#region Apache License
//
// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more 
// contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
// this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. 
// The ASF licenses this file to you 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.
//
#endregion

using System;

using log4net;
using log4net.Core;
using log4net.Util.TypeConverters;

namespace log4net.Layout
{
  /// <summary>
  /// Interface for raw layout objects
  /// </summary>
  /// <remarks>
  /// <para>
  /// Interface used to format a <see cref="LoggingEvent"/>
  /// to an object.
  /// </para>
  /// <para>
  /// This interface should not be confused with the
  /// <see cref="ILayout"/> interface. This interface is used in
  /// only certain specialized situations where a raw object is
  /// required rather than a formatted string. The <see cref="ILayout"/>
  /// is not generally useful than this interface.
  /// </para>
  /// </remarks>
  /// <author>Nicko Cadell</author>
  /// <author>Gert Driesen</author>
  [TypeConverter(typeof(RawLayoutConverter))]
  public interface IRawLayout
  {
    /// <summary>
    /// Implement this method to create your own layout format.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="loggingEvent">The event to format</param>
    /// <returns>returns the formatted event</returns>
    /// <remarks>
    /// <para>
    /// Implement this method to create your own layout format.
    /// </para>
    /// </remarks>
    object? Format(LoggingEvent loggingEvent);
  }
}
