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.krms.api.repository;
017    
018    import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Identifiable;
019    import org.kuali.rice.krms.api.repository.type.KrmsAttributeDefinitionContract;
020    
021    /**
022     * Base interface intended for extension by other AttributeContract interfaces 
023     * <p>This contains the common fields shared by all KRMS attributes.</p>
024     * @author Kuali Rice Team (rice.collab@kuali.org)
025     *
026     */
027    public interface BaseAttributeContract extends Identifiable {
028    
029        /**
030         * Returns the id of the attribute definition.
031         *
032         * <p>
033         * The attribute definition contains metadata about the attribute. This
034         * is a required field and may not be null or blank. Many
035         * attribute instances may share the same attribute definition.
036         * </p>
037         * @return the attribute definition id
038         */
039            public String getAttributeDefinitionId();
040    
041            /**
042             * Returns the value of the attribute
043             * 
044             * @return the value of the attribute
045             */
046            public String getValue();
047    
048            /**
049             * Returns a {@link KrmsAttributeDefinitionContract.}
050         * <p>This is the object referred to by the attributeDefinitionId.
051         * The full object is also kept here for performance purposes. This is because the name of the attribute
052         * is referenced often for resolving name / value attribute pairs.</p>
053         *
054         * @return the attribute definition
055             */
056            public KrmsAttributeDefinitionContract getAttributeDefinition();
057    
058    }