Creating a network component: a sample

The network component to be created is shown in the following figure.

A Styled Network

This example describes the steps for creating a frame as a network container, creating an instance of IlpNetwork, creating a data source and connecting it to the network, and finally reading in the network data.

How to create a basic network component

Create a frame to contain the network.

// Create a frame.
JFrame frame = new JFrame("JTGO network sample");
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

Create the network component.
```
IlpNetwork network = new IlpNetwork(networkDescriptionFileName,context);
frame.add(network);
```
You need to create a new instance of a network and make sure that the appropriate configuration is assigned. The network configuration is normally read in from a CSS file. You ensure that the network configuration file is taken into account and parsed by passing the URL and context or, as in the example, by passing the filename and context as arguments of IlpNetwork . You then add the network component to the frame.

For more information on how to create the network configuration, see Configuring a network component through a CSS file
Create the data source and connect it to the network component.
```
// Connect the data source to the network component.
IltDefaultDataSource dataSource = new IltDefaultDataSource(context);
network.setDataSource(dataSource);
```
The data source holds the business objects that will be converted into representation objects by the network adapter through the data source API.
Read in an XML file, network.xml , that contains the network nodes and links.
```
dataSource.parse("network.xml");
```
The default data source creates the business objects by parsing an XML file or stream where the objects are described, as shown.

You can create your own data sources from a file or database, or even create complex data sources based on proprietary object definitions.

How to add business objects to the data source for a network component through an XML file

The easiest way to populate a network is to read an XML data file into its data source.

The business object IDs must be unique within the given network.

The following XML code shows how to add a link.

<addObject id="1004035002697 60">
  <class>
    ilog.tgo.model.IltLink
  </class>
      ...
</addObject>

For information on how to define an XML file, refer to Defining the business model in XML .

How to add business objects to the data source for a network component through the API

You can create business objects and insert them in the data source through the API, although this process is slower and less dynamic than reading an XML file. The following example shows how to insert an JViews TGO network element identified by its name, type and status into the data source as a node business object identified as node1 .

// Put some objects into the data source.
IlpObject node1 =
    new IltNetworkElement("washington",IltNetworkElement.Type.NE,
                          new IltObjectState());
dataSource.addObject(node1);

Current section

Network component