Interface AttributeDefinition


public interface AttributeDefinition
An interface to describe an attribute.

An AttributeDefinition object defines a description of the data type of a property/attribute.

Version:
$Revision: 5673 $
  • Field Summary

    Fields
    Modifier and Type
    Field
    Description
    static final int
    Deprecated.
    As of 1.1.
    static final int
    Deprecated.
    As of 1.1.
    static final int
    The BOOLEAN (11) type.
    static final int
    The BYTE (6) type.
    static final int
    The CHARACTER (5) type.
    static final int
    The DOUBLE (7) type.
    static final int
    The FLOAT (8) type.
    static final int
    The INTEGER (3) type.
    static final int
    The LONG (2) type.
    static final int
    The SHORT (4) type.
    static final int
    The STRING (1) type.
  • Method Summary

    Modifier and Type
    Method
    Description
    int
    Return the cardinality of this attribute.
    Return a default for this attribute.
    Return a description of this attribute.
    Unique identity for this attribute.
    Get the name of the attribute.
    Return a list of labels of option values.
    Return a list of option values that this attribute can take.
    int
    Return the type for this attribute.
    Validate an attribute in String form.
  • Field Details

    • STRING

      static final int STRING
      The STRING (1) type.

      Attributes of this type should be stored as String, Vector with String or String[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.

      See Also:
    • LONG

      static final int LONG
      The LONG (2) type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Long, Vector with Long or long[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:
    • INTEGER

      static final int INTEGER
      The INTEGER (3) type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Integer, Vector with Integer or int[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:
    • SHORT

      static final int SHORT
      The SHORT (4) type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Short, Vector with Short or short[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:
    • CHARACTER

      static final int CHARACTER
      The CHARACTER (5) type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Character, Vector with Character or char[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:
    • BYTE

      static final int BYTE
      The BYTE (6) type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Byte, Vector with Byte or byte[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:
    • DOUBLE

      static final int DOUBLE
      The DOUBLE (7) type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Double, Vector with Double or double[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:
    • FLOAT

      static final int FLOAT
      The FLOAT (8) type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Float, Vector with Float or float[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:
    • BIGINTEGER

      static final int BIGINTEGER
      Deprecated.
      As of 1.1.
      The BIGINTEGER (9) type. Attributes of this type should be stored as BigInteger, Vector with BigInteger or BigInteger[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:
    • BIGDECIMAL

      static final int BIGDECIMAL
      Deprecated.
      As of 1.1.
      The BIGDECIMAL (10) type. Attributes of this type should be stored as BigDecimal, Vector with BigDecimal or BigDecimal[] objects depending on getCardinality().
      See Also:
    • BOOLEAN

      static final int BOOLEAN
      The BOOLEAN (11) type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Boolean, Vector with Boolean or boolean[] objects depending on getCardinality().
      See Also:
  • Method Details

    • getName

      String getName()
      Get the name of the attribute. This name may be localized.
      Returns:
      The localized name of the definition.
    • getID

      String getID()
      Unique identity for this attribute. Attributes share a global namespace in the registry. E.g. an attribute cn or commonName must always be a String and the semantics are always a name of some object. They share this aspect with LDAP/X.500 attributes. In these standards the OSI Object Identifier (OID) is used to uniquely identify an attribute. If such an OID exists, (which can be requested at several standard organisations and many companies already have a node in the tree) it can be returned here. Otherwise, a unique id should be returned which can be a Java class name (reverse domain name) or generated with a GUID algorithm. Note that all LDAP defined attributes already have an OID. It is strongly advised to define the attributes from existing LDAP schemes which will give the OID. Many such schemes exist ranging from postal addresses to DHCP parameters.
      Returns:
      The id or oid
    • getDescription

      String getDescription()
      Return a description of this attribute. The description may be localized and must describe the semantics of this type and any constraints.
      Returns:
      The localized description of the definition.
    • getCardinality

      int getCardinality()
      Return the cardinality of this attribute. The OSGi environment handles multi valued attributes in arrays ([]) or in Vector objects. The return value is defined as follows:
       
          x = Integer.MIN_VALUE    no limit, but use Vector
          x < 0                    -x = max occurrences, store in Vector
          x > 0                     x = max occurrences, store in array []
          x = Integer.MAX_VALUE    no limit, but use array []
          x = 0                     1 occurrence required
        
       
      Returns:
      The cardinality of this attribute.
    • getType

      int getType()
      Return the type for this attribute.

      Defined in the following constants which map to the appropriate Java type. STRING,LONG,INTEGER, CHAR,BYTE,DOUBLE,FLOAT, BOOLEAN.

      Returns:
      The type for this attribute.
    • getOptionValues

      String[] getOptionValues()
      Return a list of option values that this attribute can take.

      If the function returns null, there are no option values available.

      Each value must be acceptable to validate() (return "") and must be a String object that can be converted to the data type defined by getType() for this attribute.

      This list must be in the same sequence as getOptionLabels(). I.e. for each index i in getOptionValues, i in getOptionLabels() should be the label.

      For example, if an attribute can have the value male, female, unknown, this list can return new String[] { "male", "female", "unknown" }.

      Returns:
      A list values
    • getOptionLabels

      String[] getOptionLabels()
      Return a list of labels of option values.

      The purpose of this method is to allow menus with localized labels. It is associated with getOptionValues. The labels returned here are ordered in the same way as the values in that method.

      If the function returns null, there are no option labels available.

      This list must be in the same sequence as the getOptionValues() method. I.e. for each index i in getOptionLabels, i in getOptionValues() should be the associated value.

      For example, if an attribute can have the value male, female, unknown, this list can return (for dutch) new String[] { "Man", "Vrouw", "Onbekend" }.

      Returns:
      A list values
    • validate

      String validate(String value)
      Validate an attribute in String form. An attribute might be further constrained in value. This method will attempt to validate the attribute according to these constraints. It can return three different values:
        null           No validation present
        ""             No problems detected
        "..."          A localized description of why the value is wrong
       
      Parameters:
      value - The value before turning it into the basic data type
      Returns:
      null, "", or another string
    • getDefaultValue

      String[] getDefaultValue()
      Return a default for this attribute. The object must be of the appropriate type as defined by the cardinality and getType(). The return type is a list of String objects that can be converted to the appropriate type. The cardinality of the return array must follow the absolute cardinality of this type. E.g. if the cardinality = 0, the array must contain 1 element. If the cardinality is 1, it must contain 0 or 1 elements. If it is -5, it must contain from 0 to max 5 elements. Note that the special case of a 0 cardinality, meaning a single value, does not allow arrays or vectors of 0 elements.
      Returns:
      Return a default value or null if no default exists.