org.springframework.webflow.conversation
Interface ConversationManager

All Known Implementing Classes:

SessionBindingConversationManager

public interface ConversationManager

A service for managing conversations. This interface is the entry point into the conversation subsystem.

Author:

Keith Donald, Erwin Vervaet

Method Summary

Conversation	beginConversation(ConversationParameters conversationParameters) Begin a new conversation.
Conversation	getConversation(ConversationId id) Get the conversation with the provided id.
ConversationId	parseConversationId(java.lang.String encodedId) Parse the string-encoded conversationId into its object form.

Method Detail

beginConversation

Conversation beginConversation(ConversationParameters conversationParameters)
                               throws ConversationException

Begin a new conversation.

Parameters:

conversationParameters - descriptive conversation parameters

Returns:

a service interface allowing access to the conversation context

Throws:

ConversationException - an exception occured

getConversation

Conversation getConversation(ConversationId id)
                             throws ConversationException

Get the conversation with the provided id.

Implementors should take care to manage conversation identity correctly. Although it is not strictly required to return the same (==) Conversation object every time this method is called with a particular conversation id in a single execution thread, callers will expect to recieve an object that allows them to manipulate the identified conversation. In other words, the following is legal ConversationManager client code:

        ConversationManager manager = ...;
        ConversationId id = ...;
        Conversation conv = manager.getConversation(id);
  conv.lock();
  try {
        Conversation localReference = manager.getConversation(id);
        // no need to lock since conversation 'id' is already locked
        // even though possibly conv != localReference
        localReference.putAttribute("foo", "bar");
        Object foo = conv.getAttribute("foo");
        }
        finally {
                conv.unlock();
        }
 

Parameters:

id - the conversation id

Returns:

the conversation

Throws:

NoSuchConversationException - the id provided was invalid

ConversationException

parseConversationId

ConversationId parseConversationId(java.lang.String encodedId)
                                   throws ConversationException

Parse the string-encoded conversationId into its object form. Essentially, the reverse of ConversationId.toString().

Parameters:

encodedId - the encoded id

Returns:

the parsed conversation id

Throws:

ConversationException - an exception occured parsing the id