ICtxSimilarityEvaluator.java

/**
 * Copyright (c) 2011, SOCIETIES Consortium (WATERFORD INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (TSSG), HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY (HWU), SOLUTA.NET 
 * (SN), GERMAN AEROSPACE CENTRE (Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.) (DLR), Zavod za varnostne tehnologije
 * informacijske družbe in elektronsko poslovanje (SETCCE), INSTITUTE OF COMMUNICATION AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS (ICCS), LAKE
 * COMMUNICATIONS (LAKE), INTEL PERFORMANCE LEARNING SOLUTIONS LTD (INTEL), PORTUGAL TELECOM INOVAÇÃO, SA (PTIN), IBM Corp., 
 * INSTITUT TELECOM (ITSUD), AMITEC DIACHYTI EFYIA PLIROFORIKI KAI EPIKINONIES ETERIA PERIORISMENIS EFTHINIS (AMITEC), TELECOM 
 * ITALIA S.p.a.(TI),  TRIALOG (TRIALOG), Stiftelsen SINTEF (SINTEF), NEC EUROPE LTD (NEC))
 * All rights reserved.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following
 * conditions are met:
 *
 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 *
 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
 *    disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING,
 * BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT 
 * SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
 * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
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 */
package org.societies.context.api.similarity;

import java.util.ArrayList;

import org.societies.api.context.model.CtxEvaluationResults;
/**
 * @author <a href="mailto:eboylan@tssg.org">Emmet Boylan</a> (TSSG)
 * @since 1.0
 * 
 */
public interface ICtxSimilarityEvaluator {
	
	/**
	 * Check 2 or more entities for similarity in 1 or more attributes.
	 * @param ids
	 * 		String array of user IDs of entities to be compared
	 * @param attrib
	 * 		ArrayList<String> of attributes to test for similarity eg. books and movies
	 * @return CtxEvaluationResults
	 * 		The returned CtxEvaluationResults can be accessed by the following methods
	 * 			*Boolean getResult() returns a Boolean value. True for results of 50%+ similarity, false 
	 * 				for lower.
	 * 			*HashMap<String, String> getSummary() returns a hashmap containing attributes
	 * 				compared as the key and the result for that attribute as the value.
	 * 			*HashMap getAttBreakDown() returns a hashmap containing the similarity evaluation results
	 * 				down according to the taxonomy of the attribute compared.
	 */

	public CtxEvaluationResults evaluateSimilarity(String[] ids, ArrayList<String> attrib);
	

}