1 /**
2 * Copyright 2005-2012 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.krms.api.repository.context;
17
18 import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Identifiable;
19 import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Versioned;
20 import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.active.Inactivatable;
21 import org.kuali.rice.krms.api.repository.agenda.AgendaDefinitionContract;
22
23 import java.rmi.activation.Activatable;
24 import java.util.List;
25 import java.util.Map;
26
27 /**
28 * An interface which defines the contract for context definition objects.
29 * <p>A context is a set of related krms entities. A context definition
30 * defines information about a context which can be loaded into the rules
31 * engine for evaluation.
32 *
33 * A context definition includes a list of agendas which are valid within the
34 * context. Typically, during rule engine execution, one or more of these
35 * agendas is selected for execution based on a given set of selection criteria. All KRMS components
36 * (agendas, rules, actions, terms, etc.) must be of the same context to
37 * work together. It is up to the client implementor to choose how broadly or
38 * finely grained the scope of the context is to be.
39 * </p>
40 *
41 * @author Kuali Rice Team (rice.collab@kuali.org)
42 *
43 */
44 public interface ContextDefinitionContract extends Versioned, Identifiable, Inactivatable {
45
46 /**
47 * Returns the namespace of the context definition. The combination of
48 * namespace and name represent a unique business key for the context
49 * definition. The namespace should never be null or blank.
50 *
51 * @return the namespace of the context definition, should never be null or blank
52 */
53 String getNamespace();
54
55 /**
56 * Returns the name of the context definition. The combination of name and namespaceCode
57 * represent a unique business key for the context definition. The name should never be
58 * null or blank.
59 *
60 * @return the name of the context definition, should never be null or blank
61 */
62 String getName();
63
64 /**
65 * Returns the type id for the context definition. If the type id is null, that means
66 * this context definition is of the default type.
67 *
68 * @return the type id for the context definition, or null if this context definition is of the default type
69 */
70 String getTypeId();
71
72
73 /**
74 * Returns the description of the context definition.
75 *
76 * @return the description of the context definition. May be null.
77 */
78 String getDescription();
79
80 /**
81 * Returns the list of agendas {@link AgendaDefinitionContract} contained in the context definition.
82 * This method should never return null. An empty list is returned
83 * if no agendas are associated with this context.
84 *
85 * @return the list of agendas contained in this context definition
86 */
87 List<? extends AgendaDefinitionContract> getAgendas();
88
89 /**
90 * Returns a map of name/value pairs representing the
91 * attributes associated with this context.
92 * <p>This method should never
93 * return null. An empty map is returned if no attributes are associated
94 * with the context.</p>
95 *
96 * @return a list of Map of name/value String pairs.
97 */
98 public Map<String, String> getAttributes();
99
100 }