001/*
002 * (C) Copyright 2006-2011 Nuxeo SA (http://nuxeo.com/) and others.
003 *
004 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
005 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
006 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
007 *
008 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
009 *
010 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
011 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
012 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
013 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
014 * limitations under the License.
015 *
016 * Contributors:
017 *     Nuxeo - initial API and implementation
018 * $Id$
019 */
020
021package org.nuxeo.runtime.model;
022
023/**
024 * A component extension point.
025 * <p>
026 * Extension points are described by a name and a list of optional contribution object classes.
027 * <p>
028 * When defined, the contribution object classes are the type of objects accepted by this extension point.
029 * <p>
030 * The extension point is also responsible for extracting contribution objects from the extension data, if any.
031 *
032 * @author <a href="mailto:bs@nuxeo.com">Bogdan Stefanescu</a>
033 */
034public interface ExtensionPoint {
035
036    /**
037     * Gets the extension point name.
038     *
039     * @return the extension point name
040     */
041    String getName();
042
043    /**
044     * Gets the object types of the contributions accepted by this extension point.
045     *
046     * @return the accepted contribution types
047     */
048    Class<?>[] getContributions();
049
050    /**
051     * Gets the comment attached to this extension point if any.
052     *
053     * @return the comment
054     */
055    String getDocumentation();
056
057    /**
058     * Get the component owning the base extension which this one extends.
059     * <p>
060     * If this method returns null, it means the current extension point is extending another extension point and should
061     * forward any contribution to the base extension. The base extension has the same name as this one but it is
062     * declared in another component.
063     *
064     * @return the base extension point if this extension point is extending another extension point, or null if none
065     */
066    String getSuperComponent();
067
068}