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/*
 * Based on JUEL 2.2.1 code, 2006-2009 Odysseus Software GmbH
 *
 * 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.activiti.engine.impl.javax.el;

/**
 * An Expression that can get or set a value. In previous incarnations of this API, expressions could only be read. ValueExpression objects can now be used both to retrieve a value and to set a value.
 * Expressions that can have a value set on them are referred to as l-value expressions. Those that cannot are referred to as r-value expressions. Not all r-value expressions can be used as l-value
 * expressions (e.g. "${1+1}" or "${firstName} ${lastName}"). See the EL Specification for details. Expressions that cannot be used as l-values must always return true from isReadOnly(). The
 * {@link ExpressionFactory#createValueExpression(ELContext, String, Class)} method can be used to parse an expression string and return a concrete instance of ValueExpression that encapsulates the
 * parsed expression. The {@link FunctionMapper} is used at parse time, not evaluation time, so one is not needed to evaluate an expression using this class. However, the {@link ELContext} is needed
 * at evaluation time. The {@link #getValue(ELContext)}, {@link #setValue(ELContext, Object)}, {@link #isReadOnly(ELContext)} and {@link #getType(ELContext)} methods will evaluate the expression each
 * time they are called. The {@link ELResolver} in the ELContext is used to resolve the top-level variables and to determine the behavior of the . and [] operators. For any of the four methods, the
 * {@link ELResolver#getValue(ELContext, Object, Object)} method is used to resolve all properties up to but excluding the last one. This provides the base object. At the last resolution, the
 * ValueExpression will call the corresponding {@link ELResolver#getValue(ELContext, Object, Object)}, {@link ELResolver#setValue(ELContext, Object, Object, Object)},
 * {@link ELResolver#isReadOnly(ELContext, Object, Object)} or {@link ELResolver#getType(ELContext, Object, Object)} method, depending on which was called on the ValueExpression. See the notes about
 * comparison, serialization and immutability in the {@link Expression} javadocs.
 * 
 * @see ELResolver
 * @see Expression
 * @see ExpressionFactory
 */
public abstract class ValueExpression extends Expression {
  private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

  /**
   * Returns the type the result of the expression will be coerced to after evaluation.
   * 
   * @return the expectedType passed to the ExpressionFactory.createValueExpression method that created this ValueExpression.
   */
  public abstract Class getExpectedType();

  /**
   * Evaluates the expression relative to the provided context, and returns the most general type that is acceptable for an object to be passed as the value parameter in a future call to the
   * {@link #setValue(ELContext, Object)} method. This is not always the same as getValue().getClass(). For example, in the case of an expression that references an array element, the getType method
   * will return the element type of the array, which might be a superclass of the type of the actual element that is currently in the specified array element.
   * 
   * @param context
   *          The context of this evaluation.
   * @return the most general acceptable type; otherwise undefined.
   * @throws NullPointerException
   *           if context is null.
   * @throws PropertyNotFoundException
   *           if one of the property resolutions failed because a specified variable or property does not exist or is not readable.
   * @throws ELException
   *           if an exception was thrown while performing property or variable resolution. The thrown exception must be included as the cause property of this exception, if available.
   */
  public abstract Class getType(ELContext context);

  /**
   * Evaluates the expression relative to the provided context, and returns the resulting value. The resulting value is automatically coerced to the type returned by getExpectedType(), which was
   * provided to the ExpressionFactory when this expression was created.
   * 
   * @param context
   *          The context of this evaluation.
   * @return The result of the expression evaluation.
   * @throws NullPointerException
   *           if context is null.
   * @throws PropertyNotFoundException
   *           if one of the property resolutions failed because a specified variable or property does not exist or is not readable.
   * @throws ELException
   *           if an exception was thrown while performing property or variable resolution. The thrown exception must be included as the cause property of this exception, if available.
   */
  public abstract Object getValue(ELContext context);

  /**
   * Evaluates the expression relative to the provided context, and returns true if a call to {@link #setValue(ELContext, Object)} will always fail.
   * 
   * @param context
   *          The context of this evaluation.
   * @return true if the expression is read-only or false if not.
   * @throws NullPointerException
   *           if context is null.
   * @throws PropertyNotFoundException
   *           if one of the property resolutions failed because a specified variable or property does not exist or is not readable.
   * @throws ELException
   *           if an exception was thrown while performing property or variable resolution. The thrown exception must be included as the cause property of this exception, if available.
   */
  public abstract boolean isReadOnly(ELContext context);

  /**
   * Evaluates the expression relative to the provided context, and sets the result to the provided value.
   * 
   * @param context
   *          The context of this evaluation.
   * @param value
   *          The new value to be set.
   * @throws NullPointerException
   *           if context is null.
   * @throws PropertyNotFoundException
   *           if one of the property resolutions failed because a specified variable or property does not exist or is not readable.
   * @throws PropertyNotWritableException
   *           if the final variable or property resolution failed because the specified variable or property is not writable.
   * @throws ELException
   *           if an exception was thrown while attempting to set the property or variable. The thrown exception must be included as the cause property of this exception, if available.
   */
  public abstract void setValue(ELContext context, Object value);

  /**
   * Returns a {@link ValueReference} for this expression instance.
   * 
   * @param context
   *          the context of this evaluation
   * @return the ValueReference for this ValueExpression, or null if this ValueExpression is not a reference to a base (null or non-null) and a
   *         property. If the base is null, and the property is a EL variable, return the ValueReference for the ValueExpression associated with this EL variable.
   * 
   * @since 2.2
   */
  public ValueReference getValueReference(ELContext context) {
    return null;
  }
}




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