information to assist in creating an instance of the object to which this Reference refers. It contains the class name of that object, and the class name and location of the factory to be used to create the object. The class factory location is a space-separated list of URLs representing the class path used to load the factory. When the factory class (or any class or resource upon which it depends) needs to be loaded, each URL is used (in order) to attempt to load the class.

A Reference instance is not synchronized against concurrent access by multiple threads. Threads that need to access a single Reference concurrently should synchronize amongst themselves and provide the necessary locking.

Summary

Fields
protected Vector<RefAddr> addrs Contains the addresses contained in this Reference.
protected String classFactory Contains the name of the factory class for creating an instance of the object to which this Reference refers.
protected String classFactoryLocation Contains the location of the factory class.
protected String className Contains the fully-qualified name of the class of the object to which this Reference refers.@serial
Public Constructors
Reference(String className)
Constructs a new reference for an object with class name 'className'.
Reference(String className, RefAddr addr)
Constructs a new reference for an object with class name 'className' and an address.
Reference(String className, String factory, String factoryLocation)
Constructs a new reference for an object with class name 'className', and the class name and location of the object's factory.
Reference(String className, RefAddr addr, String factory, String factoryLocation)
Constructs a new reference for an object with class name 'className', the class name and location of the object's factory, and the address for the object.
Public Methods
void add(int posn, RefAddr addr)
Adds an address to the list of addresses at index posn.
void add(RefAddr addr)
Adds an address to the end of the list of addresses.
void clear()
Deletes all addresses from this reference.
Object clone()
Makes a copy of this reference using its class name list of addresses, class factory name and class factory location.
boolean equals(Object obj)
Determines whether obj is a reference with the same addresses (in same order) as this reference.
RefAddr get(int posn)
Retrieves the address at index posn.
RefAddr get(String addrType)
Retrieves the first address that has the address type 'addrType'.
Enumeration<RefAddr> getAll()
Retrieves an enumeration of the addresses in this reference.
String getClassName()
Retrieves the class name of the object to which this reference refers.
String getFactoryClassLocation()
Retrieves the location of the factory of the object to which this reference refers.
String getFactoryClassName()
Retrieves the class name of the factory of the object to which this reference refers.
int hashCode()
Computes the hash code of this reference.
Object remove(int posn)
Deletes the address at index posn from the list of addresses.
int size()
Retrieves the number of addresses in this reference.
String toString()
Generates the string representation of this reference.
[Expand]
Inherited Methods
From class java.lang.Object

Fields

protected Vector<RefAddr> addrs

Contains the addresses contained in this Reference. Initialized by constructor.

protected String classFactory

Contains the name of the factory class for creating an instance of the object to which this Reference refers. Initialized to null.

protected String classFactoryLocation

Contains the location of the factory class. Initialized to null.

protected String className

Contains the fully-qualified name of the class of the object to which this Reference refers.@serial

See Also

Public Constructors

public Reference (String className)

Constructs a new reference for an object with class name 'className'. Class factory and class factory location are set to null. The newly created reference contains zero addresses.

Parameters
className The non-null class name of the object to which this reference refers.

public Reference (String className, RefAddr addr)

Constructs a new reference for an object with class name 'className' and an address. Class factory and class factory location are set to null.

Parameters
className The non-null class name of the object to which this reference refers.
addr The non-null address of the object.

public Reference (String className, String factory, String factoryLocation)

Constructs a new reference for an object with class name 'className', and the class name and location of the object's factory.

Parameters
className The non-null class name of the object to which this reference refers.
factory The possibly null class name of the object's factory.
factoryLocation The possibly null location from which to load the factory (e.g. URL)

public Reference (String className, RefAddr addr, String factory, String factoryLocation)

Constructs a new reference for an object with class name 'className', the class name and location of the object's factory, and the address for the object.

Parameters
className The non-null class name of the object to which this reference refers.
addr The non-null address of the object.
factory The possibly null class name of the object's factory.
factoryLocation The possibly null location from which to load the factory (e.g. URL)

Public Methods

public void add (int posn, RefAddr addr)

Adds an address to the list of addresses at index posn. All addresses at index posn or greater are shifted up the list by one (away from index 0).

Parameters
posn The 0-based index of the list to insert addr.
addr The non-null address to add.
Throws
ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException If posn not in the specified range.

public void add (RefAddr addr)

Adds an address to the end of the list of addresses.

Parameters
addr The non-null address to add.

public void clear ()

Deletes all addresses from this reference.

public Object clone ()

Makes a copy of this reference using its class name list of addresses, class factory name and class factory location. Changes to the newly created copy does not affect this Reference and vice versa.

Returns
  • a clone of this instance.

public boolean equals (Object obj)

Determines whether obj is a reference with the same addresses (in same order) as this reference. The addresses are checked using RefAddr.equals(). In addition to having the same addresses, the Reference also needs to have the same class name as this reference. The class factory and class factory location are not checked. If obj is null or not an instance of Reference, null is returned.

Parameters
obj The possibly null object to check.
Returns
  • true if obj is equal to this reference; false otherwise.

public RefAddr get (int posn)

Retrieves the address at index posn.

Parameters
posn The index of the address to retrieve.
Returns
  • The address at the 0-based index posn. It must be in the range [0,getAddressCount()).
Throws
ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException If posn not in the specified range.

public RefAddr get (String addrType)

Retrieves the first address that has the address type 'addrType'. String.compareTo() is used to test the equality of the address types.

Parameters
addrType The non-null address type for which to find the address.
Returns
  • The address in this reference with address type 'addrType; null if no such address exist.

public Enumeration<RefAddr> getAll ()

Retrieves an enumeration of the addresses in this reference. When addresses are added, changed or removed from this reference, its effects on this enumeration are undefined.

Returns
  • An non-null enumeration of the addresses (RefAddr) in this reference. If this reference has zero addresses, an enumeration with zero elements is returned.

public String getClassName ()

Retrieves the class name of the object to which this reference refers.

Returns
  • The non-null fully-qualified class name of the object. (e.g. "java.lang.String")

public String getFactoryClassLocation ()

Retrieves the location of the factory of the object to which this reference refers. If it is a codebase, then it is an ordered list of URLs, separated by spaces, listing locations from where the factory class definition should be loaded.

Returns
  • The possibly null string containing the location for loading in the factory's class.

public String getFactoryClassName ()

Retrieves the class name of the factory of the object to which this reference refers.

Returns
  • The possibly null fully-qualified class name of the factory. (e.g. "java.lang.String")

public int hashCode ()

Computes the hash code of this reference. The hash code is the sum of the hash code of its addresses.

Returns
  • A hash code of this reference as an int.

public Object remove (int posn)

Deletes the address at index posn from the list of addresses. All addresses at index greater than posn are shifted down the list by one (towards index 0).

Parameters
posn The 0-based index of in address to delete.
Returns
  • The address removed.
Throws
ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException If posn not in the specified range.

public int size ()

Retrieves the number of addresses in this reference.

Returns
  • The nonnegative number of addresses in this reference.

public String toString ()

Generates the string representation of this reference. The string consists of the class name to which this reference refers, and the string representation of each of its addresses. This representation is intended for display only and not to be parsed.

Returns
  • The non-null string representation of this reference.