/*******************************************************************************
* Copyright (c) 2007, 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.services;
/**
* A factory for creating services for use with the
* <code>org.eclipse.ui.services</code> extension point. You are given a
* service locator to look up other services, and can retrieve your parent
* service (if one has already been created).
*
* @since 3.4
*/
public abstract class AbstractServiceFactory {
/**
* When a service locator cannot find a service it will request one from the
* registry, which will call this factory create method.
* <p>
* You can use the locator to get any needed services and a parent service
* locator will be provided if you need access to the parent service. If the
* parent object return from the parent locator is not <code>null</code>
* it can be cast to the service interface that is requested. The parent
* service locator will only return the serviceInterface service.
* </p>
*
* @param serviceInterface
* the service we need to create. Will not be <code>null</code>.
* @param parentLocator
* A locator that can return a parent service instance if
* desired. The parent service can be cast to serviceInterface.
* Will not be <code>null</code>.
* @param locator
* the service locator which can be used to retrieve dependent
* services. Will not be <code>null</code>
* @return the created service or <code>null</code>
*/
public abstract Object create(Class serviceInterface,
IServiceLocator parentLocator, IServiceLocator locator);
}