Appendix C. Add-Ons

Several extensions are available for Jadex from the Jadex add-ons page. These are shortly presented in the following.

C.1. Expression Compiler

In the normal version Jadex utilizes a Java expression interpreter. The expression compiler is based on Janino and allows to compile Java expressions on demand at runtime. The expression compiler can be used to further improve the performance of agents significantly. In addition to the faster evaluation of expressions the Jadex expression compiler add-on also provides the possibility to define inline plan bodies. This means that a whole agent can be programmed in one XML file without any additional plan classes. The add-on includes also a precompiler tool that allows to generate precompiled expression files for ADFs that are stored on disk. Using the tool avoids the need for runtime compilations of expressions that would delay the first agent execution otherwise.

C.2. Webbridge

It can be used to seamlessly integrate Jadex agents with Java Server Pages (JSPs) and servlets. Using the Webbridge tool it is possible to design agent-based applications that can be used from a web interface. Web-requests are forwarded to the Jadex system and can be processed by the agents as normal message events. The result for a web-request will be returned to the web layer. If the result is a complete web page it will be displayed directly. On the other hand a result object can be postprocessed by some designated JSP for producing the final html page.

C.3. Planner

For certain problem domains reactive planning is not the best achievable soluation. Instead planning from first principles should be used. Jadex is available in an extended version with an integrated high-speed state-of-the-art planner.

C.4. Diet adapter (experimental)

Besides the JADE and Standalone adapter an experimental adapter for the Diet platform has been developed. It shows the applicability of Jadex even running on fundamentally different middleware platforms. The adapter is still experimental as it has not reached a level of maturity yet and also does not explore the full potential of the Diet platform. Nonetheless, we could achieve that all examples bundled with the normal Jadex release are executable under every adapter including Diet without changes.