/*
* RHQ Management Platform
* Copyright (C) 2005-2011 Red Hat, Inc.
* All rights reserved.
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
* the Free Software Foundation version 2 of the License.
*
* This program 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, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
*/
package org.rhq.enterprise.server.sync.exporters;
/**
* This is the interface a subsystem export must implement.
*
* @param <Entity> the type of entities exported by the exporter
* @param <ExportedType> the type that represents the entity in the export
*
* @author Lukas Krejci
*/
public interface Exporter<Entity, ExportedType> {
/**
* Creates an iterator that is able to traverse the exported data and serialize them
* one by one.
* <p>
* The implementation is free to preload the exported entities or to somehow load them
* one by one as the callers request by calling {@link ExportingIterator#next()}.
*
* @return
*/
ExportingIterator<ExportedType> getExportingIterator();
/**
* This method can return some notes that the exporter gathered during exporting the
* entities that are not specific to the individual entities.
* <p>
* This method is only called after the {@link #getExportingIterator() export iterator}
* reached the end.
*/
String getNotes();
}