/*
* Scanner.java January 2010
*
* Copyright (C) 2010, Niall Gallagher <niallg@users.sf.net>
*
* 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 org.simpleframework.xml.convert;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
/**
* The <code>Scanner</code> interface is used to scan a class for a
* given annotation. A scanner will cache all previous lookups to
* ensure the look time is reduced. Caches include misses, so if a
* class does not contain an annotation when scanned it will not
* be scanned again.
*
* @author Niall Gallagher
*/
interface Scanner {
/**
* This method will scan a class for the specified annotation.
* If the annotation is found on the class, or on one of the super
* types then it is returned. All scans should be cached to ensure
* scanning is only performed once.
*
* @param type this is the annotation type to be scanned for
*
* @return this will return the annotation if it is found
*/
<T extends Annotation> T scan(Class<T> type);
}