001 /**
002 * Copyright 2005-2013 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.context;
017
018 import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Identifiable;
019 import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.Versioned;
020 import org.kuali.rice.core.api.mo.common.active.Inactivatable;
021 import org.kuali.rice.krms.api.repository.agenda.AgendaDefinitionContract;
022
023 import java.rmi.activation.Activatable;
024 import java.util.List;
025 import 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 */
044 public 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 }