1 /**
2 * Copyright 2005-2014 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.krad.data.metadata;
17
18 import java.util.List;
19
20 /**
21 * Non-top-level metadata object
22 *
23 * <p>
24 * Interface shared by all non-top-level metadata objects which link to other persistable objects. This is used as the
25 * base interface for 1:1/M:1 Relationships and 1:M/N:M Collections.
26 * </p>
27 *
28 * @author Kuali Rice Team (rice.collab@kuali.org)
29 */
30 public interface MetadataChild extends MetadataCommon {
31
32 /**
33 * Gets the type of related object
34 *
35 * <p>
36 * This is the type of the object referenced by this relationship or contained in this collection.
37 * </p>
38 *
39 * @return type of related object
40 */
41 Class<?> getRelatedType();
42
43 /**
44 * Gets the parent-child related fields
45 *
46 * <p>
47 * Returns the related fields between the parent and child objects.
48 * </p>
49 *
50 * @return related fields. List must not be empty. There always must be at least one related field.
51 */
52 List<DataObjectAttributeRelationship> getAttributeRelationships();
53
54 /**
55 * Gets bi-directional relationship
56 *
57 * <p>
58 * If this metadata element is part of a bi-directional relationship, this method returns the other side of the
59 * bi-directional relationship.
60 * </p>
61 *
62 * @return the inverse of this relationship if it is bi-directional, false otherwise
63 */
64 MetadataChild getInverseRelationship();
65
66 /**
67 * Determines whether object automatically saved
68 *
69 * <p>
70 * For related objects, whether this object will be automatically saved when the containing object is persisted.
71 * </p>
72 *
73 * @return whether object is automatically saved
74 */
75 boolean isSavedWithParent();
76
77 /**
78 * Determines whether this object will be automatically deleted when the containing object is deleted.
79 *
80 * <p>
81 * This is a special case of the {@link #isSavedWithParent()} method. It probably would never be true if the
82 * {@link #isSavedWithParent()} returns false.
83 * </p>
84 *
85 * @return whether automatically deleted
86 */
87 boolean isDeletedWithParent();
88
89 /**
90 * Determines whether object will be loaded with parent
91 *
92 * <p>
93 * For related objects, whether this related object will be loaded from the persistence layer at the same time as
94 * the parent object.
95 * </p>
96 * <p>
97 * If false, the object will be loaded upon demand, either via automatic lazy-loading provided by the infrastructure
98 * or by explicit request.
99 * </p>
100 *
101 * @return whether object
102 */
103 boolean isLoadedAtParentLoadTime();
104
105 /**
106 * Determines whether the object is reloaded automatically with parent
107 *
108 * <p>
109 * For related objects, whether this related object will be loaded from the persistence layer automatically when it
110 * is accessed by client code.
111 * </p>
112 * <p>
113 * If false, then the object must be refreshed manually by client code. (Though such a refresh may be possible by
114 * requesting the refresh from the persistence provider.)
115 * </p>
116 *
117 * @return whether object loaded automatically with parent
118 */
119 boolean isLoadedDynamicallyUponUse();
120
121 /**
122 * Gets foreign key attribute from parent.
123 *
124 * <p>
125 * For a given child key attribute, return the matching foreign key attribute on the parent object.
126 * </p>
127 *
128 * @return null if the attribute name given is not part of the key relationship.
129 */
130 String getParentAttributeNameRelatedToChildAttributeName(String childAttribute);
131 }