CacheKeyMethod.java

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2008-2009 Nelson Carpentier
 * 
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated
 * documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the
 * rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
 * permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 * 
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
 * Software.
 * 
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE
 * WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR
 * COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
 * OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
 * 
 */

package com.google.code.ssm.api;

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**
 * In SSM, you are able to identify 'key objects'. These are the objects that SSM will rely upon to generate a
 * (non-namespaced) part of the key for referring to values within the cache. This annotation indicates method that will
 * be used to generate a part of unique key. Annotated method has to confirm to the required signature: no-arg, with an
 * output of type {@link String}. If there is no conforming {@link CacheKeyMethod}, then the basic
 * {@link Object#toString()} method will be used. Since version 3.0.3 if there is no conforming {@link CacheKeyMethod}
 * in class but there is such method in superclass it will be used (instead of basic {@link Object#toString()}).
 * 
 * @author Nelson Carpentier
 * @since 1.0.0
 * 
 */
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target(ElementType.METHOD)
public @interface CacheKeyMethod {

}