/*
* Hibernate, Relational Persistence for Idiomatic Java
*
* License: GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1 or later.
* See the lgpl.txt file in the root directory or <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html>.
*/
package org.hibernate.loader.plan.spi;
import org.hibernate.loader.PropertyPath;
/**
* Contract for a FetchSource (aka, the thing that owns the fetched attribute).
*
*
* @author Steve Ebersole
*/
public interface FetchSource {
/**
* Get the property path to this fetch source
*
* @return The property path
*/
public PropertyPath getPropertyPath();
/**
* Get the UID for this fetch source's query space.
*
* @return The query space UID.
*/
public String getQuerySpaceUid();
/**
* Retrieve the fetches owned by this fetch source.
*
* @return The owned fetches.
*/
public Fetch[] getFetches();
/**
* Retrieve the bidirectional entity references owned by this fetch source.
*
* @return The owned bidirectional entity references.
*/
public BidirectionalEntityReference[] getBidirectionalEntityReferences();
/**
* Resolve the "current" {@link EntityReference}, or null if none.
*
* If this object is an {@link EntityReference}, then this object is returned;
* otherwise, if this object is a {@link Fetch}, then the nearest
* {@link EntityReference} will be resolved from its source, if possible.
*
* If no EntityReference can be resolved, null is return.
*
* @return the "current" EntityReference or null if none.
* .
* @see org.hibernate.loader.plan.spi.Fetch#getSource().
*/
public EntityReference resolveEntityReference();
}