/*
* GeoTools - The Open Source Java GIS Toolkit
* http://geotools.org
*
* (C) 2004-2008, Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)
*
* 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.geotools.xml.schema;
/**
* <p>
* This interface is intended to represent a data structure to pass resolved
* Child elements to the parent element. This is of particular importance as
* this enable the programmer to reverse the direction of the recursion on the
* parse tree, hopefully reducing the impact on the heap and overall memory.
* </p>
*
* @author dzwiers www.refractions.net
*
* @source $URL$
*/
public interface ElementValue {
/**
* <p>
* Returns the type which generated the associated value. The type is
* important because it allows easy access to the xml element inheritance
* tree, allowing the user to test whether it is a valid data entry.
* </p>
*
* @return Type
*/
// public Type getType();
public Element getElement();
/**
* <p>
* This returns the realized value of an element which was associated with
* this type. We recommend that this value be realized prior to the first
* request for the value (use this object to cache the result). If you do
* chose to implement this method lazily, consider caching the result as
* it may be called more than once, expecting the same result both times.
* </p>
*
* @return Object (may be null)
*/
public Object getValue();
}