Note: The Agency Manager is part of the AgentBuilder Pro and AgentBuilder Enterprise products. The Agency Manager is not provided with the AgentBuilder Lite product. If you are an AgentBuilder Lite user and want to use the tools that are provided with the Agency Manager please contact Reticular Systems, Inc. for an upgrade to AgentBuilder Pro or AgentBuilder Enterprise.
The Agency Viewer allows you to view and run agencies. Using the Agency Manager, you can quickly view an agency's properties, agents, protocols and JVM groups. There are two main tools in the Agency Manager that help you create agents that communicate, cooperate, and negotiate with each other: the Agency Viewer and the Role Editor. Figure 25 shows the Agency Manager panel.
Figure 25. Agency Manager
The File menu allows you to open other agencies, save an agency, create new agents, import protocols, update protocols, create JVM groups, and assign agents to JVM groups. The File menu also allows you to exit AgentBuilder. The Edit menu allows you to cut, copy, paste, and delete certain properties from the agency. The Agency Properties dialog can also be displayed using the Edit menu. The Options menu allows you to modify the display options for the Agency Manager. The Tools menu gives you access to the other agent tools. The Windows menu lets you switch between other AgentBuilder tool windows that are open. The Help menu gives you access to the AgentBuilder help system.
You can quickly view an agency's properties, agents, protocols, and JVM groups by using the Agency Manager's tabbed pane. The Properties tab displays the agency's name, description, ontologies, location, start time, vendor, and author. The Agents tab provides a list of agents that belong to the agency. The agent's properties can be displayed in the description area by selecting an agent. The Protocols tab provides a list of protocols that belong to the agency. The protocols name, description and ontologies are displayed when a protocol is selected. The JVM tab provides a list of JVM groups in which agents are assigned. The list of agents assigned to a JVM group is displayed when selecting a JVM group.
You can also modify the placement of the tabs. The Options menu contains the Tab Placement menu. The Tab Placement menu allows you to set tab placement at the top, bottom, right, or left side of the main window.
You can delete items in the list by using the Edit menu's Delete function. The Delete function will delete the selected list item after user confirmation.
List items can also be cut, copied, and pasted within the same agency and between different agencies. To do this, first select a list item from one of the tabbed panes. Then select Cut or Copy from the Edit menu. Before pasting the item in the clipboard, you must decide if you also want the clipboard item to be pasted into another agency. The tool automatically ensures that the list items are only inserted to the appropriate lists. For example, agents can only be pasted into agent lists. When you are ready to paste the clipboard item, select the Paste menu item from the Edit menu. If the paste is allowed, the clipboard item will be added to the list in the tabbed pane. List items that belong to the Protocols tab cannot be copied or pasted into protocol lists.
To open an existing agency, select File < Open... menu item from the Agency Manager menu bar. The Open Agency dialog (Figure 26) will be displayed with a list of agencies that exist for the current repository being used. To select an agency from the list, you can either double-click on the agency, or select an agency from the list and click on the OK button. Clicking on the Cancel button will cancel opening the agency.
Figure 26. Open Agency Dialog
If the agency has been modified in any way, you must save the current agency information in order to make the changes permanent. Changes that require saving include modifying the agency's properties in the Agency Properties dialog and adding or deleting list items from any of the tabbed panes. To save the current agency, you select the File < Save menu item from the Agency Manager menu bar.
To create a new Agent using the Agency Manager, you need to select the New Agent... menu item from the File menu. The Agent Properties dialog will be displayed as shown in Figure 27. This dialog will allow you to enter the new agent's name, description, author, company, icon file, engine cycle time, agencies, ontologies, and communications properties. The creation date is set automatically, and is therefore a read-only text field (See Creating a New Agent for more information on creating new agents).
Figure 27. Agent Properties Dialog
In order to import an existing protocol, you will need to select File < Import Protocols... menu item from the Agency Manager menu bar. The Import Protocol dialog will be displayed with a list of protocols that exist for the current repository being used. To select a protocol from the list, you can either double-click on the protocol, or select a protocol from the list and click on the OK button. Clicking on the Cancel button will cancel the Import Protocol dialog operation.
To update the protocols in the agency, you need to select the Update Protocols menu item from the File menu. This will bring up the Update Protocols Dialog , see Figure 28. You will see a list of protocols defined in the current agency. You will need to select the protocols that you need to update. The Select All button will select all protocols listed in the protocols pane. Once you have selected the protocols to update, you must click on the OK button to update the protocols.
Figure 28. Update Protocols Dialog
A JVM group is a set of agents from the agency that will run inside the same Java Virtual Machine (JVM). You can start the group of agents from the AgencyViewer or from the Project Manager. If an agent doesn't belong to a JVM group, it will run in it's own JVM. To create a JVM group, select File < Create JVM... menu item from the Agency Manager . The Create JVM Dialog ( Figure 29) will prompt you for a name for the JVM group. Once you have entered the name and click on OK button, the new JVM group will get added to the JVM list. The following section explains how to add agents to your new JVM group.
Figure 29. Creating a JVM Group
In order to assign agents to a JVM group, you need to select File < Assign JVM... menu item from the Agency Manager. This will bring up the Assign Agents Dialog , see Figure 30. You will see a list of available agents in the Available Agents panel. Before you add agents to a group, you need to select a JVM group from the drop down list in the Selected Agents panel. You can add a single agent by selecting the desired agent and clicking on the add button, or you can add all the agents to the group by clicking on the Add All button.
Figure 30. Assigning Agents to a JVM Group
If the Available Agents panel contains no agents, that means that all agents already belong to a group, or the agency contains no agents. If the first case is true, you can remove an agent from a JVM group and add it to another JVM group. You can do this by selecting the JVM group the agent belongs to and clicking on the Remove button from the Selected Agents panel. This will remove the agent from the JVM group and add it to the Available Agents panel. You can then add the agent to the desired group using the method described above.
The agency's properties get displayed in the description area when you click on the Properties tab in the tabbed pane. To modify any information from the agency properties, you must select the Edit < Properties... menu item from the Agency Manager menu bar. This action will display the Agency Properties dialog, where you can make your changes. The Properties tab must be selected in order to display the Agency Properties dialog. In order to apply your new changes, click on the OK button. The Cancel button will cause the system to ignore any changes that were made. Figure 31 shows the Agency Properties dialog.
Figure 31. Agency Properties Dialog
The Windows menu is a dynamic menu that contains a list of all AgentBuilder tools that are open. This menu facilitates switching between the tools when multiple tool windows are open. To switch to the desired tool, select the tool from the Windows menu. The selected tool will then be brought to the front on your display.
The help system can be accessed using the Help menu item. The About menu item allows you to read help information for the current tool. The Index menu item will display an index of the help system's contents. The Tutorial menu item will display a Quick Tour of the AgentBuilder Toolkit. The About AgentBuilder menu item will display the AgentBuilder logo along with the version number and copyright information. The AgentBuilder Home Page menu item will display the home page for the AgentBuilder product.