package org.apache.commons.betwixt.registry;

/*
 * Copyright 2001-2004 The Apache Software Foundation.
 * 
 * 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.
 */ 

import org.apache.commons.betwixt.XMLBeanInfo;

/** <p>Plug in registry for <code>XMLBeanInfo</code>'s.</p>
  * 
  * <p>This decouples the implementation of the <code>XMLBeanInfo</code> cache.
  * Users can plug in the standard implementations found 
  * in this package to switch caching on and off.
  * Alternatively, they can plug-in an exotic cache of their own devising.</p>
  *
  * <p>Users can also prime a cache with <code>XMLBeanInfo</code>
  * classes created programmatically.</p>
  *
  * <p>To find a <code>XMLBeanInfo</code> for a class,
  * <code>XMLIntrospector</code> checks in the registry first 
  * before starting introspection.
  * If the registry returns an <code>XMLBeanInfo</code>, then that's used.
  * Otherwise, the <code>XMLBeanInfo</code> will be found by standard introspection
  * and then {@link #put} will be called so that the registry 
  * can cache - if it wished - the <code>XMLBeanInfo</code>. 
  * </p>
  *
  * @author <a href="mailto:rdonkin@apache.org">Robert Burrell Donkin</a>
  * @version $Id: XMLBeanInfoRegistry.java,v 1.6 2004/02/28 13:38:34 yoavs Exp $
  */
public interface XMLBeanInfoRegistry {
    
    /** 
      * Get the <code>XMLBeanInfo</code> for the given class.
      *
      * @param forThisClass get <code>XMLBeanInfo</code> for this class
      *
      * @return <code>null</code> if fresh introspection should be used 
      * to find the <code>XMLBeanInfo</code>
      */
    public XMLBeanInfo get(Class forThisClass);
    
    /**
      * Associate a class with it's <code>XMLBeanInfo</code>.
      *
      * @param forThisClass the class to associate with the given bean info
      * @param beanInfo the <code>XMLBeanInfo</code> to use for the given class
      */
    public void put(Class forThisClass, XMLBeanInfo beanInfo);
    
    /**
     * Flush or resets the current registry to it's original state.
     * It has to be implemented, however could be an empty implementation
     */
    public void flush();
}