[Agentfactory-developer] ANNOUNCEMENT: Agent Factory V0.2.1

[Rem C. <rem...@uc...>]

Hi all,

Agent Factory version 0.2.1 has now been released @ 
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/agentfactory.

It includes a number of enhancements and bug fixes:

+ Revised System Agent Model:
A revised system agent model has been implemented that has removed the 
dependency between the platform and any system agents.  To cater for 
this, a new SYSTEMAGENT command has been added to the Platform 
Initialization File, making it possible for you to choose what system 
agents you want (if any at all).  In tandem with this, the 
initialization process has been modified to ensure that all system 
agents start before the application agents start.  A guide that 
describes how to build your own system agents will be released shortly.  
In the meantime those of you interested can receive help via the 
forums/mailing list.

+ MTS Broadcasting Support:
You can now broadcast to multiple agents simultaneously by using the '*' 
operator.  In terms of the HTTP MTS, this will allow you to send a 
message to all agents on a platform via an agentID of the form: 
agentID(*, addresses(http://localhost:4444/acc)).  Also, you can send a 
message to any subset by prefixing the * with the first few characters 
of an agent name. For example, to broadcast to all agents beginning with 
AM, use the agentID: agentID(AM*, addresses(http://localhost:4444/acc)). 
In conjunction with this, a UDP MTS will also be released shortly on 
agentfactory.com.  When using this MTS, the * operator can be used to 
broadcast messages to agents on ALL connected platforms.

+ Service Prioratisation:
You can now prioritise services by including the PRIORITY keyword in the 
service declaration, for example: SERVICE PRIORITY 100 <service-id> 
<service-class> ... . This can be used to order platform services such 
as the Message Transport Services.

+ MTS Autobind:
Agents now automatically bind to any MTS that is deployed on the platform.

All the best,

Rem Collier

-- 
------------
Dr Rem Collier
Room A1.02, Department of Computer Science,
University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, IRELAND
tel: +353 (0)1 716 2465
www: http://agentfactory.sourceforge.net