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Core interfaces and utilities for Blueprints
There is a newer version: 2.6.0
package com.tinkerpop.blueprints;

/**
 * A Graph is a container object for a collection of vertices and a collection edges.
 *
 * @author Marko A. Rodriguez (http://markorodriguez.com)
 */
public interface Graph {

    /**
     * Get the particular features of the graph implementation.
     * Not all graph implementations are identical nor perfectly implement the Blueprints API.
     * The Features object returned contains meta-data about numerous potential divergences between implementations.
     *
     * @return the features of this particular Graph implementation
     */
    public Features getFeatures();

    /**
     * Create a new vertex, add it to the graph, and return the newly created vertex.
     * The provided object identifier is a recommendation for the identifier to use.
     * It is not required that the implementation use this identifier.
     *
     * @param id the recommended object identifier
     * @return the newly created vertex
     */
    public Vertex addVertex(Object id);

    /**
     * Return the vertex referenced by the provided object identifier.
     * If no vertex is referenced by that identifier, then return null.
     *
     * @param id the identifier of the vertex to retrieved from the graph
     * @return the vertex referenced by the provided identifier or null when no such vertex exists
     */
    public Vertex getVertex(Object id);

    /**
     * Remove the provided vertex from the graph.
     * Upon removing the vertex, all the edges by which the vertex is connected must be removed as well.
     *
     * @param vertex the vertex to remove from the graph
     */
    public void removeVertex(Vertex vertex);

    /**
     * Return an iterable to all the vertices in the graph.
     * If this is not possible for the implementation, then an UnsupportedOperationException can be thrown.
     *
     * @return an iterable reference to all vertices in the graph
     */
    public Iterable getVertices();

    /**
     * Return an iterable to all the vertices in the graph that have a particular key/value property.
     * If this is not possible for the implementation, then an UnsupportedOperationException can be thrown.
     * The graph implementation should use indexing structures to make this efficient else a full vertex-filter scan is required.
     *
     * @param key   the key of vertex
     * @param value the value of the vertex
     * @return an iterable of vertices with provided key and value
     */
    public Iterable getVertices(String key, Object value);

    /**
     * Add an edge to the graph. The added edges requires a recommended identifier, a tail vertex, an head vertex, and a label.
     * Like adding a vertex, the provided object identifier may be ignored by the implementation.
     *
     * @param id        the recommended object identifier
     * @param outVertex the vertex on the tail of the edge
     * @param inVertex  the vertex on the head of the edge
     * @param label     the label associated with the edge
     * @return the newly created edge
     */
    public Edge addEdge(Object id, Vertex outVertex, Vertex inVertex, String label);

    /**
     * Return the edge referenced by the provided object identifier.
     * If no edge is referenced by that identifier, then return null.
     *
     * @param id the identifier of the edge to retrieved from the graph
     * @return the edge referenced by the provided identifier or null when no such edge exists
     */
    public Edge getEdge(Object id);

    /**
     * Remove the provided edge from the graph.
     *
     * @param edge the edge to remove from the graph
     */
    public void removeEdge(Edge edge);

    /**
     * Return an iterable to all the edges in the graph.
     * If this is not possible for the implementation, then an UnsupportedOperationException can be thrown.
     *
     * @return an iterable reference to all edges in the graph
     */
    public Iterable getEdges();

    /**
     * Return an iterable to all the edges in the graph that have a particular key/value property.
     * If this is not possible for the implementation, then an UnsupportedOperationException can be thrown.
     * The graph implementation should use indexing structures to make this efficient else a full edge-filter scan is required.
     *
     * @param key   the key of the edge
     * @param value the value of the edge
     * @return an iterable of edges with provided key and value
     */
    public Iterable getEdges(String key, Object value);

    /**
     * A shutdown function is required to properly close the graph.
     * This is important for implementations that utilize disk-based serializations.
     */
    public void shutdown();

}