Application: gvSIG desktop

/* gvSIG. Geographic Information System of the Valencian Government

*

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

* of the Valencian Government (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):

* 2008 Geographic Information research group: http://www.geoinfo.uji.es

* Departamento de Lenguajes y Sistemas Inform?ticos (LSI)

* Universitat Jaume I   

* {{Task}}

*/

package org.gvsig.metadata.extended;

import java.util.Locale;

import org.gvsig.metadata.extended.registry.objects.MDElementDefinition;

public interface MDElement {

        /**

         * Retrieves the identifier of the MDElement object

         * @return        a String which identifies the object 

         */

        public String getId();

        /**

         * Retrieves the value of the MDElement object

         * @return        an Object containing the value of the object

         */

        public Object getValue();

        /**

         * Retrieves the type of the MDElement object

         * @return        a MDElementDefinition object containing data about the object

         */

        public MDElementDefinition getType();

        /**

         * Retrieves the Locale value of the MDElement object

         * @return        a Locale object which represents a specific geographical, political or cultural region

         */

        public Locale getLocale();

        /**

         * Retrieves the MDElement name using its MDElementDefinition

         * @return        the name of the MDElement object

         */

        public String getName();

        /**

         * Retrieves the father of the Metadata object, or null if it doesn't have.

         * @return                        a ExtendedMetadata object or null

         */

        public ExtendedMetadata getFather();

        /**

         * Changes the identifier of the object

         * @param         id        the new identifier of the MDElement object

         */

        public void setId(String id);

        /**

         * Changes the value of the object

         * @param         value        the new value of the MDElement object

         */

        public void setValue(Object value);

        /**

         * Changes the type of the object

         * @param         type        the new type of the MDElement object

         */

        public void setType(MDElementDefinition type);

        /**

         * Changes the Locale value of the object

         * @param         locale        the new Locale value of the MDElement object

         */

        public void setLocale(Locale locale); 

        /**

         * Changes father of the object

         * @param         father        the new father value of the MDElement object

         */

        public void setFather(ExtendedMetadata father); 

        /**

         * Checks if the ExtendedMetadata has father

         * @return                        a boolean value which indicates if the object has father

         */

        public boolean hasFather();

        /**

         * Retrieves the deep level in the Metadata tree, 0 for the root.

         * @return                        an integer value which indicates the level.

         */

        public int getLevel();

}