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.contrib.table.components;
016
017import org.apache.tapestry.IComponent;
018import org.apache.tapestry.contrib.table.model.IAdvancedTableColumnSource;
019import org.apache.tapestry.contrib.table.model.ITableColumnModel;
020
021/**
022 * Service used to generate a {@link org.apache.tapestry.contrib.table.model.ITableColumnModel}from
023 * a string description.
024 * 
025 * @author Howard M. Lewis Ship
026 * @since 4.0
027 */
028public interface TableColumnModelSource
029{
030    /**
031     * Generate a table column model out of the description string provided. Entries in the
032     * description string are separated by commas. Each column entry is of the format name,
033     * name:expression, or name:displayName:expression. An entry prefixed with ! represents a
034     * non-sortable column. If the whole description string is prefixed with *, it represents
035     * columns to be included in a Form.
036     * 
037     * @param strDesc
038     *            the description of the column model to be generated
039     * @param objComponent
040     *            the component ordering the generation
041     * @param objColumnSettingsContainer
042     *            the component containing the column settings
043     * @return a table column model based on the provided parameters
044     */
045    public ITableColumnModel generateTableColumnModel(IAdvancedTableColumnSource objColumnSource,
046                String strDesc, IComponent objComponent, IComponent objColumnSettingsContainer);
047}