Starting up a DECAF Agent

Graphical Interface | Command Line Options

The Agent class is the core of the agent. It can be started with a graphical interface or a command line interface.

Graphical Interface

The graphical interface will start automatically if no options are provided on the command line. If you wish to use command line options and have the graphical interface then you should include -gui on the command line as well the other options. The normal intialization window will be shown, but the command line values will be supstituted for the defaults.

The Intialization Window contains all the options provided on the command line. Of noticeable difference is that logging is an option in the gui now where as before it was not. There are also some other additions to both interfaces and they are described below.

Once the information is entered, press the Start Agent Button to read in the given plan file and bring the internal code. Then press the Register Button to register with the ANS and run the agents startup routine.

The Agent Window

The window that comes with the graphical interface offers a variety of ways to interact with that agent and the rest of the agent network. It also provides lots of information to the user through the message areas.

The incoming and outgoing message areas show just that, the incoming and outgoing KQML messages. This is the first place to look if problems arise in agent communication. The debug area displays all the messages coming from the various parts of DECAF. These can be turned on and off with the Debug menu.

The menus in the Agent window allow access to several interesting features.

• File | Open KQML Sender Window : Opens a KQML window that allows the user to manually send well-formed KQML messages.
• File | Logging Options : Allows the user to change the current setting of the logging option.
• File | Shutdown & Exit : This allows the user to shutdown the agent, giving it time to complete its shutdown routine.
• Debug | Turn All On : Turns on all the debug messages.
• Debug | Turn All Off : Turns off all the debug messages. This does improve memory usage and is recommended if you don't really need to know.
• Debug | <Component> : Toggles wether or not the Component displays its messages.
• Look And Feel : This menu lists the currently installed L&Fs and lets you change to a different one.

Command Line Options

The complete list of command line options is: java Agent [ -agn <agent name> ] [ -agh <agent host> ] [ -agp <agent port>] [ -anh <ANS host> ] [ -anp <ANS port> ] [ -p <plan file> ] [ -l <log file> ] [ -ara <ara name> ] [-gui ]

• agn This specifies the name of the agent. Default: generated string
• agh This specifies the address of the machine the agent will run on. Default: Gets name from System
• agp This specifes the port on the machine that the agent will use. Default: 4000, or if unavailable, the next free port going up by 1
• anh This specifies the address of the machine the ANS is running on. Default: Same value as agh
• anp This specifies the port that the ANS is using. Default: 6677
• p This specifies the file path to the plan file. Default: agent.lsp
• l This specifies the file path to the log file. Any existing file will be replaced. Default: none
• ara Support for a future option. Default: none
• gui This takes no value. If present the graphical interface will always start. Default: true if no command line options are present, otherwise false.

Graphical Interface | Command Line Options