/*
* Copyright 2004-2012 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.binding.convert.converters;
/**
* A converter is capable of converting a source object of type {@link #getSourceClass()} to a target type of type
* {@link #getTargetClass()}. If the converter is a {@link TwoWayConverter}, it can also convert from the target back to
* the source.
* <p>
* Implementations of this interface are thread-safe and can be shared.
* </p>
* @author Keith Donald
*/
public interface Converter {
/**
* The source class this converter can convert from. May be an interface or abstract type to allow this converter to
* convert specific subclasses as well.
* @return the source type
*/
public Class<?> getSourceClass();
/**
* The target class this converter can convert to. May be an interface or abstract type to allow this converter to
* convert specific subclasses as well.
* @return the target type
*/
public Class<?> getTargetClass();
/**
* Convert the provided source object argument to an instance of the specified target class.
* @param source the source object to convert, which must be an instance of {@link #getSourceClass()}
* @param targetClass the target class to convert the source to, which must be equal to or a specialization of
* {@link #getTargetClass()}
* @return the converted object, which must be an instance of the <code>targetClass</code>
* @throws Exception an exception occurred performing the conversion
*/
public Object convertSourceToTargetClass(Object source, Class<?> targetClass) throws Exception;
}