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 int BIGDECIMAL
      Deprecated.
      As of 1.1.
      static int BIGINTEGER
      Deprecated.
      As of 1.1.
      static int BOOLEAN
      The BOOLEAN (11) type.
      static int BYTE
      The BYTE (6) type.
      static int CHARACTER
      The CHARACTER (5) type.
      static int DOUBLE
      The DOUBLE (7) type.
      static int FLOAT
      The FLOAT (8) type.
      static int INTEGER
      The INTEGER (3) type.
      static int LONG
      The LONG (2) type.
      static int SHORT
      The SHORT (4) type.
      static int STRING
      The STRING (1) type.
    • Method Summary

      All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods 
      Modifier and Type Method Description
      int getCardinality()
      Return the cardinality of this attribute.
      java.lang.String[] getDefaultValue()
      Return a default for this attribute.
      java.lang.String getDescription()
      Return a description of this attribute.
      java.lang.String getID()
      Unique identity for this attribute.
      java.lang.String getName()
      Get the name of the attribute.
      java.lang.String[] getOptionLabels()
      Return a list of labels of option values.
      java.lang.String[] getOptionValues()
      Return a list of option values that this attribute can take.
      int getType()
      Return the type for this attribute.
      java.lang.String validate​(java.lang.String value)
      Validate an attribute in String form.
    • Field Detail

      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
      • 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:
        Constant Field Values
    • Method Detail

      • getName

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

        java.lang.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

        java.lang.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

        java.lang.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

        java.lang.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

        java.lang.String validate​(java.lang.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

        java.lang.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.