ResourceLoader.java

/*
 * Copyright 2002-2013 the original author or authors.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package org.grails.io.support;

/**
 * Strategy interface for loading resources (e.. class path or file system
 * resources). An ApplicationContext is required to provide this functionality,
 * plus extended ResourcePatternResolver support.
 *
 * <p>Bean properties of type Resource and Resource array can be populated
 * from Strings when running in an ApplicationContext, using the particular
 * context's resource loading strategy.
 *
 * @author Juergen Hoeller
 * @since 10.03.2004
 */
public interface ResourceLoader {

    /** Pseudo URL prefix for loading from the class path: "classpath:" */
    String CLASSPATH_URL_PREFIX = "classpath:";

    /**
     * Return a Resource handle for the specified resource.
     * The handle should always be a reusable resource descriptor,
     * allowing for multiple Resource#getInputStream() calls.
     * <p><ul>
     * <li>Must support fully qualified URLs, e.g. "file:C:/test.dat".
     * <li>Must support classpath pseudo-URLs, e.g. "classpath:test.dat".
     * <li>Should support relative file paths, e.g. "WEB-INF/test.dat".
     * (This will be implementation-specific, typically provided by an
     * ApplicationContext implementation.)
     * </ul>
     * <p>Note that a Resource handle does not imply an existing resource;
     * you need to invoke Resource#exists to check for existence.
     * @param location the resource location
     * @return a corresponding Resource handle
     * @see #CLASSPATH_URL_PREFIX
     */
    Resource getResource(String location);

    /**
     * Expose the ClassLoader used by this ResourceLoader.
     * <p>Clients which need to access the ClassLoader directly can do so
     * in a uniform manner with the ResourceLoader, rather than relying
     * on the thread context ClassLoader.
     * @return the ClassLoader (never <code>null</code>)
     */
    ClassLoader getClassLoader();
}