| gvSIG desktop 1

/* gvSIG. Geographic Information System of the Valencian Government

 *

 * Copyright (C) 2007-2008 Infrastructures and Transports Department

 * of the Valencian Gobernment (CIT)

 * 

 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or

 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License

 * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2

 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

 * 

 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the

 * GNU General Public License for more details.

 * 

 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

 * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software

 * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, 

 * MA  02110-1301, USA.

 * 

 */

/*

 * AUTHORS (In addition to CIT):

 * 2009 {DiSiD Technologies}  {{Task}}

 */

package org.gvsig.tools.util;

import java.util.Set;

/**

 * Loads a set of instances of classes which implement or extend an interface or

 * class.

 * <p>

 * Has the same purpose as the java.util.ServiceLoader class available since JDK

 * 1.6.

 * </p>

 * 

 * @see <a

 *      href="http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/ServiceLoader.html">java.util.ServiceLoader</a>

 * @author <a href="mailto:cordinyana@gvsig.org">C?sar Ordi?ana</a>

 */

public interface ServiceLoader {

        /**

         * Loads a {@link Set} of a object instances which implement or extended a

         * common service interface or class.

         * 

         * @param serviceClass

         *            the interface or class which the loaded objects must implement

         *            or extend

         * @return the {@link Set} of loaded object instances

         */

        Set load(Class serviceClass);

        /**

         * Loads a {@link Set} of a object instances which implement or extended a

         * common service interface or class. The classes are loaded through the

         * provided {@link ClassLoader}

         * 

         * @param serviceClass

         *            the interface or class which the loaded objects must implement

         *            or extend

         * @param classLoader

         *            the {@link ClassLoader} to load the classes from

         * @return the {@link Set} of loaded object instances

         */

        Set load(Class serviceClass, ClassLoader classLoader);

}