newb: Custom components question

Hi All,

Just stumbled across loadUi and am trying to explore the product - see if I can use it in our setting. So, I'm not sure whether this is covered
elsewhere or is already provided...

Is is possible to have a runner/component that maintains state about a 'context' or session and track it during the test?
Are there any runners/components that speak protocols other than HTTP/JDBC/Script/Process ? If not, what's the way to write one up?
And in the process (of writing such component) what are the things that need to be considered to implement a component that
maintains context/session?

Cheers,

Bonny