001 /* 002 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more 003 * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with 004 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. 005 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 006 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with 007 * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at 008 * 009 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 010 * 011 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software 012 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, 013 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. 014 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and 015 * limitations under the License. 016 */ 017 package org.apache.commons.betwixt.registry; 018 019 import org.apache.commons.betwixt.io.read.ElementMapping; 020 import org.apache.commons.betwixt.io.read.ReadContext; 021 022 /** 023 * <p>Resolves polymorphic references. 024 * </p><p> 025 * A polymorphic reference is an element whose name and type 026 * resolution are postponed till bind-time. 027 * When the xml is read, the type can then resolved from 028 * by calling {@link #resolveType}. 029 * </p> 030 * @since 0.7 031 * @author <a href='http://commons.apache.org/'>Apache Commons Team</a> 032 */ 033 public interface PolymorphicReferenceResolver { 034 035 /** 036 * Resolves the bind-time type of a polymorphic element. 037 * @param mapping <code>ElementMapping</code> describing the (polymorphic) element being mapped, 038 * not null 039 * @param context <code>ReadContext</code>, not null 040 * @return the <code>Class</code> describing the type to which this element should be bound, 041 * or null if the reference cannot be resolved 042 */ 043 public Class resolveType(ElementMapping mapping, ReadContext context); 044 }