Property.java

/*
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
 * or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file
 * distributed with this work for additional information
 * regarding copyright ownership. The ASF 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
 *
 * 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.apache.deltaspike.data.impl.property;

import java.lang.reflect.AnnotatedElement;
import java.lang.reflect.Member;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;

/**
 * A representation of a JavaBean style property
 *
 * @param <V> the type of the properties value
 * @see Properties
 */
public interface Property<V>
{
    /**
     * Returns the name of the property. If the property is a field, then the field name is returned. Otherwise, if the
     * property is a method, then the name that is returned is the getter method name without the "get" or "is" prefix,
     * and a lower case first letter.
     *
     * @return The name of the property
     */
    String getName();

    /**
     * Returns the property type
     *
     * @return The property type
     */
    Type getBaseType();

    /**
     * Returns the property type
     *
     * @return The property type
     */
    Class<V> getJavaClass();

    /**
     * Get the element responsible for retrieving the property value
     *
     * @return
     */
    AnnotatedElement getAnnotatedElement();

    /**
     * Get the member responsible for retrieving the property value
     *
     * @return
     */
    Member getMember();

    /**
     * Returns the property value for the specified bean. The property to be returned is either a field or getter
     * method.
     *
     * @param bean
     *            The bean to read the property from
     * @return The property value
     * @throws ClassCastException
     *             if the value is not of the type V
     */
    V getValue(Object instance);

    /**
     * This method sets the property value for a specified bean to the specified value. The property to be set is either
     * a field or setter method.
     *
     * @param bean
     *            The bean containing the property to set
     * @param value
     *            The new property value
     */
    void setValue(Object instance, V value);

    /**
     * Returns the class that declares the property
     *
     * @return
     */
    Class<?> getDeclaringClass();

    /**
     * Indicates whether this is a read-only property
     *
     * @return
     */
    boolean isReadOnly();

    /**
     * Calls the setAccessible method on the underlying member(s).
     * <p/>
     * The operation should be performed within a {@link java.security.PrivilegedAction}
     */
    void setAccessible();
}