IPermissionTargetProvider.java

/**
 * Licensed to Jasig under one or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file
 * distributed with this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. Jasig
 * licenses this file to you 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:
 *
 * <p>http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * <p>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.apereo.portal.permission.target;

import java.util.Collection;

/**
 * IPermissionTargetProvider provides an interface for retrieving and validating potential targets
 * for a permission activity.
 *
 * @since 3.3
 */
public interface IPermissionTargetProvider {

    /**
     * Return the permission target associated with the specified key under this provider. If no
     * target with the given key is valid for this provider, return <code>null</code>.
     *
     * @param key
     * @return
     */
    public IPermissionTarget getTarget(String key);

    /**
     * Search this provider for a particular target using a single string search term. Each target
     * provider implementation is responsible for determining the definition a "matching" target.
     *
     * @param term search term
     * @return collection of matching targets
     */
    public Collection<IPermissionTarget> searchTargets(String term);
}