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;
016
017import java.util.List;
018
019/**
020 * ModuleDescriptorProviders are used by the {@link org.apache.hivemind.impl.RegistryBuilder} (see
021 * {@link org.apache.hivemind.impl.RegistryBuilder#addModuleDescriptorProvider(ModuleDescriptorProvider)})
022 * to load the {@link org.apache.hivemind.parse.ModuleDescriptor} objects describing the Modules
023 * which will be exposed by the Registry.
024 * <p>
025 * HiveMind's default ModuleDescriptorProvider is the
026 * {@link org.apache.hivemind.impl.XmlModuleDescriptorProvider}, which can load module descriptors
027 * from XML files or resources on the classpath.
028 * 
029 * @author Knut Wannheden
030 * @since 1.1
031 */
032public interface ModuleDescriptorProvider
033{
034    /**
035     * Returns a List of {@link org.apache.hivemind.parse.ModuleDescriptor module descriptors}. Any
036     * referenced submodules must also be included in this List.
037     */
038    public List getModuleDescriptors(ErrorHandler handler);
039}