/*
* Copyright 2002-2016 the original author or authors.
*
* 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.springframework.expression;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.util.List;
/**
* MethodFilter instances allow SpEL users to fine tune the behaviour of the method
* resolution process. Method resolution (which translates from a method name in an
* expression to a real method to invoke) will normally retrieve candidate methods for
* invocation via a simple call to 'Class.getMethods()' and will choose the first one that
* is suitable for the input parameters. By registering a MethodFilter the user can
* receive a callback and change the methods that will be considered suitable.
*
* @author Andy Clement
* @since 3.0.1
*/
@FunctionalInterface
public interface MethodFilter {
/**
* Called by the method resolver to allow the SpEL user to organize the list of
* candidate methods that may be invoked. The filter can remove methods that should
* not be considered candidates and it may sort the results. The resolver will then
* search through the methods as returned from the filter when looking for a suitable
* candidate to invoke.
* @param methods the full list of methods the resolver was going to choose from
* @return a possible subset of input methods that may be sorted by order of relevance
*/
List<Method> filter(List<Method> methods);
}