/*

  * Copyright 2006-2007 The Kuali Foundation

  * 

  * Licensed under the Educational Community License, Version 2.0 (the "License");

  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.

  * You may obtain a copy of the License at

  * 

  * http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ecl2.php

  * 

  * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software

  * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,

  * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.

  * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and

  * limitations under the License.

  */

 package org.kuali.rice.kns.service;

 import java.util.Collection;

 import java.util.Map;

 /**

  * This class provides collection retrievals to populate key value pairs of business objects.

  * 

  * 

  */

 public interface KeyValuesService {

     /**

      * Retrieves a collection of business objects populated with data, such that each record in the database populates a new object

      * instance. This will only retrieve business objects by class type.

      * 

      * @param clazz

      * @return

      */

     public Collection findAll(Class clazz);

     /**

      * Retrieves a collection of business objects populated with data, such that each record in the database populates a new object

      * instance. This will only retrieve business objects by class type. Performs a sort on the result collection on the given sort

      * field.

      * 

      * @param clazz

      * @param sortField - name of the field in the class to sort results by

      * @param sortAscending - boolean indicating whether to sort ascending or descending

      * @return

      */

     public Collection findAllOrderBy(Class clazz, String sortField, boolean sortAscending);

     /**

      * This method retrieves a collection of business objects populated with data, such that each record in the database populates a

      * new object instance. This will retrieve business objects by class type and also by criteria passed in as key-value pairs,

      * specifically attribute name and its expected value.

      * 

      * @param clazz

      * @param fieldValues

      * @return

      */

     public Collection findMatching(Class clazz, Map fieldValues);

     /**

      * Retrieves a collection of business objects populated with data, such that each record in the database populates a new object

      * instance. This will only retrieve business objects by class type.

      * 

      * @param clazz

      * @return

      */

     public Collection findAllInactive(Class clazz);

 }