/*
 *  RapidMiner
 *
 *  Copyright (C) 2001-2011 by Rapid-I and the contributors
 *
 *  Complete list of developers available at our web site:
 *
 *       http://rapid-i.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;

import java.util.List;

import com.rapidminer.operator.ports.PortOwner;
import com.rapidminer.operator.ports.quickfix.QuickFix;


/**
 *  An error in the process setup that can be registered with the operator in which it appears
 *  using {@link Operator#addError(ProcessSetupError)}. Beyond specifying its message, an error
 *  may also provide a collections of quick fixes that solve this problem.
 * 
 * @author Simon Fischer
 *
 */
public interface ProcessSetupError {

	/** Severity levels of ProcessSetupErrors. */
	public enum Severity {
		/** This indicates that the corresponding message is just for information
		 */
		INFORMATION,
		/** This is an indicator of wrong experiment setup, but
		 *  the process may run nevertheless. */
		WARNING, 
		/** Process will definitely (well, say, most certainly) not run. */
		ERROR
	}
	
	/** Returns the human readable, formatted message. */
	public String getMessage();
	
	/** Returns the owner of the port that should be displayed by the GUI to 
	 *  fix the error. */
	public PortOwner getOwner();
	
	/** If possible, return a list of fixes for the error. */
	public List<? extends QuickFix> getQuickFixes();

	/** Returns the severity of the error. */
	public Severity getSeverity();
}