001// Copyright 2005 The Apache Software Foundation
002//
003// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
004// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
005// You may obtain a copy of the License at
006//
007//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
008//
009// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
010// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
011// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
012// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
013// limitations under the License.
014
015package org.apache.tapestry.services;
016
017/**
018 * Used to search for a class within a list of packages. Available as service tapestry.ClassFinder.
019 * 
020 * @author Howard Lewis Ship
021 * @since 4.0
022 */
023public interface ClassFinder
024{
025    /**
026     * Searches for a class within a list of packages, which always includes the default package.
027     * 
028     * @param packageList
029     *            a comma seperated list of package names (i.e., "java.lang,java.util")
030     * @param className
031     *            the name of the class to search for. This may be just a class name, or even a
032     *            partial class name (i.e., "impl.Foo").
033     * @return the class, if found, or null if no class could be found in any of the packages
034     */
035
036    public Class findClass(String packageList, String className);
037}