/*
* GeoTools - The Open Source Java GIS Toolkit
* http://geotools.org
*
* (C) 2011, Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)
* (C) 2004-2007 Open Geospatial Consortium Inc.
*
* All Rights Reserved. http://www.opengis.org/legal/
*/
package org.opengis.feature.type;
import org.opengis.feature.Association;
/**
* The type of an association; used to describe kind of relationship between two entities.
* <p>
* The notion of an "association" is similar to that of an association in UML
* and is used to model a relationship among two attributes. See the javadoc for
* {@link Association} for more info on the semantics of associations.
* </p>
* <p>
* An association is used to relate one attribute to another. The type of the
* association specifies the type of the related attribute with the
* {@link #getRelatedType()} method.
* </p>
*
* @author Jody Garnett, Refractions Research, Inc.
* @author Justin Deoliveira, The Open Planning Project
*
* @source $URL: http://svn.osgeo.org/geotools/branches/2.7.x/modules/library/opengis/src/main/java/org/opengis/feature/type/AssociationType.java $
*/
public interface AssociationType extends PropertyType {
/**
* Override of {@link PropertyType#getSuper()} which type narrows to
* {@link AssociationType}.
*
* @see PropertyType#getSuper()
*/
AssociationType getSuper();
/**
* The attribute type of the related attribute in the association.
*
* @return The type of the related attribute.
*/
AttributeType getRelatedType();
/**
* Override of {@link PropertyType#getBinding()} which specifies that this
* method should return <code>getRelatedType().getBinding()</code>, that is
* it returns the binding of the related type.
*/
Class<?> getBinding();
}