/**

  * Copyright 2005-2011 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.krms.api.repository.term;

 import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Identifiable;

 import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Versioned;

 import org.kuali.rice.krms.api.repository.category.CategoryDefinitionContract;

 import java.util.List;

 /**

  * Interface for classes specifying term specifications

  * 

  * @author Kuali Rice Team (rice.collab@kuali.org)

  *

  */

 public interface TermSpecificationDefinitionContract extends Identifiable, Versioned {

     /**

      * @return the name for this {@link TermSpecificationDefinitionContract}

      */

         String getName();

     /**

          * This is the namespace of the {@link TermSpecificationDefinitionContract}

          *

          * <p>

          * The namespace of the TermSpecificationDefinitionContract

          * </p>

          * @return the namespace of the TermSpecificationDefinitionContract

          */

         public String getNamespace();

     /**

      * @return the fully qualified class name for this {@link TermSpecificationDefinitionContract}

      */

         String getType();

     /**

      * @return the description for this {@link TermSpecificationDefinitionContract}

      */

     String getDescription();

     /**

      * Returns an ordered list of the categories which this term specification

      * definition requires.  This list can be empty (in the case of a term

      * which has no arguments) but will never be null.

      *

      * @return the list of categories for this term specification definition

      */

     List<? extends CategoryDefinitionContract> getCategories();

 }