org.refcodes.component.HandleLookup Maven / Gradle / Ivy

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package org.refcodes.component;

/**
 * Any system in this framework being able to work with handles provides an
 * implementation of the handle lookup interface. This enables a unified access
 * to the system wide handles.
 *
 * @param  The type of the handles.
 * @param  The type of the objects to which the handles reference to.
 */
public interface HandleLookup {

	/**
	 * Used to test if the given handle is known by an implementing system.
	 * 
	 * @param aHandle The handle for which to find out if there is any related
	 *        data.
	 * 
	 * @return True if the handle is known.
	 */
	boolean hasHandle( H aHandle );

	/**
	 * Gets the object associated to a given handle.
	 * 
	 * @param aHandle The handle for which to get the related data.
	 * 
	 * @return The object associated to the given handle.
	 */
	REF lookupHandle( H aHandle ) throws UnknownHandleRuntimeException;

	/**
	 * Gets the descriptor for a given handle.
	 * 
	 * @param aHandle The handle for which to get the descriptor.
	 * 
	 * @return The descriptor for the given handle.
	 */
	REF removeHandle( H aHandle ) throws UnknownHandleRuntimeException;

}