org.metawidget.inspector.impl.propertystyle.PropertyStyle Maven / Gradle / Ivy
// Metawidget
//
// This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
// modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
// License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
// version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
//
// This library 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 library; if not, write to the Free Software
// Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
package org.metawidget.inspector.impl.propertystyle;
import java.util.Map;
import org.metawidget.iface.Immutable;
/**
* Abstraction layer for retrieving properties from types.
*
* Different environments have different approaches to defining what constitutes a 'property'. For
* example, JavaBean-properties are convention-based, whereas Groovy has explicit property support.
* Equally, some environments may have framework-specific, base class properties that should be
* filtered out and excluded from the list of 'real' business model properties (eg. Struts
* ActionForms). Finally, some environments may define properties against something
* other than a java.lang.Class (eg. javassist.CtClass or
* org.jboss.forge.parser.java.JavaClass).
*
* PropertyStyles must be immutable (or, at least, appear that way to clients. They can
* have caches or configuration settings internally, as long as they are threadsafe).
*
* @author Richard Kennard
*/
public interface PropertyStyle
extends Immutable {
//
// Methods
//
/**
* Gets the Properties for the given type.
*
* Properties must be returned using a consistent ordering, so that both unit tests and
* CompositeInspector merging is consistent. If the underlying technology does not
* define an ordering, one must be imposed (eg. sorted alphabetically by name), even though this
* may later be overridden by other mechanisms (eg.
* ComesAfterInspectionResultProcessor sorts by comes-after).
*
* @return the properties for the given type. Never null.
*/
Map getProperties( String type );
/**
* Traverses the given Object heirarchy using properties of the given names.
*
* @return the Object (may be null) and its declared type (not actual type). Never null.
* If the declared type within the ValueAndDeclaredType is null, inspection will be
* aborted
*/
ValueAndDeclaredType traverse( Object toTraverse, String type, boolean onlyToParent, String... names );
}