org.springframework.webflow.context.ExternalContext Maven / Gradle / Ivy
/*
* Copyright 2004-2007 the original author or authors.
*
* 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.springframework.webflow.context;
import org.springframework.webflow.core.collection.MutableAttributeMap;
import org.springframework.webflow.core.collection.ParameterMap;
import org.springframework.webflow.core.collection.SharedAttributeMap;
/**
* A facade that provides normalized access to an external system that has interacted with Spring Web Flow.
*
* This context object provides a normalized interface for internal web flow artifacts to use to reason on and
* manipulate the state of an external actor calling into SWF to execute flows. It represents the context about a
* single, external client request to manipulate a flow execution.
*
* The design of this interface was inspired by JSF's own ExternalContext abstraction and shares the same name for
* consistency. If a particular external client type does not support all methods defined by this interface, they can
* just be implemented as returning an empty map or null.
*
* @author Keith Donald
* @author Erwin Vervaet
*/
public interface ExternalContext {
/**
* Returns the path (or identifier) of the application that is executing.
* @return the application context path (e.g. "/myapp")
*/
public String getContextPath();
/**
* Returns the path (or identifier) of the dispatcher within the application that dispatched this request.
* @return the dispatcher path (e.g. "/dispatcher")
*/
public String getDispatcherPath();
/**
* Returns the path info of this external request. Could be null.
* @return the request path info (e.g. "/flows.htm")
*/
public String getRequestPathInfo();
/**
* Provides access to the parameters associated with the user request that led to SWF being called. This map is
* expected to be immutable and cannot be changed.
* @return the immutable request parameter map
*/
public ParameterMap getRequestParameterMap();
/**
* Provides access to the external request attribute map, providing a storage for data local to the current user
* request and accessible to both internal and external SWF artifacts.
* @return the mutable request attribute map
*/
public MutableAttributeMap getRequestMap();
/**
* Provides access to the external session map, providing a storage for data local to the current user session and
* accessible to both internal and external SWF artifacts.
* @return the mutable session attribute map
*/
public SharedAttributeMap getSessionMap();
/**
* Provides access to the global external session map, providing a storage for data globally accross the
* user session and accessible to both internal and external SWF artifacts.
*
* Note: most external context implementations do not distinguish between the concept of a "local" user session
* scope and a "global" session scope. The Portlet world does, but not the Servlet for example. In those cases
* calling this method returns the same map as calling {@link #getSessionMap()}.
* @return the mutable global session attribute map
*/
public SharedAttributeMap getGlobalSessionMap();
/**
* Provides access to the external application map, providing a storage for data local to the current user
* application and accessible to both internal and external SWF artifacts.
* @return the mutable application attribute map
*/
public SharedAttributeMap getApplicationMap();
}