The IOptionsServer and IClient interfaces and the ServerFactory class

The com.perforce.p4java.server.IOptionsServer interface represents a specific P4 Server in the P4 API for Java API, with methods to access typical P4 Server services. Each instance of a IOptionsServer interface is associated with a P4 Server running at a specified location (network address and port), and each IOptionsServer instance is obtained from the P4Java server factory, com.perforce.p4java.server.ServerFactory, by passing it a suitable server URI and optional Java properties.

The snippet below is from the ServerFactoryDemo class in the sample package, and shows a very simple way to prompt the user for a P4 Server URI, connect to the server at the URI, and get basic information about that server. This is the basic “Hello World!” P4 API for Java application, and works like the p4 info command (with suitable attention being paid to formatting details with the formatInfo method below).

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BufferedReader lineReader = new BufferedReader(
                            new InputStreamReader(System.in));
 
try {
    for (;;) {
        System.out.print(PROMPT);
        String serverUriString = lineReader.readLine();
                
        if ((serverUriString == null) || serverUriString.equalsIgnoreCase(QUIT)) {
            break;
        } else {
            IOptionsServer server = 
                ServerFactory.getOptionsServer(serverUriString, null, 
                        new UsageOptions(null).setProgramName("P4JavaDemo")
                        .setProgramVersion("alpha0.9"));
            server.connect();
            IServerInfo info = server.getServerInfo();
            
            if (info != null) {
                System.out.println("Info from Perforce server at URI '"
                            + serverUriString + "' for '" 
                            + server.getUsageOptions().getProgramName() + "':");
                System.out.println(formatInfo(info));
            }
                    
            if (server != null) {
                server.disconnect();
            }
        }
    }
} catch (RequestException rexc) {
    System.err.println(rexc.getDisplayString());
    rexc.printStackTrace();
} catch (P4JavaException exc) {
    System.err.println(exc.getLocalizedMessage());
    exc.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException ioexc) {
    System.err.println(ioexc.getLocalizedMessage());
    ioexc.printStackTrace();
} catch (URISyntaxException e) {
    System.err.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());
    e.printStackTrace();
}

Multiple IOptionsServer objects can represent the same physical P4 Server, and this approach is recommended for heavyweight usage and for multi-threaded applications.

The Java properties parameter passed to the factory in the first example is null, but you can pass in a variety of generic and implementation-specific values as described in Character Set Support.

P4 Server client workspaces are represented by the com.perforce.p4java.client.IClient interface, which can be used to issue P4 Server client workspace-related commands such as sync commands, file add /delete / edit commands, and so on. A IClient interface is typically obtained from an IOptionsServer interface using the getClient() method, and is associated with the IOptionsServer using the setCurrentClient() method as illustrated below:

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IOptionsServer server = null;
try {        
    server = getOptionsServer(null, null);
            
    server.setUserName(userName);
    server.login(password);

    IClient client = server.getClient(clientName);
    if (client != null) {
        server.setCurrentClient(client);
        // use the client in whatever way needed...
     }
   } catch (Exception exc) {
     // handle errors...
   }

The use of the setUserName and login methods on the server to establish the current user and log them in, respectively.
Unlike the p4 command line client, there are no defaults for user and workspace. Your application must explicitly associate a workspace (an IClient client object) and user with the server using the IOptionsServer.getClient and IOptionsServer.setCurrentClient methods.