001    /**
002     * Copyright 2005-2012 The Kuali Foundation
003     *
004     * Licensed under the Educational Community License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
005     * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
006     * You may obtain a copy of the License at
007     *
008     * http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ecl2.php
009     *
010     * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
011     * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
012     * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
013     * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
014     * limitations under the License.
015     */
016    package org.kuali.rice.ksb.api.bus;
017    
018    /**
019     * An {@code Endpoint} contains a reference to the {@link ServiceConfiguration}
020     * for a service as well as a proxy to the service endpoint that can be invoked.
021     * 
022     * <p>This service can be cast to the appropriate service interface in order to
023     * invoke the desired operations.
024     */
025    public interface Endpoint {
026    
027            /**
028             * Returns the service configuration information for this endpoint.
029             * 
030             * @return the service configuration for this endpoint, should never return null
031             */
032            ServiceConfiguration getServiceConfiguration();
033            
034            /**
035             * Returns a reference to the service that can be invoked through this
036             * endpoint.  This could potentially be a proxy to the service (in the case
037             * that the endpoint is pointing to a remote service) so calling code
038             * should cast this object to the appropriate service interface before
039             * using.
040             * 
041             * <p>It is the client's responsibility to ensure that they are casting the
042             * service to the correct interface(s) based on their knowledge of what
043             * interface the service should implement.
044             * 
045             * @return a reference to the service object which can be used to invoke
046             * operations against the endpoint, should never return null
047             */
048            Object getService();
049            
050    }