Directory Service

CybelePro offers a very robust reliable directory service. It offers:

1.

White page service: Using Cybele APIs, an agent can determine the ids of the agents in the local container (i.e., container where the agent is created), in all containers in the local host (i.e., the host where the local container is started), or in all containers on any host in the network Using Cybele APIs, an agent can discover at runtime, the ids of the agents in the system (i.e, scope can be local container, local host or network) that implement a specific agent delegate (see Safe Agent Programming) class. This is useful for sorting out agents that implement a specific behavior.

2.

Yellow page service: Agents can create activities based on the functional role of the entity that they represent so that each activity is associated with a role. Cybele provides APIs to determine the ids of the agents in the system that launch activities implementing a specific activity delegate (see Activity Centric Programming) class.

The Directory service is useful for certain special applications.

1.	Certain applications require agents to use synchronous messaging in which they publish a message and wait to receive a specific number of replies. The expected number of replies can be approximately pre-estimated using directory service APIs
2.	Some applications require special agents to periodically monitor the number agents with specific types of behavior (i.e, agents implementing certain delegate classes)