/*
 * 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.
 */ 
package org.apache.commons.betwixt.strategy;

/** 
 * <p>Class normalization strategy.</p>
 *
 * <p>
 * The normalized Class is the Class that Betwixt should 
 * introspect.
 * This strategy class allows the introspected Class to be 
 * varied.
 * This implementation simply returns the Class given.
 * </p>
 *
 * <p>
 * Used by Betwixt to allow superclasses or interfaces to be subsittuted
 * before an object is introspected. 
 * This allows users to feed in logical interfaces and make Betwixt ignore
 * properties other than those in the interface.
 * It also allows support for <code>Proxy</code>'s.
 * Together, these features allow Betwixt to deal with Entity Beans
 * properly by viewing them through their remote interfaces.
 * </p>
 * @author Robert Burrell Donkin
 * @since 0.5
 */
public class ClassNormalizer {

    /** 
      * Gets the normalized class for the given Object.
      * The normalized Class is the Class that Betwixt should 
      * introspect. 
      * This strategy class allows the introspected Class to be 
      * varied.
      *
      * @param object the <code>Object</code> 
      * for which the normalized Class is to be returned.
      * @return the normalized Class
      */
    public Class getNormalizedClass( Object object ) {
        if ( object == null ) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Cannot get class for null object.");
        }
        return normalize( object.getClass() );
    }

    /**
      * Normalize given class.
      * The normalized Class is the Class that Betwixt should 
      * introspect. 
      * This strategy class allows the introspected Class to be 
      * varied.
      *
      * @param clazz the class to normalize, not null
      * @return this implementation the same clazz, 
      * subclasses may return any compatible class.
      */
    public Class normalize( Class clazz ) {
        return clazz;
    }
}