001/*
002 * Copyright 2006 - 2013
003 *     Stefan Balev     <stefan.balev@graphstream-project.org>
004 *     Julien Baudry    <julien.baudry@graphstream-project.org>
005 *     Antoine Dutot    <antoine.dutot@graphstream-project.org>
006 *     Yoann Pigné      <yoann.pigne@graphstream-project.org>
007 *     Guilhelm Savin   <guilhelm.savin@graphstream-project.org>
008 * 
009 * This file is part of GraphStream <http://graphstream-project.org>.
010 * 
011 * GraphStream is a library whose purpose is to handle static or dynamic
012 * graph, create them from scratch, file or any source and display them.
013 * 
014 * This program is free software distributed under the terms of two licenses, the
015 * CeCILL-C license that fits European law, and the GNU Lesser General Public
016 * License. You can  use, modify and/ or redistribute the software under the terms
017 * of the CeCILL-C license as circulated by CEA, CNRS and INRIA at the following
018 * URL <http://www.cecill.info> or under the terms of the GNU LGPL as published by
019 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your
020 * option) any later version.
021 * 
022 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
023 * WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
024 * PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
025 * 
026 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
027 * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
028 * 
029 * The fact that you are presently reading this means that you have had
030 * knowledge of the CeCILL-C and LGPL licenses and that you accept their terms.
031 */
032package org.graphstream.stream;
033
034/**
035 * Sink of graph events.
036 * 
037 * <p>
038 * An output is something that can receive graph events. The output will send or
039 * transform the graph events in another form: a file, a network stream, a
040 * visualization, an algorithm, a metric, etc.
041 * </p>
042 * 
043 * <p>
044 * The output can filter the stream of attribute events using
045 * {@link AttributePredicate}s.
046 * </p>
047 * 
048 * 
049 * <p>
050 * This listener is in fact the grouping of two specialized listeners. The first
051 * one listens only at structural changes in the graph (node and edge addition
052 * and removal). It is the {@link org.graphstream.stream.ElementSink}. The
053 * second one listens only at attributes values changes on elements of the graph
054 * (attribute addition, removal and change of values). It is the
055 * {@link org.graphstream.stream.AttributeSink}.
056 * </p>
057 * 
058 * <p>
059 * It is possible to listen only at elements or attributes changes with these
060 * two interfaces. Registering a graph listener will allow to listen at the both
061 * elements and attributes at the same time.
062 * </p>
063 * 
064 * @see Source
065 * @see Pipe
066 * @see AttributeSink
067 * @see ElementSink
068 */
069public interface Sink extends AttributeSink, ElementSink {
070}