Netlet facets

Facets do not only come from services. Netlets can offer facets directly, too. These are called netlet facets.

Only nodes (and the privileged external netlet) can access netlet facets. A netlet facet is an interface onto some part of the netlet which only the node and its external netlet can access. See Figure .

Figure: A netlet offers a netlet facet to the node, to allow some more specialised form of communication. A session is created.

 

An example of a netlet facet is the one called ITextStatusFacet. This is a facet which Nodality uses to get status messages from the netlet. When a netlet is bound to a Nodality node it checks to see if ITextStatusFacet is there, and if so binds to it. Then whenever the netlet sets the status string it can be picked up by Nodality which can then display it. ITextStatusFacet is a convenient way for the netlet to communicate with the outside world and is a good example of a netlet facet.