1. /*

  2.  * Copyright 2002-2004 the original author or authors.

  3.  * 

  4.  * Licensed under the Apache 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.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

  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. 

  17. package org.springframework.core;

  18. 

  19. /**

  20.  * Interface that can be implemented by objects that should be

  21.  * orderable, e.g. in a Collection. The actual order can be

  22.  * interpreted as prioritization, the first object (with the

  23.  * lowest order value) having the highest priority.

  24.  *

  25.  * @author Juergen Hoeller

  26.  * @since 07.04.2003

  27.  */

  28. public interface Ordered {

  29. 

  30.   /**

  31.    * Return the order value of this object,

  32.    * higher value meaning greater in terms of sorting.

  33.    * Normally starting with 0 or 1, Integer.MAX_VALUE

  34.    * indicating greatest.

  35.    * Same order values will result in arbitrary positions

  36.    * for the affected objects.

  37.    *

  38.    * <p>Higher value can be interpreted as lower priority,

  39.    * consequently the first object has highest priority

  40.    * (somewhat analogous to Servlet "load-on-startup" values).

  41.    *

  42.    * @return the order value

  43.    */

  44. 	public int getOrder();

  45. }