Candidate (Hekate 4.0.0)

```
public interface Candidate
```
Leader election candidate.
Implementations of this interface can be registered within the ElectionService in order to participate in the leader election process. If this candidate wins then its becomeLeader(LeaderContext) method will be called. If some other candidate wins then this candidate will be notified via becomeFollower(FollowerContext) method. If later on the existing leader leaves the cluster or yeilds leadship then this candidate will try again to become a new leader. If it finally succeeds then becomeLeader(LeaderContext) method will be called.

For more details about the leader election process please see the documentation of ElectionService interface.

See Also:

ElectionServiceFactory.withCandidate(CandidateConfig)

Method Summary

All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`void`	`becomeFollower(FollowerContext ctx)`	Gets called when this candidate couldn't win elections and switched to the follower state.
`void`	`becomeLeader(LeaderContext ctx)`	Gets called when this candidate becomes a group leader.
`void`	`terminate()`	Gets called when candidate must be terminated because of the `ElectionService` being stopped.

- Method Detail
  - becomeLeader
```
void becomeLeader(LeaderContext ctx)
```
    Gets called when this candidate becomes a group leader.
    IMPORTANT: Implementations of this method should not block the calling thread for a long time and should execute all long running computations asynchronously.
    
    Parameters:
    
    ctx - Leader context.
  - becomeFollower
```
void becomeFollower(FollowerContext ctx)
```
    Gets called when this candidate couldn't win elections and switched to the follower state. Information about the current leader can be obtained via FollowerContext.leader().
    IMPORTANT: Implementations of this method should not block the calling thread for a long time and should execute all long running computations asynchronously.
    
    Parameters:
    
    ctx - Follower context.
  - terminate
```
void terminate()
```
    Gets called when candidate must be terminated because of the ElectionService being stopped.
    Note that this method will NOT be called if this candidate never reached any of the Leader/Follower state (i.e. if becomeLeader(LeaderContext) or becomeFollower(FollowerContext) were never called).