EntityCheckerManager.java

/**
 * This file is part of General Entity Annotator Benchmark.
 *
 * General Entity Annotator Benchmark 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, either version 3 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * General Entity Annotator Benchmark 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.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
 * along with General Entity Annotator Benchmark.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */
package org.aksw.gerbil.dataset.check;

import java.util.Collection;

import org.aksw.gerbil.transfer.nif.Marking;
import org.aksw.gerbil.transfer.nif.Meaning;

/**
 * This is an interface for a class that manages the entity checking using an
 * internal mapping of URI name spaces to known entity checkers.
 * 
 * @author Michael Röder (roeder@informatik.uni-leipzig.de)
 *
 */
public interface EntityCheckerManager {

    /**
     * Registers the given {@link EntityChecker} for being used for URIs of the
     * given name space. Note that only one single EntityChecker per name space
     * is allowed. If a second EntityChecker is registered, the first one will
     * be overwritten.
     * 
     * @param namespace
     *            URI name space for which the given checker should be used.
     * @param checker
     *            the {@link EntityChecker} that should be registered for the
     *            given URI name space.
     */
    public void registerEntityChecker(String namespace, EntityChecker checker);

    /**
     * Checks the given list of {@link Marking}s for {@link Meaning}s and their
     * existence based on the available {@link EntityChecker}. Only URIs are
     * checked which have a name space for which an {@link EntityChecker} is
     * available. If a URI has been identified as not existing, it is replaced
     * by a generated URI.
     * 
     * @param markings
     *            a List of {@link Marking}s that should be checked for their
     *            existence if they implement or contain a {@link Meaning}.
     */
    public void checkMarkings(Collection<? extends Marking> markings);

    /**
     * Checks the given list of {@link Meaning}s for their existence based on
     * the available {@link EntityChecker}. Only URIs are checked which have a
     * name space for which an {@link EntityChecker} is available. If a URI has
     * been identified as not existing, it is replaced by a generated URI.
     * 
     * @param meanings
     *            a List of {@link Meaning}s that should be checked for their
     *            existence.
     */
    public void checkMeanings(Collection<? extends Meaning> meanings);
}