org.eobjects.analyzer.beans.api.Converter Maven / Gradle / Ivy
/**
* eobjects.org AnalyzerBeans
* Copyright (C) 2010 eobjects.org
*
* This copyrighted material is made available to anyone wishing to use, modify,
* copy, or redistribute it subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU
* Lesser General Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
*
* 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.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
* along with this distribution; if not, write to:
* Free Software Foundation, Inc.
* 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
* Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
*/
package org.eobjects.analyzer.beans.api;
/**
* Interface for converting objects from and to strings. Used to serialize
* configured properties to external representations.
*
* Converters should supply a no-args constructor.
*
* Usually Converters are registered on a class or a configured property using
* the {@link Convertable} annotation.
*
* @param
*/
public interface Converter {
/**
* Converts a string back to a Java object.
*
* @param type
* the specific type of object required. This will typically be
* the "E" type, but since E can be a supertype, you can use this
* type parameter to inspect subtypes.
* @param serializedForm
* @return
*/
public E fromString(Class type, String serializedForm);
/**
* Converts a Java object into a string.
*
* @param instance
* @return
*/
public String toString(E instance);
/**
* Determines if this converter is able to convert the particular type.
*
* @param type
* @return
*/
public boolean isConvertable(Class type);
}