/*
 * Copyright 2001-2004 The Apache Software Foundation.
 * 
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * 
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 * 
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */ 


package org.apache.commons.beanutils;





/**
 * <p>A <strong>DynaClass</strong> is a simulation of the functionality of
 * <code>java.lang.Class</code> for classes implementing the
 * <code>DynaBean</code> interface.  DynaBean instances that share the same
 * DynaClass all have the same set of available properties, along with any
 * associated data types, read-only states, and write-only states.</p>
 *
 * @author Craig McClanahan
 * @author Michael Smith
 * @author Paulo Gaspar
 * @version $Revision: 1.12 $ $Date: 2004/02/28 13:18:33 $
 */

public interface DynaClass {


    /**
     * Return the name of this DynaClass (analogous to the
     * <code>getName()</code> method of <code>java.lang.Class</code), which
     * allows the same <code>DynaClass</code> implementation class to support
     * different dynamic classes, with different sets of properties.
     */
    public String getName();


    /**
     * Return a property descriptor for the specified property, if it exists;
     * otherwise, return <code>null</code>.
     *
     * @param name Name of the dynamic property for which a descriptor
     *  is requested
     *
     * @exception IllegalArgumentException if no property name is specified
     */
    public DynaProperty getDynaProperty(String name);


    /**
     * <p>Return an array of <code>ProperyDescriptors</code> for the properties
     * currently defined in this DynaClass.  If no properties are defined, a
     * zero-length array will be returned.</p>
     *
     * <p><strong>FIXME</strong> - Should we really be implementing
     * <code>getBeanInfo()</code> instead, which returns property descriptors
     * and a bunch of other stuff?</p>
     */
    public DynaProperty[] getDynaProperties();


    /**
     * Instantiate and return a new DynaBean instance, associated
     * with this DynaClass.
     *
     * @exception IllegalAccessException if the Class or the appropriate
     *  constructor is not accessible
     * @exception InstantiationException if this Class represents an abstract
     *  class, an array class, a primitive type, or void; or if instantiation
     *  fails for some other reason
     */
    public DynaBean newInstance()
            throws IllegalAccessException, InstantiationException;


}