ObjectDefinition.java

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2012 Data Harmonisation Panel
 * 
 * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials are made
 * available under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License,
 * or (at your option) any later version.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
 * along with this distribution. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 * 
 * Contributors:
 *     HUMBOLDT EU Integrated Project #030962
 *     Data Harmonisation Panel <http://www.dhpanel.eu>
 */

package eu.esdihumboldt.util.definition;

/**
 * Provides support for creating an object of a certain type from a definition
 * string and vice versa.
 * 
 * @param <T> the object type
 * 
 * @author Simon Templer
 */
public interface ObjectDefinition<T> {

	/**
	 * Get the factory identifier. The identifier must be unique for object
	 * factories that have compatible supported types. It is used to associate a
	 * definition string to the factory. The identifier may not contain a
	 * <code>:</code>
	 * 
	 * @return the factory identifier
	 */
	public String getIdentifier();

	/**
	 * Get the class of the supported object.
	 * 
	 * @return the object class supported by this factory
	 */
	public Class<T> getObjectClass();

	/**
	 * Parse the given definition string and create an object instance.
	 * 
	 * @param value the definition string to parse
	 * @return the CRS definition instance or <code>null</code>
	 */
	public T parse(String value);

	/**
	 * Represent the given object as a definition string, so that it can be used
	 * to again create an object instance using {@link #parse(String)}.
	 * 
	 * @param object the object to create a string representation for
	 * @return the string representation of the object
	 */
	public String asString(T object);

}