001    // Copyright 2007 The Apache Software Foundation
002    //
003    // Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
004    // you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
005    // You may obtain a copy of the License at
006    //
007    //     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
008    //
009    // Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
010    // distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
011    // WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
012    // See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
013    // limitations under the License.
014    
015    package org.apache.hivemind.definition;
016    
017    /**
018     * Defines a parser for the processing of configuration data that is provided
019     * in a textual format.  The parsed data is handled as {@link Contribution} to a 
020     * configuration point. Each parser is associated with a certain input format,
021     * which is specified by {@link #getInputFormat()}.
022     * The parsing is done by an instance of {@link ConfigurationParser}
023     * which is created by a {@link ConfigurationParserConstructor}.
024     * 
025     * @author Huegen
026     */
027    public interface ConfigurationParserDefinition extends ExtensionDefinition
028    {
029        /**
030         * @return  the format of the data the parser can process 
031         */
032        public String getInputFormat();
033        
034        /**
035         * @return  a factory for the construction of a parser instance
036         */
037        public ConfigurationParserConstructor getParserConstructor();
038    }