001// Copyright 2004, 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.spec;
016
017import org.apache.hivemind.LocationHolder;
018
019/**
020 * Defines a transient or persistant property of a component or page. A
021 * {@link org.apache.tapestry.enhance.ComponentClassFactory}uses this information to create a
022 * subclass with the necessary instance variables and methods.
023 * 
024 * @author glongman@intelligentworks.com
025 */
026public interface IPropertySpecification extends LocationHolder
027{
028    /**
029     * Returns the initial value for this property, as a binding reference. May return null if the
030     * property has no initial value. The initial value is from finishLoad() and re-applied in
031     * pageDetached().
032     */
033
034    public String getInitialValue();
035
036    public String getName();
037
038    /**
039     * Returns true if {@link #getPersistence()}is null.
040     */
041    public boolean isPersistent();
042
043    public String getType();
044
045    public void setInitialValue(String initialValue);
046
047    /**
048     * Sets the name of the property. This should not be changed once this IPropertySpecification is
049     * added to a {@link org.apache.tapestry.spec.IComponentSpecification}.
050     */
051    public void setName(String name);
052
053    public void setType(String type);
054
055    /**
056     * A string indicating how the property is persisted.
057     * 
058     * @since 4.0
059     */
060
061    public void setPersistence(String persistence);
062
063    /**
064     * If null, then the property is not persistent.
065     * 
066     * @since 4.0
067     */
068    public String getPersistence();
069
070}