| gvSIG desktop 1

/* gvSIG. Geographic Information System of the Valencian Government

*

* Copyright (C) 2007-2008 Infrastructures and Transports Department

* of the Valencian Government (CIT)

* 

* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or

* modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License

* as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2

* of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

* 

* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the

* GNU General Public License for more details.

* 

* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software

* Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, 

* MA  02110-1301, USA.

* 

*/

/*

* AUTHORS (In addition to CIT):

* 2008 Geographic Information research group: http://www.geoinfo.uji.es

* Departamento de Lenguajes y Sistemas Inform?ticos (LSI)

* Universitat Jaume I   

* {{Task}}

*/

package org.gvsig.metadata.extended;

import java.util.Date;

import java.util.Iterator;

import org.gvsig.metadata.Metadata;

import org.gvsig.metadata.exceptions.NamedMetadataNotFoundException;

import org.gvsig.metadata.extended.registry.objects.MDDefinition;

public interface ExtendedMetadata extends Metadata {

        /**

         * Retrieves a MDElement from the ExtendedMetadata object

         * @param        name        the name which identifies the object to return

         * @return                        the object referenced by 'name' in the ExtendedMetadata object

         * @throws ClassCastException        thrown to indicate that the code has attempted to cast an object to a subclass of which it is not an instance

         * @throws NamedMetadataNotFoundException        if not Metadata with the 'name' is found

         */

        public MDElement getElement(String name) throws ClassCastException, NamedMetadataNotFoundException;

        /**

         * Puts a MDElement in the ExtendedMetadata object

         * @param        elem        the MDElement object to put in the ExtendedMetadata object 

         */

        public void setElement(MDElement elem);

        /**

         * Retrieves the identifier of the ExtendedMetadata object

         * @return                        the String which identifies the ExtendedMetadata object

         */

        public String getId();

        /**

         * Retrieves the description of the ExtendedMetadata object

         * @return                        a String containing the description of the ExtendedMetadata object

         */

        public String getDescription();

        /**

         * Set the description of the ExtendedMetadata object

         */

        public void setDescription(String desc);

        /**

         * Retrieves the date of creation of the object

         * @return                        a Date object containing the system date when the ExtendedMetadata object was created

         */

        public Date getCreateDate();

        /**

         * Retrieves the date of the last change in the object

         * @return                        a Date object containing the system date when the ExtendedMetadata object was modified for the last time

         */

        public Date getChangeDate();

        /**

         * Retrieves the ExtendedMetadata object type

         * @return                        a MDDefinition object containing the name and the description of the ExtendedMetadata object

         */

        public MDDefinition getType();

        /**

         * Retrieves the name of the creator of the ExtendedMetadata object

         * @return                        a String containing the name of the creator of the object

         */

        public String getAuthor();

        /**

         * Checks if the ExtendedMetadata object has a specific value

         * @param         name        the name which identifies the value to check

         * @return                        a boolean value which indicates if there is a value in the object referenced by 'name'

         */

        public boolean hasValue(String name);

        /**

         * Checks if the ExtendedMetadata object is empty

         * @return                        a boolean value which indicates if the object has any value

         */

        public boolean isEmpty();

        /**

         * Retrieves the father of the Metadata object, or null if it doesn't have.

         * @return                        a ExtendedMetadata object or null

         */

        public ExtendedMetadata getFather();

        /**

         * Changes father of the object

         * @param         father        the new father value of the ExtendedMetadata object

         */

        public void setFather(ExtendedMetadata father); 

        /**

         * Checks if the ExtendedMetadata has father

         * @return                        a boolean value which indicates if the object has father

         */

        public boolean hasFather();

        /**

         * Retrieves the deep level in the Metadata tree, 0 for the root.

         * @return                        an integer value which indicates the level.

         */

        public int getLevel();

        /**

         * Retrieves a Iterator to the Metadata elements.

         * @return                        an Iterator object.

         */

        public Iterator iterator();

        /**

         * Retrieves a String representing the Metadata object and its elements.

         * @return                        a String.

         */

        public String toString();

}