    001    /*
    002     * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
    003     * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
    004     * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
    005     * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
    006     * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
    007     * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
    008     *
    009     *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
    010     *
    011     * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
    012     * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
    013     * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
    014     * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
    015     * limitations under the License.
    016     */
    017    package org.apache.commons.jxpath;
    018
    019    import java.beans.PropertyDescriptor;
    020    import java.io.Serializable;
    021
    022    /**
    023     * JXPathBeanInfo  is similar to {@link java.beans.BeanInfo} in that it describes
    024     * properties of a JavaBean class.  By default, JXPathBeanInfo classes are
    025     * automatically generated by {@link JXPathIntrospector JXPathIntrospector}
    026     * based on the java.beans.BeanInfo. As with JavaBeans, the user can supply an
    027     * alternative implementation of JXPathBeanInfo for a custom class.  The
    028     * alternative implementation is located by class name, which is the same as the
    029     * name of the class it represents with the suffix "XBeanInfo".  So, for
    030     * example, if you need to provide an alternative JXPathBeanInfo class for class
    031     * "com.foo.Bar", write a class "com.foo.BarXBeanInfo" and make it implement the
    032     * JXPathBeanInfo interface.
    033     *
    034     * @author Dmitri Plotnikov
    035     * @version $Revision: 668329 $ $Date: 2008-06-16 16:59:48 -0500 (Mon, 16 Jun 2008) $
    036     */
    037    public interface JXPathBeanInfo extends Serializable {
    038
    039        /**
    040         * Returns true if objects of this class are treated as atomic
    041         * objects which have no properties of their own.
    042         * For example, {@link String} and {@link Number} are atomic.
    043         * @return boolean
    044         */
    045        boolean isAtomic();
    046
    047        /**
    048         * Returns true if the objects of this class have dynamic properties
    049         * (e.g. java.util.Map). If this method returns true, {@link #getPropertyDescriptors}
    050         * should return null and {@link #getDynamicPropertyHandlerClass} should return
    051         * a valid class name.  An object cannot have both static and dynamic
    052         * properties at the same time.
    053         * @return boolean
    054         */
    055        boolean isDynamic();
    056
    057        /**
    058         * Returns a list of property descriptors for the beans described by this
    059         * bean info object.  Returns null for atomic beans.
    060         * @return PropertyDescriptor[]
    061         */
    062        PropertyDescriptor[] getPropertyDescriptors();
    063
    064        /**
    065         * Returns a PropertyDescriptor for the specified name or null if there
    066         * is no such property.
    067         * @param propertyName property name
    068         * @return PropertyDescriptor
    069         */
    070        PropertyDescriptor getPropertyDescriptor(String propertyName);
    071
    072        /**
    073         * For dynamic objects, returns the class implementing
    074         * the {@link DynamicPropertyHandler} interface. That class can
    075         * be used to access dynamic properties.
    076         * @return Class
    077         */
    078        Class getDynamicPropertyHandlerClass();
    079    }