/**

  * 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.ksb.api.bus;

 /**

  * An {@code Endpoint} contains a reference to the {@link ServiceConfiguration}

  * for a service as well as a proxy to the service endpoint that can be invoked.

  * 

  * <p>This service can be cast to the appropriate service interface in order to

  * invoke the desired operations.

  */

 public interface Endpoint {

         /**

          * Returns the service configuration information for this endpoint.

          * 

          * @return the service configuration for this endpoint, should never return null

          */

         ServiceConfiguration getServiceConfiguration();

         /**

          * Returns a reference to the service that can be invoked through this

          * endpoint.  This could potentially be a proxy to the service (in the case

          * that the endpoint is pointing to a remote service) so calling code

          * should cast this object to the appropriate service interface before

          * using.

          * 

          * <p>It is the client's responsibility to ensure that they are casting the

          * service to the correct interface(s) based on their knowledge of what

          * interface the service should implement.

          * 

          * @return a reference to the service object which can be used to invoke

          * operations against the endpoint, should never return null

          */

         Object getService();

 }