001/**
002 * Copyright 2005-2016 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 */
016package org.kuali.rice.krms.api.repository.context;
017
018import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Identifiable;
019import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Versioned;
020import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.active.Inactivatable;
021import org.kuali.rice.krms.api.repository.agenda.AgendaDefinitionContract;
022
023import java.rmi.activation.Activatable;
024import java.util.List;
025import java.util.Map;
026
027/**
028 * An interface which defines the contract for context definition objects.
029 * <p>A context is a set of related krms entities. A context definition
030 * defines information about a context which can be loaded into the rules
031 * engine for evaluation.
032 *
033 * A context definition includes a list of agendas which are valid within the
034 * context.  Typically, during rule engine execution, one or more of these
035 * agendas is selected for execution based on a given set of selection criteria. All KRMS components
036 * (agendas, rules, actions, terms, etc.) must be of the same context to
037 * work together. It is up to the client implementor to choose how broadly or
038 * finely grained the scope of the context is to be.
039 * </p>
040 * 
041 * @author Kuali Rice Team (rice.collab@kuali.org)
042 * 
043 */
044public interface ContextDefinitionContract extends Versioned, Identifiable, Inactivatable {
045
046        /**
047         * Returns the namespace of the context definition.  The combination of
048         * namespace and name represent a unique business key for the context
049         * definition.  The namespace should never be null or blank.
050         * 
051         * @return the namespace of the context definition, should never be null or blank
052         */
053        String getNamespace();
054        
055        /**
056         * Returns the name of the context definition.  The combination of name and namespaceCode
057         * represent a unique business key for the context definition.  The name should never be
058         * null or blank.
059         * 
060         * @return the name of the context definition, should never be null or blank
061         */
062        String getName();
063        
064        /**
065         * Returns the type id for the context definition.  If the type id is null, that means
066         * this context definition is of the default type.
067         * 
068         * @return the type id for the context definition, or null if this context definition is of the default type
069         */
070        String getTypeId();
071        
072        
073    /**
074     * Returns the description of the context definition.
075     *
076     * @return the description of the context definition. May be null.
077     */
078    String getDescription();
079
080        /**
081         * Returns the list of agendas {@link AgendaDefinitionContract} contained in the context definition.
082         * This method should never return null. An empty list is returned
083     * if no agendas are associated with this context.
084         * 
085         * @return the list of agendas contained in this context definition
086         */
087        List<? extends AgendaDefinitionContract> getAgendas();
088
089        /**
090         * Returns a map of name/value pairs representing the
091     * attributes associated with this context.
092     * <p>This method should never
093     * return null. An empty map is returned if no attributes are associated
094     * with the context.</p>
095         * 
096         * @return a list of Map of name/value String pairs.
097         */
098        public Map<String, String> getAttributes();
099        
100}