First version after introduction of meaningful ids and Identifiable interface.

[xmlrouter] / config / src / main / java / org / wamblee / xmlrouter / config / Identifiable.java

diff --git a/config/src/main/java/org/wamblee/xmlrouter/config/Identifiable.java b/config/src/main/java/org/wamblee/xmlrouter/config/Identifiable.java
new file mode 100644 (file)
index 0000000..dc1f993
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+++ b/config/src/main/java/org/wamblee/xmlrouter/config/Identifiable.java
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2005-2011 the original author or authors.
+ * 
+ * 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.wamblee.xmlrouter.config;
+
+import org.wamblee.xmlrouter.common.Id;
+
+/**
+ * Classes implementing this interface must provide a unique id to identify
+ * their contents and behavior. If the content or behavior of an object changes,
+ * then a different id should be returned. Conversely, it is required for the id
+ * to keep as constant as possible. Also, a given object should return the same
+ * id throughout its lifecycle (from the moment it's {@link #getId()} method is
+ * called until the moment it can no longer be referenced.
+ * 
+ * @author Erik Brakkee
+ * 
+ */
+public interface Identifiable<T> {
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the unique id for the object.
+     * 
+     * @return Unique id.
+     */
+    Id<T> getId();
+}