/**
* Copyright (C) 2001-2017 by RapidMiner and the contributors
*
* Complete list of developers available at our web site:
*
* http://rapidminer.com
*
* This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
* GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3
* 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
* Affero General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program.
* If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
*/
package com.rapidminer.operator;
/**
* Generic interface for user data objects.
*
* @param <T>
* The type the user data will be attached to. An instance of this type will be supplied
* to the copy method.
* @author Michael Knopf
*/
public interface UserData<T> {
/**
* Invoked if the parent object is duplicated. Implementations may return self references,
* shallow copies, or deep copies, depending on what is appropriate in the context.
*
* @param newParent
* the reference to the new (duplicated) parent object
* @return A self reference, a shallow copy, or a deep copy of the user data.
*/
public UserData<T> copyUserData(T newParent);
}