001/**
002 * Copyright 2005-2016 The Kuali Foundation
003 *
004 * Licensed under the Educational Community License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
005 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
006 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
007 *
008 * http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ecl2.php
009 *
010 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
011 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
012 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
013 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
014 * limitations under the License.
015 */
016package org.kuali.rice.krms.api.repository.term;
017
018import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Identifiable;
019import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Versioned;
020import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.active.Inactivatable;
021import org.kuali.rice.krms.api.repository.category.CategoryDefinitionContract;
022
023import java.util.List;
024
025/**
026 * <p>The contract for a {@link TermSpecificationDefinition} which defines important information about a term (see
027 * {@link org.kuali.rice.krms.api.repository.term.TermDefinitionContract}).  A term specification should be uniquely
028 * identifiable by its name and namespace. This key is important for determining how the fact value for a term can be
029 * resolved.
030 * </p>
031 *
032 * @author Kuali Rice Team (rice.collab@kuali.org)
033 *
034 */
035public interface TermSpecificationDefinitionContract extends Identifiable, Inactivatable, Versioned {
036
037    /**
038     * Gets the name for this {@link TermSpecificationDefinitionContract}.  This is an important key
039     * that must be unique within a namespace, and is used to determine how to resolve any terms
040     * having this specification. Will not be null or empty.
041     *
042     * @return the name
043     */
044        String getName();
045
046    /**
047         * Gets the namespace of this {@link TermSpecificationDefinitionContract}.  Will not be null or empty.
048         *
049         * @return the namespace of the TermSpecificationDefinitionContract
050         */
051        public String getNamespace();
052
053    /**
054     * Gets the fully qualified class name for the values of any term having this specification.  E.g. if the
055     * type of the fact values for the "total dollar amount of a grant" term was {@link java.math.BigDecimal},
056     * then the term specification's type would be the String "java.math.BigDecimal".  Will never return null or
057     * the empty string.
058     *
059     * @return the fully qualified name of the java type of values for this term.
060     */
061        String getType();
062
063    /**
064     * Gets the description for this term specification, which will typically be a suitable description for
065     * any term having this specification as well.  May return null if no description is specified for the term
066     * specification.
067     *
068     * @return the description for this term specification.
069     */
070    String getDescription();
071
072    /**
073     * Gets an ordered list of the categories which this term specification
074     * definition belongs to.  This list can be empty but will never be null.
075     *
076     * @return the list of categories for this term specification definition.
077     */
078    List<? extends CategoryDefinitionContract> getCategories();
079
080    // TODO: ensure that @since is accurate when this sandbox branch is merged back into Rice proper
081    /**
082     * Gets a list of the IDs for the contexts this TermSpecification can be used in.
083     *
084     * @return the list of contexts for this term specification definition
085     * @since 2.2
086     */
087    List<String> getContextIds();
088
089}