/*
* Jitsi, the OpenSource Java VoIP and Instant Messaging client.
*
* Copyright @ 2015 Atlassian Pty Ltd
*
* 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 net.java.sip.communicator.service.contactsource;
import java.util.regex.*;
/**
* The <tt>ExtendedContactSourceService</tt> as its name states it, extends the
* <tt>ContactSourceService</tt> in order to provide the possibility to query
* a contact source by specifying a given <tt>Pattern</tt>. This interface is
* meant to be implemented by contact sources, where it is possible to match
* source results directly through a given <tt>Pattern</tt>, i.e. by using:<br>
* <code>Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(myString);
* if(matcher.find())
* ....
* </code>
* The advantages of passing a <tt>Pattern</tt> over a <tt>String</tt> are that
* a <tt>Pattern</tt> can use a predefined regular expression and
* can define certain properties like Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE,
* Pattern.UNICODE_CASE, etc., which could be important for the search.
*
* @author Yana Stamcheva
*/
public interface ExtendedContactSourceService
extends ContactSourceService
{
/**
* Creates query for the given <tt>searchPattern</tt>.
* @param queryPattern the pattern to search for
* @return the created query
*/
public ContactQuery createContactQuery(Pattern queryPattern);
}