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/*
* MethodPart.java April 2007
*
* Copyright (C) 2007, Niall Gallagher
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
* implied. See the License for the specific language governing
* permissions and limitations under the License.
*/
package org.simpleframework.xml.core;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
/**
* The MethodPart
interface is used to provide a point
* of contact with an object. Typically this will be used to get a
* method from an object which is contains an XML annotation. This
* provides the type the method is associated with, this type is
* either the method return type or the single value parameter.
*
* @author Niall Gallagher
*/
interface MethodPart {
/**
* This provides the name of the method part as acquired from the
* method name. The name represents the Java Bean property name
* of the method and is used to pair getter and setter methods.
*
* @return this returns the Java Bean name of the method part
*/
String getName();
/**
* This is the annotation associated with the point of contact.
* This will be an XML annotation that describes how the contact
* should be serializaed and deserialized from the object.
*
* @return this provides the annotation associated with this
*/
Annotation getAnnotation();
/**
* This is the annotation associated with the point of contact.
* This will be an XML annotation that describes how the contact
* should be serialized and deserialized from the object.
*
* @param type this is the type of the annotation to acquire
*
* @return this provides the annotation associated with this
*/
T getAnnotation(Class type);
/**
* This will provide the contact type. The contact type is the
* class that is either the method return type or the single
* value parameter type associated with the method.
*
* @return this returns the type that this contact represents
*/
Class getType();
/**
* This is used to acquire the dependent class for the method
* part. The dependent type is the type that represents the
* generic type of the type. This is used when collections are
* annotated as it allows a default entry class to be taken
* from the generic information provided.
*
* @return this returns the generic dependent for the type
*/
Class getDependent();
/**
* This is used to acquire the dependent classes for the method
* part. The dependent types are the types that represent the
* generic types of the type. This is used when collections are
* annotated as it allows a default entry class to be taken
* from the generic information provided.
*
* @return this returns the generic dependent for the type
*/
Class[] getDependents();
/**
* This is the class that declares the contact. The declaring
* class is where the method represented has been defined. This
* will typically be a class rather than an interface.
*
* @return this returns the class the part is declared within
*/
Class getDeclaringClass();
/**
* This is the method for this point of contact. This is what
* will be invoked by the serialization or deserialization
* process when an XML element or attribute is to be used.
*
* @return this returns the method associated with this
*/
Method getMethod();
/**
* This is the method type for the method part. This is used in
* the scanning process to determine which type of method a
* instance represents, this allows set and get methods to be
* paired.
*
* @return the method type that this part represents
*/
MethodType getMethodType();
/**
* This is used to describe the method as it exists within the
* owning class. This is used to provide error messages that can
* be used to debug issues that occur when processing a method.
* This should return the method as a generic representation.
*
* @return this returns a string representation of the method
*/
String toString();
}