All Superinterfaces:

EventListener, PropertyChangeListener

public interface CandyFinder
extends PropertyChangeListener 

Version:

$Id$

Author:

Martin Senger, Matthew Pocock

• Field Summary

  Fields

  Modifier and Type	Field and Description
  static String	DEFAULT_FINDER_NAME A default name of this (and any) finder.
  static String	PROP_VOCABULARY A property name.

• Method Summary

  All Methods

  Modifier and Type	Method and Description
  void	connect () It creates a connection to an object representing a vocabulary finder, or/and it makes all necessary initialization steps needed for further communication.
  void	disconnect () It closes connection with the finder object.
  CandyVocabulary[]	getAllVocabularies () It returns all available vocabularies.
  String[]	getAllVocabularyNames () It returns names of all vocabularies known to this vocabulary finder.
  String	getFinderName () It returns a name of this vocabulary finder.
  int	getNumCount () It returns the number of available vocabularies.
  CandyVocabulary	getVocabularyByName (String name) It returns a selected vocabulary.
  boolean	isReady () It checks if a vocabulary finder object is available.

  • Methods inherited from interface java.beans.PropertyChangeListener

    propertyChange

• Field Detail

  • DEFAULT_FINDER_NAME

    static final String DEFAULT_FINDER_NAME 

    A default name of this (and any) finder. It is used when no other name was given by the finder implementation.

    See Also:

    Constant Field Values

  • PROP_VOCABULARY

    static final String PROP_VOCABULARY 

    A property name.

    Its value is of type CandyVocabulary. It this property is set a given vocabulary becomes part of this finder.

    See Also:

    Constant Field Values

• Method Detail

  • connect

    void connect()
     throws CandyException 

    It creates a connection to an object representing a vocabulary finder, or/and it makes all necessary initialization steps needed for further communication.

    However, there should be no need to call this method explicitly, the other methods should do it automatically before they need to use the finder.

    Throws:

    CandyException - if the connection/initialization cannot be established

  • isReady

    boolean isReady()

    It checks if a vocabulary finder object is available. The semantic of availabledepends on the implementation.

  • disconnect

    void disconnect()

    It closes connection with the finder object. Implementations may choose to use this method for freeing resources.

  • getAllVocabularyNames

    String[] getAllVocabularyNames()
     throws CandyException 

    It returns names of all vocabularies known to this vocabulary finder. Any of the returned names can be later used in the method getVocabularyByName.

    Returns:

    a list of available vocabulary names

    Throws:

    CandyException - if the finder fails to communicate with its vocabularies

  • getVocabularyByName

    CandyVocabulary getVocabularyByName(String name)
     throws CandyException 

    It returns a selected vocabulary.

    Parameters:

    name - a name of a vocabulary to be returned

    Returns:

    a selected vocabulary

    Throws:

    CandyException - when the vocabulary cannot be found (likely the given name is wrong)

    See Also:

    getAllVocabularyNames()

  • getAllVocabularies

    CandyVocabulary[] getAllVocabularies()
     throws CandyException 

    It returns all available vocabularies.

    Returns:

    all available vocabularies

    Throws:

    CandyException - if the finder fails to communicate with its vocabularies

  • getNumCount

    int getNumCount()
     throws CandyException 

    It returns the number of available vocabularies.

    Throws:

    CandyException - if the finder fails to communicate with its vocabularies

  • getFinderName

    String getFinderName()
     throws CandyException 

    It returns a name of this vocabulary finder.

    Throws:

    CandyException - if the finder fails to return its name