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/*
 * NodeMap.java July 2006
 *
 * Copyright (C) 2006, 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.stream;

import java.util.Iterator;

/**
 * The NodeMap object represents a map of nodes that
 * can be set as name value pairs. This typically represents the
 * attributes that belong to an element and is used as an neutral
 * way to access an element for either an input or output event.
 *
 * @author Niall Gallagher
 *
 * @see org.simpleframework.xml.stream.Node
 */ 
public interface NodeMap extends Iterable {
    
    /**
     * This is used to acquire the actual node this map represents.
     * The source node provides further details on the context of
     * the node, such as the parent name, the namespace, and even
     * the value in the node. Care should be taken when using this. 
     * 
     * @return this returns the node that this map represents
     */
    T getNode();

   /**
    * This is used to get the name of the element that owns the
    * nodes for the specified map. This can be used to determine
    * which element the node map belongs to.
    * 
    * @return this returns the name of the owning element
    */         
   String getName();        

   /**
    * This is used to acquire the Node mapped to the
    * given name. This returns a name value pair that represents
    * either an attribute or element. If no node is mapped to the
    * specified name then this method will return null.
    *
    * @param name this is the name of the node to retrieve
    * 
    * @return this will return the node mapped to the given name
    */         
   T get(String name);        

   /**
    * This is used to remove the Node mapped to the
    * given name.  This returns a name value pair that represents
    * either an attribute or element. If no node is mapped to the
    * specified name then this method will return null.
    *
    * @param name this is the name of the node to remove
    * 
    * @return this will return the node mapped to the given name
    */ 
   T remove(String name);
   
   /**
    * This returns an iterator for the names of all the nodes in
    * this NodeMap. This allows the names to be 
    * iterated within a for each loop in order to extract nodes.
    *
    * @return this returns the names of the nodes in the map
    */ 
   Iterator iterator();

   /**
    * This is used to add a new Node to the map. The
    * type of node that is created an added is left up to the map
    * implementation. Once a node is created with the name value
    * pair it can be retrieved and used.
    *
    * @param name this is the name of the node to be created
    * @param value this is the value to be given to the node
    * 
    * @return this is the node that has been added to the map
    */ 
   T put(String name, String value);
}