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  30 
  31 Provides support for event notification when accessing naming and
  32 directory services.
  33 
  34 <p>
  35 This package defines the event notification operations of the Java Naming
  36 and Directory Interface<font size=-2><sup>TM</sup></font> (JNDI). &nbsp;
  37 JNDI provides naming and directory functionality to applications
  38 written in the Java programming language.  It is designed to be
  39 independent of any specific naming or directory service
  40 implementation.  Thus a variety of services--new, emerging, and
  41 already deployed ones--can be accessed in a common way.
  42 
  43 <h4>Naming Events</h4>
  44 <p>
  45 This package defines a <tt>NamingEvent</tt> class to represent an event
  46 that is generated by a naming/directory service.
  47 It also defines subinterfaces of <tt>Context</tt> and <tt>DirContext</tt>,
  48 called <tt>EventContext</tt> and <tt>EventDirContext</tt>,
  49 through which applications can register their interest in events
  50 fired by the context.
  51 <p>
  52 <tt>NamingEvent</tt> represents an event that occurs in a 
  53 naming or directory service. There are two categories of naming events:
  54 <ul>
  55 <li>Those that affect the namespace (add/remove/rename an object)
  56 <li>Those that affect the objects' contents.
  57 </ul>
  58 Each category of events is handled by a corresponding listener:
  59 <tt>NamespaceChangeListener</tt>, <tt>ObjectChangeListener</tt>.
  60 <p>
  61 An application, for example, can register its interest in changes to
  62 objects in a context as follows:
  63 <blockquote>
  64 <pre>
  65 EventContext src = 
  66     (EventContext)(new InitialContext()).lookup("o=wiz,c=us");
  67 src.addNamingListener("ou=users", EventContext.ONELEVEL_SCOPE,
  68     new ChangeHandler());
  69 ...
  70 class ChangeHandler implements ObjectChangeListener {
  71     public void objectChanged(NamingEvent evt) {
  72         System.out.println(evt.getNewBinding());
  73     }
  74     public void namingExceptionThrown(NamingExceptionEvent evt) {
  75         System.out.println(evt.getException());
  76     }
  77 }
  78 </pre>
  79 </blockquote>
  80 
  81 <a name=THREADING></a>
  82 <h4>Threading Issues</h4>
  83 
  84 When an event is dispatched to a listener, the listener method (such
  85 as <tt>objectChanged()</tt>) may be executed in a thread other than the
  86 one in which the call to <tt>addNamingListener()</tt> was executed.
  87 The choice of which thread to use is made by the service provider.
  88 When an event is dispatched to multiple listeners, the service provider
  89 may choose (and is generally encouraged) to execute the listener methods
  90 concurrently in separate threads.
  91 <p>
  92 When a listener instance invokes <tt>NamingEvent.getEventContext()</tt>,
  93 it must take into account the possibility that other threads will be
  94 working with that context concurrently.  Likewise, when a listener is
  95 registered via <tt>addNamingListener()</tt>, the registering thread
  96 must take into account the likely possibility that the service provider
  97 will later invoke the listeners in newly-created threads.  As <tt>Context</tt>
  98 instances are not guaranteed to be thread-safe in general, all context
  99 operations must be synchronized as needed.
 100 
 101 <h4>Exception Handling</h4>
 102 
 103 When a listener registers for events with a context, the context might
 104 need to do some internal processing in order to collect information
 105 required to generate the events.  The context, for example, might need
 106 to make a request to the server to register interest in changes
 107 on the server that will eventually be translated into events.
 108 If an exception occurs that prevents information about the events from
 109 being collected, the listener will never be notified of the events.
 110 When such an exception occurs, a <tt>NamingExceptionEvent</tt> is
 111 fired to notify the listener. The listener's
 112 <tt>namingExceptionThrown()</tt> method is invoked, as shown in the 
 113 sample code above,
 114 and the listener is automatically deregistered.
 115 
 116 <h2>Package Specification</h2>
 117 
 118 
 119 The JNDI API Specification and related documents can be found in the
 120 <a href="../../../../technotes/guides/jndi/index.html">JNDI documentation</a>.
 121 
 122 @since 1.3
 123 
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