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Cayenne Object Persistence Framework
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 *  or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
 *  distributed with this work for additional information
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 *  to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
 *  "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
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package org.apache.cayenne.property;

import java.util.Iterator;

/**
 * Provides access to a set of persistent properties of a Java Bean and methods for
 * manipulating such bean.
 * 
 * @since 1.2
 * @author Andrus Adamchik
 */
public interface ClassDescriptor {

    /**
     * Returns a bean class mapped by this descriptor.
     */
    Class getObjectClass();

    /**
     * Returns a descriptor of the mapped superclass or null if the descriptor's entity
     * sits at the top of inheritance hierarchy or no inheritance is mapped.
     */
    ClassDescriptor getSuperclassDescriptor();

    /**
     * Returns the most "specialized" descriptor for a given class. This method assumes
     * that the following is true:
     * 
     *      * this.getObjectClass().isAssignableFrom(objectClass)
     * 
     */
    ClassDescriptor getSubclassDescriptor(Class objectClass);

    /**
     * Creates a new instance of a class described by this object.
     */
    Object createObject();

    /**
     * Prepares object properties for access. This may include injection of value holders
     * into the object and such.
     */
    void injectValueHolders(Object object) throws PropertyAccessException;

    /**
     * Merges object properties from one object to another, avoiding traversal of the
     * ArcProperties.
     */
    void shallowMerge(Object from, Object to) throws PropertyAccessException;

    /**
     * Returns a Java Bean property descriptor matching property name or null if no such
     * property is found. Lookup includes properties from this descriptor and all its
     * superclass decsriptors. Returned property maybe any one of simple, value holder or
     * collection properties.
     */
    Property getProperty(String propertyName);

    /**
     * Returns a Java Bean property descriptor matching property name or null if no such
     * property is found. Lookup DOES NOT including properties from the superclass
     * decsriptors. Returned property maybe any one of simple, value holder or collection
     * properties.
     */
    Property getDeclaredProperty(String propertyName);

    /**
     * Returns an Iterator over descriptor properties.
     */
    Iterator getProperties();

    /**
     * Passes the visitor to all properties "visit" method, terminating properties walk
     * through in case one of the properties returns false. Returns true if all visited
     * properties returned true, false - if one property returned false.
     */
    boolean visitProperties(PropertyVisitor visitor);

    /**
     * Returns true if an object is not fully resolved.
     */
    boolean isFault(Object object);
}