net.jini.core.entry

Interface Entry

All Superinterfaces:

Serializable

All Known Subinterfaces:

CloneableEntry

public interface Entry
extends Serializable

This class is the supertype of all entries that can be stored in a Jini Lookup service.

Each field of an entry must be a public reference (object) type. You cannot store primitive types in fields of an Entry. An Entry may have any number of methods or constructors. Each field is serialized separately, so references between two fields of an entry will not be reconstituted to be shared references, but instead to separate copies of the original object.

Implementors notes:

• New public non-final fields added to an Entry after deployment must be appended below existing fields to avoid breaking backward compatiblity.
• If an Entry implementation is extended by a child class, new public, non-final fields cannot be added to the parent class, doing so will break backward compatibility with the child class.
• Changing the order of fields in an existing Entry implementation will break backward compatibility.
• Removing fields from an Entry after deployment will break backward compatiblity.

Recommended practice for backward compatible evolution of Entry's:

1. Do not change or add public non-final fields to an Entry after deployment, subclass instead.
2. Only append public non-final fields to a final Entry class.
3. Use super-types and interfaces for fields where possible, to allow more flexibility.
4. Only use org.apache.river.lookup.util.ConsistentMap or org.apache.river.lookup.util.ConsistentSet Collection types, or use arrays.

Since:

1.0

Author:

Sun Microsystems, Inc.