/*
 * 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;

import org.apache.commons.beanutils.ConvertUtils;
import org.apache.commons.betwixt.expression.Context;

/** 
 * String <-> object conversion strategy that delegates to ConvertUtils.
 *
 * @author Robert Burrell Donkin
 * @since 0.5
 */
public class ConvertUtilsObjectStringConverter extends ObjectStringConverter {
    
    /**
      * Converts an object to a string representation using ConvertUtils.
      *
      * @param object the object to be converted, possibly null
      * @param type the property class of the object, not null
      * @param flavour a string allow symantic differences in formatting 
      * to be communicated (ignored)
      * @param context not null
      * @return a String representation, not null
      */
    public String objectToString(Object object, Class type, String flavour, Context context) {
        if ( object != null ) {
            String text = ConvertUtils.convert( object );
            if ( text != null ) {
                return text;
            }
        }
        return "";
    }
    
    /**
      * Converts an object to a string representation using ConvertUtils.
      * This implementation ignores null and empty string values (rather than converting them).
      * 
      * @param value the String to be converted, not null
      * @param type the property class to be returned (if possible), not null
      * @param flavour a string allow symantic differences in formatting 
      * to be communicated (ignored)
      * @param context not null
      * @return an Object converted from the String, not null
      */
    public Object stringToObject(String value, Class type, String flavour, Context context) {
        if (value == null || "".equals(value))
        {
            return null;    
        }
        
        return ConvertUtils.convert( value, type );
    }
}