/*

  * Copyright 2007-2009 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.core.api.parameter;

 import java.io.Serializable;

 /**

  * This is a stateful wrapper for Parameters, which provides convenient methods to evaluate a constrained value against a Parameter.

  */

 public interface ParameterEvaluator extends Serializable {

     /**

      * This method determines whether the constrainedValue specified when the ParameterEvaluator was created matches the parameter.

      * 

      * @return boolean indicating whether the constrained value adheres to the restriction specified by the combination of the

      *         parameter constraint and the parameter value

      */

     public boolean evaluationSucceeds();

     /**

      * This method uses the evaluateAndAddError method. It passes the constrainedPropertyName as both the constrainedPropertyName

      * and the userEditablePropertyName, i.e. it should be used when they are one and the same.

      * 

      * @param businessObjectOrDocumentClass

      * @param constrainedPropertyName

      * @return boolean indicating whether evaluation succeeded (see evaluationSucceeds)

      */

     public boolean evaluateAndAddError(Class<? extends Object> businessObjectOrDocumentClass, String constrainedPropertyName);

     /**

      * This method uses the evaluationSucceeds method to evaluate the constrainedValue. If evaluation does not succeed, it adds an

      * error for the user. The businessObjectOrDocumentClass, nameOfConstrainedProperty and userEditablePropertyName are used by

      * ParameterEvaluatorImpl to retrieve user friendly labels for the error message. The constrainedPropertyName corresponds to the

      * field that has the value that the parameter is evaluating. The userEditablePropertyName corresponds to the field that has the

      * value the user needs to correct to resolve the error. For example, the object type may be invalid, but the user needs to

      * change the object code in order to remedy that.

      * 

      * @param businessObjectOrDocumentClass

      * @param userEditableFieldToHighlight

      * @param nameOfconstrainedProperty

      * @return boolean indicating whether evaluation succeeded (see evaluationSucceeds)

      */

     public boolean evaluateAndAddError(Class<? extends Object> businessObjectOrDocumentClass, String constrainedPropertyName, String userEditablePropertyName);

     /**

      * This method determines whether the parameter lists allowed values or denied values.

      * 

      * @return boolean indicating whether the parameter lists allowed values

      */

     public boolean constraintIsAllow();

     /**

      * This method creates a pretty String representation of parameter values for the user messages.

      *

      * @return user-friendly String representation of Parameter values

      */

     public String getParameterValuesForMessage();

     /**

      * This method returns the value of the correspnding Parameter.

      * 

      * @return String value of underlying Parameter

      */

     public String getValue();

 }