001    // Copyright 2004, 2005 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;
016    
017    import java.util.List;
018    
019    /**
020     * ModuleDescriptorProviders are used by the {@link org.apache.hivemind.impl.RegistryBuilder} (see
021     * {@link org.apache.hivemind.impl.RegistryBuilder#addModuleDescriptorProvider(ModuleDescriptorProvider)})
022     * to load the {@link org.apache.hivemind.parse.ModuleDescriptor} objects describing the Modules
023     * which will be exposed by the Registry.
024     * <p>
025     * HiveMind's default ModuleDescriptorProvider is the
026     * {@link org.apache.hivemind.impl.XmlModuleDescriptorProvider}, which can load module descriptors
027     * from XML files or resources on the classpath.
028     * 
029     * @author Knut Wannheden
030     * @since 1.1
031     */
032    public interface ModuleDescriptorProvider
033    {
034        /**
035         * Returns a List of {@link org.apache.hivemind.parse.ModuleDescriptor module descriptors}. Any
036         * referenced submodules must also be included in this List.
037         */
038        public List getModuleDescriptors(ErrorHandler handler);
039    }