org.springframework.metadata.Attributes Maven / Gradle / Ivy
/*
* Copyright 2002-2005 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.metadata;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.util.Collection;
/**
* Interface for accessing attributes at runtime. This is a facade,
* which can accommodate any attributes API such as Jakarta Commons Attributes,
* or (possibly in future) a Spring attributes implementation.
*
* The purpose of using this interface is to decouple Spring code from any
* specific attributes implementation. Even once JSR-175 is available, there
* is still value in such a facade interface, as it allows for hierarchical
* attribute sources: for example, an XML file or properties file might override
* some attributes defined in source-level metadata with JSR-175 or another framework.
*
* @author Mark Pollack
* @author Rod Johnson
* @since 30.09.2003
* @see org.springframework.metadata.commons.CommonsAttributes
*/
public interface Attributes {
/**
* Return the class attributes of the target class.
* @param targetClass the class that contains attribute information
* @return a collection of attributes, possibly an empty collection, never null
*/
Collection getAttributes(Class targetClass);
/**
* Return the class attributes of the target class of a given type.
*
The class attributes are filtered by providing a Class
* reference to indicate the type to filter on. This is useful if you know
* the type of the attribute you are looking for and don't want to sort
* through the unfiltered Collection yourself.
* @param targetClass the class that contains attribute information
* @param filter specify that only this type of class should be returned
* @return return only the Collection of attributes that are of the filter type
*/
Collection getAttributes(Class targetClass, Class filter);
/**
* Return the method attributes of the target method.
* @param targetMethod the method that contains attribute information
* @return a Collection of attributes, possibly an empty Collection, never null
*/
Collection getAttributes(Method targetMethod);
/**
* Return the method attributes of the target method of a given type.
*
The method attributes are filtered by providing a Class
* reference to indicate the type to filter on. This is useful if you know
* the type of the attribute you are looking for and don't want to sort
* through the unfiltered Collection yourself.
* @param targetMethod the method that contains attribute information
* @param filter specify that only this type of class should be returned
* @return a Collection of attributes, possibly an empty Collection, never null
*/
Collection getAttributes(Method targetMethod, Class filter);
/**
* Return the field attributes of the target field.
* @param targetField the field that contains attribute information
* @return a Collection of attribute, possibly an empty Collection, never null
*/
Collection getAttributes(Field targetField);
/**
* Return the field attributes of the target method of a given type.
*
The field attributes are filtered by providing a Class
* reference to indicate the type to filter on. This is useful if you know
* the type of the attribute you are looking for and don't want to sort
* through the unfiltered Collection yourself.
* @param targetField the field that contains attribute information
* @param filter specify that only this type of class should be returned
* @return a Collection of attributes, possibly an empty Collection, never null
*/
Collection getAttributes(Field targetField, Class filter);
}