IProjectNatureDescriptor.java

/*******************************************************************************
 *  Copyright (c) 2000, 2009 IBM Corporation and others.
 *  All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
 *  are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
 *  which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
 *  http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 * 
 *  Contributors:
 *     IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
 *******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.core.resources;

/**
 * A project nature descriptor contains information about a project nature obtained from the plug-in
 * manifest (<code>plugin.xml</code>) file.
 * <p>
 * Nature descriptors are platform-defined objects that exist independent of whether that nature's
 * plug-in has been started. In contrast, a project nature's runtime object (
 * <code>IProjectNature</code>) generally runs plug-in-defined code.
 * </p>
 * 
 * @see IProjectNature
 * @see IWorkspace#getNatureDescriptor(String)
 * @since 2.0
 * @noimplement This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.
 * @noextend This interface is not intended to be extended by clients.
 */
public interface IProjectNatureDescriptor {
	/**
	 * Returns the unique identifier of this nature.
	 * <p>
	 * The nature identifier is composed of the nature's plug-in id and the simple id of the nature
	 * extension. For example, if plug-in <code>"com.xyz"</code> defines a nature extension with id
	 * <code>"myNature"</code>, the unique nature identifier will be <code>"com.xyz.myNature"</code>
	 * .
	 * </p>
	 * 
	 * @return the unique nature identifier
	 */
	public String getNatureId();

	/**
	 * Returns a displayable label for this nature. Returns the empty string if no label for this
	 * nature is specified in the plug-in manifest file.
	 * <p>
	 * Note that any translation specified in the plug-in manifest file is automatically applied.
	 * </p>
	 * 
	 * @return a displayable string label for this nature, possibly the empty string
	 */
	public String getLabel();

	/**
	 * Returns the unique identifiers of the natures required by this nature. Nature requirements
	 * are specified by the <code>"requires-nature"</code> element on a nature extension. Returns an
	 * empty array if no natures are required by this nature.
	 * 
	 * @return an array of nature ids that this nature requires, possibly an empty array.
	 */
	public String[] getRequiredNatureIds();

	/**
	 * Returns the identifiers of the nature sets that this nature belongs to. Nature set inclusion
	 * is specified by the <code>"one-of-nature"</code> element on a nature extension. Returns an
	 * empty array if no nature sets are specified for this nature.
	 * 
	 * @return an array of nature set ids that this nature belongs to, possibly an empty array.
	 */
	public String[] getNatureSetIds();

	/**
	 * Returns whether this project nature allows linked resources to be created in projects where
	 * this nature is installed.
	 * 
	 * @return boolean <code>true</code> if creating links is allowed, and <code>false</code>
	 *         otherwise.
	 * @see IFolder#createLink(org.eclipse.core.runtime.IPath, int,
	 *      org.eclipse.core.runtime.IProgressMonitor)
	 * @see IFile#createLink(org.eclipse.core.runtime.IPath, int,
	 *      org.eclipse.core.runtime.IProgressMonitor)
	 * @since 2.1
	 */
	public boolean isLinkingAllowed();
}