Introduction

The Jadex agent framework supports the definition and management of agent applications composed of different agents and additional components. Agent applications can be defined in an XML-based specification file (*.application.xml). Agent instances can also be started within an already running application and also access other agents or components of this so called application context. Inside the platform, applications can be managed (i.e. started and stopped) as a whole. The application definition is intentionally agent type agnostic, meaning that it is possible to describe agent applications composed of different agent kinds (e.g. bdi and micro agents). This also means that no details about agents are specified within an application descriptor.

The application features have been introduced in Jadex 2.0. It is still supported to develop agents, which are not associated to a specific application. The agent application features described in this guide are thus optional and it is not required to use them for developing your own applications. Nevertheless, most agent applications composed of more than a single agent will profit from these features and it is highly recommended to take the little bit of extra effort for writing an application descriptor in favor of a better and simpler application design.