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1   /*
2    * Copyright 1999-2004 The Apache Software Foundation
3    *
4    * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
5    * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
6    * You may obtain a copy of the License at
7    *
8    *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
9    *
10   * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
11   * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
12   * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
13   * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
14   * limitations under the License.
15   */
16  package org.apache.commons.jxpath;
17  
18  import java.beans.PropertyDescriptor;
19  
20  /***
21   * JXPathBeanInfo  is similar to java.beans.BeanInfo in that it describes
22   * properties of a JavaBean class.  By default, JXPathBeanInfo classes are
23   * automatically generated by {@link JXPathIntrospector JXPathIntrospector}
24   * based on the java.beans.BeanInfo. As with JavaBeans, the user can supply an
25   * alternative implementation of JXPathBeanInfo for a custom class.  The
26   * alternative implementation is located by class name, which is the same as the
27   * name of the class it represents with the suffix "XBeanInfo".  So, for
28   * example, if you need to provide an alternative JXPathBeanInfo class for class
29   * "com.foo.Bar", write a class "com.foo.BarXBeanInfo" and make it implement the
30   * JXPathBeanInfo interface.
31   *
32   * @author Dmitri Plotnikov
33   * @version $Revision: 1.7 $ $Date: 2004/02/29 14:17:42 $
34   */
35  public interface JXPathBeanInfo  {
36  
37      /***
38       * Returns true if objects of this class are treated as atomic
39       * objects which have no properties of their own.
40       * For example, java.lang.String and java.lang.Number are atomic.
41       */
42      boolean isAtomic();
43  
44      /***
45       * Returns true if the objects of this class have dynamic properties
46       * (e.g. java.util.Map). If this method returns true, getPropertyDescriptors
47       * should return null and getDynamicPropertyHandlerClass should return
48       * a valid class name.  An object cannot have both static and dynamic
49       * properties at the same time.
50       */
51      boolean isDynamic();
52  
53      /***
54       * Returns a list of property descriptors for the beans described by this
55       * bean info object.  Returns null for atomic beans.
56       */
57      PropertyDescriptor[] getPropertyDescriptors();
58  
59      /***
60       * Returns a PropertyDescriptor for the specified name or null if there
61       * is no such property.
62       */
63      PropertyDescriptor getPropertyDescriptor(String propertyName);
64  
65      /***
66       * For dynamic objects, returns the class implementing
67       * the DynamicPropertyHandler interface. That class can
68       * be used to access dynamic properties.
69       */
70      Class getDynamicPropertyHandlerClass();
71  }