/* This file is part of the db4o object database http://www.db4o.com
Copyright (C) 2004 - 2011 Versant Corporation http://www.versant.com
db4o is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of version 3 of the GNU General Public License as published
by the Free Software Foundation.
db4o is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/. */
package com.db4o.ext;
import com.db4o.foundation.*;
import com.db4o.reflect.*;
/**
* the internal representation of a field on a stored class.
*/
public interface StoredField {
/**
* creates an index on this field at runtime.
*/
public void createIndex();
/**
* drops an existing index on this field at runtime.
*/
public void dropIndex();
/**
* returns the field value on the passed object.
* <br><br>This method will also work, if the field is not present in the current
* version of the class.
* <br><br>It is recommended to use this method for refactoring purposes, if fields
* are removed and the field values need to be copied to other fields.
*/
public Object get(Object onObject);
/**
* returns the name of the field.
*/
public String getName();
/**
* returns the Class (Java) / Type (.NET) of the field.
* <br><br>For array fields this method will return the type of the array.
* Use {@link #isArray()} to detect arrays.
*/
public ReflectClass getStoredType();
/**
* returns true if the field is an array.
*/
public boolean isArray();
/**
* modifies the name of this stored field.
* <br><br>After renaming one or multiple fields the ObjectContainer has
* to be closed and reopened to allow internal caches to be refreshed.<br><br>
* @param name the new name
*/
public void rename(String name);
/**
* specialized highspeed API to collect all values of a field for all instances
* of a class, if the field is indexed.
* <br><br>The field values will be taken directly from the index without the
* detour through class indexes or object instantiation.
* <br><br>
* If this method is used to get the values of a first class object index,
* deactivated objects will be passed to the visitor.
*
* @param visitor the visitor to be called with each index value.
*/
public void traverseValues(Visitor4 visitor);
/**
* Returns whether this field has an index or not.
* @return true if this field has an index.
*/
public boolean hasIndex();
// will need for replication. Requested for 3.0
//
// /**
// * sets the field value on the passed object.
// * @param onObject
// * @param fieldValue
// */
// public void set(Object onObject, Object fieldValue);
}