org.exolab.castor.mapping
Class FieldHandlerFactory

java.lang.Object
  org.exolab.castor.mapping.FieldHandlerFactory

Direct Known Subclasses:

DefaultFieldHandlerFactory

public abstract class FieldHandlerFactory
extends Object

An abstract factory class for creating GeneralizedFieldHandlers.

Version:

$Revision: 5951 $ $Date: 2003-10-23 13:53:59 -0600 (Thu, 23 Oct 2003) $

Author:

Keith Visco

Constructor Summary

FieldHandlerFactory()

Method Summary

abstract GeneralizedFieldHandler	createFieldHandler(Class type) Creates a GeneralizedFieldHandler for the given class type.
abstract Class[]	getSupportedTypes() Returns an array of the supported Class types for this FieldHandlerFactory.
abstract boolean	isSupportedType(Class type) Returns true if the given Class type is supported by this FieldHandlerFactory.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

FieldHandlerFactory

public FieldHandlerFactory()

Method Detail

getSupportedTypes

public abstract Class[] getSupportedTypes()

Returns an array of the supported Class types for this FieldHandlerFactory. The array may be empty, but must not be null.

Returns:

an array of supported Class types.

isSupportedType

public abstract boolean isSupportedType(Class type)

Returns true if the given Class type is supported by this FieldHandlerFactory. If the type is supported, a call to #createFieldHandler will return a valid FieldHandler. If the type is not supported, a call to createFieldHandler may return null or throw a MappingException.

Parameters:

type - the Class type to determine support for.

Returns:

true if the given Class type is supported.

createFieldHandler

public abstract GeneralizedFieldHandler createFieldHandler(Class type)
                                                    throws MappingException

Creates a GeneralizedFieldHandler for the given class type. The method should return a new GeneralizedFieldHandler as an "underlying" FieldHandler will need to be set by the caller.

Parameters:

type - the Class type to create the FieldHandler for.

Throws:

MappingException