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1   /**
2    * Copyright 2005-2011 The Kuali Foundation
3    *
4    * Licensed under the Educational Community License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
5    * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
6    * You may obtain a copy of the License at
7    *
8    * http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ecl2.php
9    *
10   * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
11   * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
12   * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
13   * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
14   * limitations under the License.
15   */
16  package org.kuali.rice.ksb.api.bus;
17  
18  /**
19   * An {@code Endpoint} contains a reference to the {@link ServiceConfiguration}
20   * for a service as well as a proxy to the service endpoint that can be invoked.
21   * 
22   * <p>This service can be cast to the appropriate service interface in order to
23   * invoke the desired operations.
24   */
25  public interface Endpoint {
26  
27  	/**
28  	 * Returns the service configuration information for this endpoint.
29  	 * 
30  	 * @return the service configuration for this endpoint, should never return null
31  	 */
32  	ServiceConfiguration getServiceConfiguration();
33  	
34  	/**
35  	 * Returns a reference to the service that can be invoked through this
36  	 * endpoint.  This could potentially be a proxy to the service (in the case
37  	 * that the endpoint is pointing to a remote service) so calling code
38  	 * should cast this object to the appropriate service interface before
39  	 * using.
40  	 * 
41  	 * <p>It is the client's responsibility to ensure that they are casting the
42  	 * service to the correct interface(s) based on their knowledge of what
43  	 * interface the service should implement.
44  	 * 
45  	 * @return a reference to the service object which can be used to invoke
46  	 * operations against the endpoint, should never return null
47  	 */
48  	Object getService();
49  	
50  }