Operation.java

/*
 * Syncany, www.syncany.org
 * Copyright (C) 2011-2014 Philipp C. Heckel <philipp.heckel@gmail.com> 
 *
 * 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 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 General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */
package org.syncany.operations;

import org.syncany.config.Config;

/**
 * Operations represent and implement Syncany's business logic. They typically
 * correspond to a command or an action initiated by either a user, or by a 
 * periodic action. 
 * 
 * <p>Each operation might be configured using an operation-specific implementation of
 * the {@link OperationOptions} interface and is run using the {@link #execute()} method.
 * While the input options are optional, it must return a corresponding {@link OperationResult}
 * object.  
 *  
 * @see OperationOptions
 * @see OperationResult
 * @author Philipp C. Heckel <philipp.heckel@gmail.com>
 */
public abstract class Operation {
	protected Config config;
	
	public Operation(Config config) {
		this.config = config;
	}	

	/**
	 * Executes the operation synchronously and returns a result when 
	 * the operation exits. Using covariance is recommend, that is OperationFoo should
	 * override execute so as to return a OperationFooResult rather than OperationResult.   
	 *   
	 * @return Returns an operation-specific operation result
	 * @throws Exception If the operation fails
	 */
	public abstract OperationResult execute() throws Exception;
}