/*
* Geotoolkit.org - An Open Source Java GIS Toolkit
* http://www.geotoolkit.org
*
* (C) 2010-2012, Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)
* (C) 2010-2012, Geomatys
*
* This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
* License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
* version 2.1 of the License.
*
* This library 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
* Lesser General Public License for more details.
*/
package org.geotoolkit.image.io;
import java.util.List;
import java.net.URI;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.imageio.ImageReader;
import javax.imageio.ImageWriter;
/**
* Interface for {@link ImageReader} and {@link ImageWriter} implementations that may store
* a large dataset as an aggregation of smaller datasets. There is many different way in which
* an aggregation may be used:
* <p>
* <ul>
* <li>A <var>n</var> dimensional coverage (the aggregation) may be defined as a list of
* <var>n</var>-1 dimensional slices (the aggregated files).</li>
* <li>A long time series (the aggregation) may be separated in a sequence of smaller
* time series (the aggregated files). In this use case, the aggregation and the
* aggregated files have the same number of dimension.</li>
* <li>The bands (or <cite>variables</cite> in NetCDF files) may be defined in separated
* files.</li>
* </ul>
* <p>
* The main practical case for this interface is NcML files, which are XML files enumerating
* the NetCDF files that are the elements of the aggregation.
*
* @author Martin Desruisseaux (Geomatys)
* @version 3.16
*
* @since 3.16
* @module
*/
public interface AggregatedImageStore {
/**
* Returns the URIs to the aggregated files, or {@code null} if the current
* {@linkplain ImageReader#getInput() input} is not an aggregation.
*
* @param imageIndex The index of the image (or variable) for which to get the aggregated files.
* @return The individual files which are aggregated, or {@code null} if none.
* @throws IOException If an error occurred while building the list of files.
*/
List<URI> getAggregatedFiles(int imageIndex) throws IOException;
}