/*
* org.openmicroscopy.shoola.util.ui.tpane.TinyObserver
*
*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Copyright (C) 2006 University of Dundee. All rights reserved.
*
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
* the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
* (at your option) any later version.
* This program 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 General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
* with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
* 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
*
*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*/
package org.openmicroscopy.shoola.util.ui.tpane;
//Java imports
//Third-party libraries
//Application-internal dependencies
/**
* Defines an Observer contract for UI components that make up the
* {@link TinyPane}'s View.
* The View is built by aggregating smaller UI components,
* like buttons and icons in the title bar. Each of those usually observes one
* bound property of the {@link TinyPane} and updates itself upon change
* notifications. So this interface defines a
* method that such components implement to {@link #attach() register}
* with the {@link TinyPane}, the Model. After adding a sub-component to the
* View, this method is calledto allow the component to start observing the
* Model. When the component isremoved from the View, the
* {@link #detach() detach} method is called so that the component can remove
* itself from the Model's change notification register. This is critical to
* avoid memory leaks. In fact, the title bar's components (icon, buttons, etc.)
* can be replaced multiple times during the life-cycle of a {@link TinyPane}
* — every time a different title bar the <code>TitleBar type</code>
* {@link TinyPane} is specified.
* Now if those components in the old title bar didn't remove themselves from
* the change notification register, they would keep on being reachable from the
* {@link TinyPane} object and, for this reason, even if logically discarded,
* they would never be garbage-collected.
*
* @author Jean-Marie Burel
* <a href="mailto:j.burel@dundee.ac.uk">j.burel@dundee.ac.uk</a>
* @author <br>Andrea Falconi
* <a href="mailto:a.falconi@dundee.ac.uk">
* a.falconi@dundee.ac.uk</a>
* @version 2.2
* <small>
* (<b>Internal version:</b> $Revision: 4694 $ $Date: 2006-12-15 17:02:59 +0000 (Fri, 15 Dec 2006) $)
* </small>
* @since OME2.2
*/
public interface TinyObserver
{
/**
* Registers with the Model for change notification.
* This method is called just after the UI component is added to the View.
*/
void attach();
/**
* Removes this UI component from the Model's change notification register.
* This method is called just before the UI component is discarded.
*/
void detach();
}