BrowseSearchable.java

/**
 * $Id: BrowseSearchable.java 105077 2012-02-24 22:54:29Z ottenhoff@longsight.com $
 * $URL: https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/entitybroker/trunk/api/src/java/org/sakaiproject/entitybroker/entityprovider/capabilities/BrowseSearchable.java $
 * BrowseSearchable.java - entity-broker - Aug 3, 2008 9:24:50 AM - azeckoski
 **************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2008 The Sakai Foundation
 *
 * Licensed under the Educational Community License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *       http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ECL-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.capabilities;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

import org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.EntityProvider;
import org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.extension.EntityData;
import org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.search.Search;


/**
 * This indicates that this entity will participate in browse functionality for entities,
 * For example, it will provide lists of entities which are visible to users in locations
 * which can be looked through and selected<br/>
 * This provides fine grained control over which entities will appear in a browse list,
 * normally {@link CollectionResolvable} should show all entities, however, for the browse list
 * we will explicitly filter by users and/or locations and may not show all entities,
 * entities which do not implement this or {@link BrowseableCollection} will not appear in lists of entities which are being browsed<br/>
 * This is one of the capability extensions for the {@link EntityProvider} interface<br/>
 * This is the configuration interface for {@link BrowseableCollection} (the convention interface)
 * 
 * @author Aaron Zeckoski (azeckoski @ gmail.com)
 */
public interface BrowseSearchable extends Browseable {

    /**
     * Returns the list of entities which are being browsed based on the given parameters <br/>
     * See {@link Browseable} for the i18n keys <br/>
     * 
     * @param search a search object which can define the order to return entities,
     * search filters, and total number of entities returned, may be empty but will not be null,
     * implementors are encouraged to support ordering and limiting of the number of returned results at least
     * @param userReference (optional) the unique entity reference for a user which is browsing the results, 
     * this may be null to indicate that only items which are visible to all users should be shown
     * @param associatedReference (optional) a globally unique reference to an entity, this is the entity that the 
     *           returned browseable data must be associated with (e.g. limited by reference to a location/site/group or other associated entity), 
     *           this may be null to indicate there is no association limit
     * @param params (optional) incoming set of parameters which may be used to send data specific to this request, may be null
     * @return a list of entity data objects which contain the reference, URL, display title and optionally other entity data
     * @throws SecurityException if the data cannot be accessed by the current user or is not publicly accessible
     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the reference is invalid or the search is invalid
     * @throws IllegalStateException if any other error occurs
     */
    public List<EntityData> browseEntities(Search search, String userReference, String associatedReference, Map<String, Object> params);

}