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.hivemind.lib;
016
017
018/**
019 * Builds a default implementation of an interface. The fabricated class has no-op
020 * implementions for each method in the interface.  Non-void methods return null,
021 * false or zero.  A cached, shared instance of the empty implementation is kept and will
022 * be returned on future invocations.
023 *
024 * @author Howard Lewis Ship
025 */
026public interface DefaultImplementationBuilder
027{
028    /**
029     * Builds a default implementation of the indicated interface, instantiates and returns it.
030     * Results are cached for later re-use.
031     * 
032     * @throws org.apache.hivemind.ApplicationRuntimeException if interfaceType is not an interface.
033     */
034    public Object buildDefaultImplementation(Class interfaceType);
035}