/*******************************************************************************
* Copyright (c) 2006, 2015 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
* This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
* terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 and Eclipse Distribution License v. 1.0
* which accompanies this distribution.
* The Eclipse Public License is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
* and the Eclipse Distribution License is available at
* http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/edl-v10.php.
*
* Contributors:
* Oracle - initial API and implementation
*
******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.persistence.jpa.jpql.tools.spi;
/**
* The external representation of a managed type, which is a JPA persistent object.
* <p>
* Provisional API: This interface is part of an interim API that is still under development and
* expected to change significantly before reaching stability. It is available at this early stage
* to solicit feedback from pioneering adopters on the understanding that any code that uses this
* API will almost certainly be broken (repeatedly) as the API evolves.
*
* @see IEmbeddable
* @see IEntity
* @see IMappedSuperclass
*
* @version 2.5
* @since 2.3
* @author Pascal Filion
*/
public interface IManagedType extends IExternalForm,
Comparable<IManagedType> {
/**
* Visits this managed type with the given visitor.
*
* @param visitor The visitor to visit this managed type object
*/
void accept(IManagedTypeVisitor visitor);
/**
* Returns the {@link IMapping} with the given name.
*
* @param name The name of the mapping to retrieve
* @return Either the {@link IMapping} or <code>null</code> if it could not be found
*/
IMapping getMappingNamed(String name);
/**
* Retrieves the owner of this managed type.
*
* @return The external form holding onto the JPA managed types
*/
IManagedTypeProvider getProvider();
/**
* Returns the external representation of the class used by this managed type.
*
* @return The external representation of the class used by this managed type
*/
IType getType();
/**
* Returns the collection of {@link IMapping mappings} defined in this managed type.
*
* @return The collection of persistent fields and properties of this managed type
*/
Iterable<IMapping> mappings();
}