/*******************************************************************************
* Copyright (c) 2000, 2015 IBM Corporation and others.
* All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
* are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
* which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
* http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
*
* Contributors:
* IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
*******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.ui;
/**
* Interface for asking an object to store its state in a memento.
* <p>
* This interface is typically included in interfaces where
* persistance is required.
* </p><p>
* When the workbench is shutdown objects which implement this interface
* will be persisted. At this time the <code>getFactoryId</code> method
* is invoked to discover the id of the element factory that will be used
* to re-create the object from a memento. Then the <code>saveState</code>
* method is invoked to store the element data into a newly created memento.
* The resulting mementos are collected up and written out to a single file.
* </p>
* <p>
* During workbench startup these mementos are read from the file. The
* factory Id for each is retrieved and mapped to an <code>IElementFactory</code>
* which has been registered in the element factory extension point. If a
* factory exists for the Id it will be engaged to re-create the original
* object.
* </p>
*
* @see org.eclipse.core.runtime.IAdaptable
* @see org.eclipse.ui.IMemento
* @see org.eclipse.ui.IElementFactory
*/
public interface IPersistableElement extends IPersistable {
/**
* Returns the id of the element factory which should be used to re-create this
* object.
* <p>
* Factory ids are declared in extensions to the standard extension point
* <code>"org.eclipse.ui.elementFactories"</code>.
* </p>
*
* @return the element factory id
* @see IElementFactory
*/
public String getFactoryId();
}