The LLP client and server components described in these sections are included for legacy backward compatibility only. They are not supported for new application development. If you are developing a new application, use Iguana as the transport mechanism for sending messages over LLP, and use the Iguana plugin API to define an interface between your application and the Iguana server. For more details on using plugins in Iguana, see Working With Plugins. For reasons why you should use Iguana instead of Chameleon for your LLP solution, see Why Choose Iguana Over Chameleon?.

Communication between a client and a server over TCP/IP is considered asynchronous because it occurs at irregular intervals. A listening server, for example, has no way of determining when to expect incoming data from a connected client. Conversely, the connected client should be able to send data to a listening server and execute other operations without having to wait for a response back.

Like the underlying TCP/IP protocol, the LLP components supplied with Chameleon work asynchronously, delivering events that your application has to respond to. The concept of an event-driven, asynchronous API may be familiar to developers who have experience working with Graphical User Interface (GUI) libraries - these generally work in the same manner (e.g. you never know when a user is going to click a button or select a menu item). Whenever a networking event occurs, a callback is fired into the application code to inform it. For example, if a message is received over the network, a callback like onMessageReceived(String Message) might be delivered.