Node.java

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2005, 2006, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
 *
 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this
 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
 * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
 *
 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
 * accompanied this code).
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
 *
 * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
 * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
 * questions.
 */
/*
 * $Id: Node.java,v 1.14 2006/03/30 00:59:39 ofung Exp $
 * $Revision: 1.14 $
 * $Date: 2006/03/30 00:59:39 $
 */


package javax.xml.soap;

/**
 * A representation of a node (element) in an XML document.
 * This interface extnends the standard DOM Node interface with methods for 
 * getting and setting the value of a node, for
 * getting and setting the parent of a node, and for removing a node.
 */
public interface Node extends org.w3c.dom.Node {    
    /**
     * Returns the value of this node if this is a <code>Text</code> node or the
     * value of the immediate child of this node otherwise.
     * If there is an immediate child of this <code>Node</code> that it is a 
     * <code>Text</code> node then it's value will be returned. If there is
     * more than one <code>Text</code> node then the value of the first 
     * <code>Text</code> Node will be returned.
     * Otherwise <code>null</code> is returned.
     *
     * @return a <code>String</code> with the text of this node if this is a
     *          <code>Text</code> node or the text contained by the first 
     *          immediate child of this <code>Node</code> object that is a 
     *          <code>Text</code> object if such a child exists;
     *          <code>null</code> otherwise.
     */
    public String getValue();
    
    /**
     * If this is a Text node then this method will set its value, 
     * otherwise it sets the value of  the immediate (Text) child of this node.
     * The value of the immediate child of this node can be set only if, there is
     * one child node and that node is a <code>Text</code> node, or if
     * there are no children in which case a child <code>Text</code> node will be 
     * created.
     * 
     * @exception IllegalStateException if the node is not a <code>Text</code>
     *              node and either has more than one child node or has a child 
     *              node that is not a <code>Text</code> node.
     * 
     * @since SAAJ 1.2
     */
    public void setValue(String value);

    /**
     * Sets the parent of this <code>Node</code> object to the given
     * <code>SOAPElement</code> object.
     *
     * @param parent the <code>SOAPElement</code> object to be set as
     *       the parent of this <code>Node</code> object
     *
     * @exception SOAPException if there is a problem in setting the
     *                          parent to the given element
     * @see #getParentElement
     */
    public void setParentElement(SOAPElement parent) throws SOAPException;

    /**
     * Returns the parent element of this <code>Node</code> object.
     * This method can throw an <code>UnsupportedOperationException</code>
     * if the tree is not kept in memory.
     *
     * @return the <code>SOAPElement</code> object that is the parent of
     *         this <code>Node</code> object or <code>null</code> if this
     *         <code>Node</code> object is root
     *
     * @exception UnsupportedOperationException if the whole tree is not
     *            kept in memory
     * @see #setParentElement
     */
    public SOAPElement getParentElement();

    /**
     * Removes this <code>Node</code> object from the tree.
     */
    public void detachNode();

    /**
     * Notifies the implementation that this <code>Node</code>
     * object is no longer being used by the application and that the
     * implementation is free to reuse this object for nodes that may
     * be created later.
     * <P>
     * Calling the method <code>recycleNode</code> implies that the method
     * <code>detachNode</code> has been called previously.
     */
    public void recycleNode();

}