package com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.core.intermud.i3.server;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.core.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.core.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.core.collections.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Abilities.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Areas.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Behaviors.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.CharClasses.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Commands.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Common.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Exits.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Items.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Libraries.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Locales.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.MOBS.interfaces.*;
import com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.Races.interfaces.*;
/**
 * com.planet_ink.coffee_mud.core.intermud.i3.server.ServerObject
 * Copyright (c) 1996 George Reese
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *  	  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 *
 * An interface for mudlib object's to implement
 */

/**
 * The ServerObject interface prescribes methods which
 * must be defined in any object in the mudlib.
 * Specifically, it wants objects to flag when they
 * are destructed so that the server will stop keeping
 * track of them, and also so that other objects in
 * the mudlib can stop keeping track of them.  It is
 * important to remember with Java that destructing an
 * object does not get rid of all references to it.  You
 * need to get rid of all references to it in order to
 * delete it from memory.  A good mudlib thus will always
 * check if an object is destructed before using it in
 * code and it will remove references to destructed objects.
 * For example:
 *
 * MudObject some_object;
 *
 * public void doSomething()
 {
 *   if( some_object.getDestructed() )
 {
 *     some_object = null;
 *     return;
 *   }
 *   some_object.getSomethingDoneTo();
 * }
 *
 * For people used to LPC, the above code would be roughly
 * the same as doing:
 *
 * object some_object;
 *
 * void do_something()
 {
 *   if( !some_object )
 {
 *     return;
 *   }
 *   some_object-&gt;get_something_done_to();
 * }
 *
 * Created: 27 September 1996
 * Last modified: 27 September 1996
 * @author George Reese
 * @version 1.0
 */
public interface ServerObject
{
	/**
	 * This method should make it such that getDestructed()
	 * returns true and the object is no longer valid for
	 * the system.
	 * @see #getDestructed
	 */
	public abstract void destruct();

	/**
	 * Triggered every server cycle by the server to see if this
	 * object has an event to process.  If this object has an
	 * event to process, this method should then trigger the
	 * processing of that event.
	 */
	public void processEvent();

	/**
	 * Signifies that thsi object has been marked for destruction
	 * and that all references to this object should be nulled
	 * out as soon as they notice.
	 * @return true if the object is marked for destruction, false otherwise
	 */
	public abstract boolean getDestructed();

	/**
	 * This method is used to find the unique object id for this
	 * object.  The object id is assigned by the server through
	 * the setObjectId() method.  An implementation should thus
	 * keep track of this object id, not allow anything else to
	 * modify it, and return it through this getObjectId() method.
	 * @return the object id as assigned by the server
	 * @see #setObjectId
	 */
	 public abstract String getObjectId();

	 /**
	  * This method should be used to set the object's unique
	  * object id which the object should be keeping track of.
	  * Make sure that this can only get set once.  The proper
	  * code for this method probably should be something like:
	  *
	  * public final void setObjectId(String id)
	  {
	  *   if( object_id != null )
	  {
	  * 	return;
	  *   }
	  *   object_id = id;
	  * }
	  *
	  * @param id the unique value to which the id is being set
	  * @see #getObjectId
	  */
	 public abstract void setObjectId(String id);
}
