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/* Copyright 2004, 2005, 2006 Acegi Technology Pty Limited
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package org.acegisecurity;

import java.io.Serializable;


/**
 * Stores a security system related configuration attribute.
 * 
 * 
 * When an {@link org.acegisecurity.intercept.AbstractSecurityInterceptor}
 * is setup, a list of configuration attributes is defined for secure object
 * patterns. These configuration attributes have special meaning to a {@link
 * RunAsManager}, {@link AccessDecisionManager} or
 * AccessDecisionManager delegate.
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * Stored at runtime with other ConfigAttributes for the same
 * secure object target within a {@link ConfigAttributeDefinition}.
 * 
 *
 * @author Ben Alex
 * @version $Id: ConfigAttribute.java 1496 2006-05-23 13:38:33Z benalex $
 */
public interface ConfigAttribute extends Serializable {
    //~ Methods ========================================================================================================

    /**
     * If the ConfigAttribute can be represented as a String and that
     * String is sufficient in precision to be relied upon as a configuration parameter by a {@link
     * RunAsManager}, {@link AccessDecisionManager} or AccessDecisionManager delegate, this method should
     * return such a String.If the ConfigAttribute cannot be expressed with
     * sufficient precision as a String,  null should be returned. Returning
     * null will require any relying classes to specifically support the  ConfigAttribute
     * implementation, so returning  null should be avoided unless actually  required.
     *
     * @return a representation of the configuration attribute (or null if the configuration attribute
     *         cannot be expressed as a String with sufficient precision).
     */
    public String getAttribute();
}