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1   /*
2    * Copyright 2001-2004 The Apache Software Foundation.
3    * 
4    * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
5    * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
6    * You may obtain a copy of the License at
7    * 
8    *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
9    * 
10   * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
11   * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
12   * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
13   * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
14   * limitations under the License.
15   */
16  package org.apache.neethi;
17  
18  import javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException;
19  import javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamWriter;
20  
21  /**
22   * This is an interface which any component of the framework must implement.
23   */
24  public interface PolicyComponent {
25      
26      /**
27       * Serializes the PolicyComponent using an XMLStreamWriter.
28       *
29       * @param writer the writer that the component should write itself
30       * @throws XMLStreamException if an errors in the process of serialization of the
31       *                            PolicyComponent.
32       */
33      public void serialize(XMLStreamWriter writer) throws XMLStreamException;
34  
35      /**
36       * Returns a short value which uniquely identify the type of the
37       * PolicyComponent.
38       *
39       * @return Constants.POLICY for Policy type PolicyComponent
40       *         Constants.EXACTLYONE for ExactlyOne type PolicyComponent
41       *         Constants.ALL for All type PolicyComponent
42       *         Constants.ASSERTION for Assertion type PolicyComponent
43       */
44      public short getType();
45  
46      /**
47       * Returns true if the argument is equal to self.
48       *  
49       * @param policyComponent the PolicyComponent to check whether self is 
50       *      logically equal or not 
51       * @return ture if the argument is equal to self.
52       */
53      public boolean equal(PolicyComponent policyComponent);
54  }