/*
* Copyright 2002-2008 the original author or authors.
*
* Licensed under the Apache 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.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-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.springframework.test.context;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
/**
* Strategy interface for loading an
* {@link ApplicationContext application context}.
*
* <p>Clients of a ContextLoader should call
* {@link #processLocations(Class,String...) processLocations()} prior to
* calling {@link #loadContext(String...) loadContext()} in case the
* ContextLoader provides custom support for modifying or generating locations.
* The results of {@link #processLocations(Class,String...) processLocations()}
* should then be supplied to {@link #loadContext(String...) loadContext()}.
*
* <p>Concrete implementations must provide a <code>public</code> no-args
* constructor.
*
* <p>Spring provides the following out-of-the-box implementations:
* <ul>
* <li>{@link org.springframework.test.context.support.GenericXmlContextLoader GenericXmlContextLoader}</li>
* <li>{@link org.springframework.test.context.support.GenericPropertiesContextLoader GenericPropertiesContextLoader}</li>
* </ul>
*
* @author Sam Brannen
* @author Juergen Hoeller
* @since 2.5
*/
public interface ContextLoader {
/**
* Processes application context resource locations for a specified class.
* <p>Concrete implementations may choose to modify the supplied locations,
* generate new locations, or simply return the supplied locations unchanged.
* @param clazz the class with which the locations are associated: used to
* determine how to process the supplied locations
* @param locations the unmodified locations to use for loading the
* application context (can be <code>null</code> or empty)
* @return an array of application context resource locations
*/
String[] processLocations(Class<?> clazz, String... locations);
/**
* Loads a new {@link ApplicationContext context} based on the supplied
* <code>locations</code>, configures the context, and finally returns
* the context in fully <em>refreshed</em> state.
* <p>Configuration locations are generally considered to be classpath
* resources by default.
* <p>Concrete implementations should register annotation configuration
* processors with bean factories of
* {@link ApplicationContext application contexts} loaded by this
* ContextLoader. Beans will therefore automatically be candidates for
* annotation-based dependency injection using
* {@link org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired @Autowired}
* and {@link javax.annotation.Resource @Resource}.
* <p>Any ApplicationContext loaded by a ContextLoader <strong>must</strong>
* register a JVM shutdown hook for itself. Unless the context gets closed
* early, all context instances will be automatically closed on JVM
* shutdown. This allows for freeing external resources held by beans within
* the context, e.g. temporary files.
* @param locations the resource locations to use to load the application context
* @return a new application context
* @throws Exception if context loading failed
*/
ApplicationContext loadContext(String... locations) throws Exception;
}