Copyright ã1995 by NeXT Computer, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

NXProtocolChecker

Inherits From:	Object

Declared In:	machkit/NXProtocolChecker.h

Class Description

The NXProtocolChecker class defines an object that restricts the messages that can be sent to another object (referred to as the checker's delegate).  This can be particularly useful when an object with many methods, only a few of which ought to be remotely accessible,  is made available using the Distributed Objects system.

A protocol checker acts as a kind of proxy; when it receives a message that is in its designated protocol, it forwards the message to its delegate, and consequently appears to be the delegate itself.  However, when it receives a message not in its protocol, it raises an NX_restrictionEnforcedException exception to indicate that the message isn't allowed, whether or not the delegate implements the method.

Typically, an object that is to be distributed (yet must restrict messages) creates an NXProtocolChecker for itself and returns the checker rather than returning itself in response to any messages.  The object might also register the checker as the root object of an NXConnection.

The object should be careful about vending references to self; the protocol checker will convert a return value of self to indicate the checker rather than the object for any messages that were forwarded by the checker, but direct references to the object (bypassing the checker) could be passed around by other objects.

Instance Variables

id target;

Protocol *protocol;

target	The checker's delegate

protocol	Indicates the messages the checker will forward

Method Types

Initializing a checker	- initWithObject:forProtocol:

Reimplemented Object methods
- forward::
- descriptionForMethod:
- free

Instance Methods

descriptionForMethod:

- (struct objc_method_description *)descriptionForMethod:(SEL)aSelector

Returns an Objective C description for a method in the checker's protocol, or NULL if aSelector isn't declared as an instance method in the protocol.

See also:  - descriptionForInstanceMethod:(Protocol class)

forward::

- forward:(SEL)aSelector :(void *)args

Forwards any message to the delegate if the method is declared in the checker's protocol; otherwise raises an NX_restrictionEnforcedException exception.  If a delegate method returns self, the checker substitutes its own id for the return value so that the sender doesn't gain direct access (bypassing the checker) to the delegate.

free

- free

If the free method is not part of the protocol that the delegate responds to, this message simply frees the checker.  If the free method is part of the protocol that the delegate responds to, the free message is forwarded to the delegate, and the checker is freed if the delegate returns nil.  This ensures that that the checker is closely coupled to the delegate whether the delegate implements reference counting or not; see the NXReference protocol for more information.

initWithObject:forProtocol:

- initWithObject:anObject forProtocol:(Protocol *)aProtocol

Initializes a newly allocated NXProtocolChecker instance that will forward any messages in the aProtocol protocol to anObject, its delegate.  Thus, the checker can be vended in lieu of anObject to restrict the messages that can be sent to anObject.  If anObject is allowed to be freed or dereferenced by clients, the free method should be included in aProtocol.  Returns the new instance.