org.metawidget.inspector.iface.DomInspector Maven / Gradle / Ivy
// Metawidget (licensed under LGPL)
//
// 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.iface;
/**
* Inspects the given Object and type and returns the result as a DOM Element.
*
* DomInspector is an optional interface that enables an optimization. Like
* most optimizations it unfortunately adds some complexity. The basic idea is that, whilst XML is a
* great lowest-common-denominator for the Inspector interface (perfect for passing
* between disparate technologies and tiers in order to allow maximum flexibility in what can be
* inspected) serializing to and from XML strings is expensive.
*
* Most Inspectors maintain their inspection results internally in a DOM. This interface allows them
* to expose that DOM directly, rather than serializing it to a String, whereupon either the
* Metawidget or a CompositeInspector must typically deserialize it back again.
*
* If your Inspector extends BaseObjectInspector or
* BaseXmlInspector, this optimization is implemented for you.
*
* @author Richard Kennard
*/
public interface DomInspector
extends Inspector {
//
// Methods
//
/**
* Optimized verison of inspect that avoids DOM serialization/deserialization.
*/
E inspectAsDom( Object toInspect, String type, String... names );
}