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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;

/**
 * Represents an authority granted to an {@link Authentication} object.
 * 
 * 
 * A GrantedAuthority must either represent itself as a
 * String or be specifically supported by an  {@link
 * AccessDecisionManager}.
 * 
 *
 * @author Ben Alex
 * @version $Id: GrantedAuthority.java 1680 2006-09-15 08:38:11Z benalex $
 */
public interface GrantedAuthority extends Serializable {
    //~ Methods ========================================================================================================

    /**
     * If the GrantedAuthority can be represented as a String and that
     * String is sufficient in precision to be relied upon for an access control decision by an {@link
     * AccessDecisionManager} (or delegate), this method should return such a String.If the
     * GrantedAuthority cannot be expressed with sufficient precision as a String,
     * null should be returned. Returning null will require an
     * AccessDecisionManager (or delegate) to  specifically support the GrantedAuthority
     * implementation,  so returning null should be avoided unless actually  required.
     *
     * @return a representation of the granted authority (or null if the granted authority cannot be
     *         expressed as a String with sufficient precision).
     */
    public String getAuthority();
}