001/*
002 * Copyright 2009 Red Hat, Inc.
003 * Red Hat licenses this file to you under the Apache License, version
004 * 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
005 * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
006 *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
007 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
008 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
009 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
010 * implied.  See the License for the specific language governing
011 * permissions and limitations under the License.
012 */
013package org.hornetq.spi.core.remoting;
014
015/**
016 * A Connector is used by the client for creating and controlling a connection.
017 *
018 * @author <a href="mailto:tim.fox@jboss.com">Tim Fox</a>
019 */
020public interface Connector
021{
022   /**
023    * starts the connector
024    */
025   void start();
026
027   /**
028    * closes the connector
029    */
030   void close();
031
032   /**
033    * returns true if the connector is started, oterwise false.
034    *
035    * @return true if the connector is started
036    */
037   boolean isStarted();
038
039   /**
040    * Create and return a connection from this connector.
041    * <p/>
042    * This method must NOT throw an exception if it fails to create the connection
043    * (e.g. network is not available), in this case it MUST return null
044    *
045    * @return The connection, or null if unable to create a connection (e.g. network is unavailable)
046    */
047   Connection createConnection();
048}