jcckit.util.ConfigData Maven / Gradle / Ivy
/*
* Copyright 2003-2004, Franz-Josef Elmer, All rights reserved
*
* This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
* the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
* (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU Lesser General Public License for more details
* (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html).
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
* along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
*/
package jcckit.util;
/**
* Interface for hierarchically managed key-value pairs. The key is
* always a string which contains any kind of printable character except
* '/', '=', ':', and whitespace characters like ' ' and '\\t'.
* The value is either a string or a ConfigData object.
*
* This interface will be used by {@link ConfigParameters} in accordance
* with the Strategy design pattern.
*
* @author Franz-Josef Elmer
*/
public interface ConfigData {
/**
* Returns the full key.
* @param key A (relative) key. null is not allowed.
* @return the full key including path.
*/
public String getFullKey(String key);
/**
* Returns the value associated with this key.
* @param key The relative key. null is not allowed.
* @return the associated value. Will be null if no value exists
* for key.
*/
public String get(String key);
/**
* Returns the ConfigData object associated with this key.
* @param key The relative key. null is not allowed.
* @return the associated value. Will never return null.
* Instead an empty ConfigData is returned.
*/
public ConfigData getNode(String key);
}