001// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
002// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
003// You may obtain a copy of the License at
004//
005// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
006//
007// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
008// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
009// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
010// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
011// limitations under the License.
012
013package org.apache.tapestry5.commons.services;
014
015import org.apache.tapestry5.ioc.annotations.UsesMappedConfiguration;
016
017/**
018 * Makes use of {@link org.apache.tapestry5.commons.services.Coercion}s to convert between an input value (of some specific
019 * type) and a desired output type. Smart about coercing, even if it requires multiple coercion steps (i.e., via an
020 * intermediate type, such as String).
021 */
022@UsesMappedConfiguration(key = CoercionTuple.Key.class, value = CoercionTuple.class)
023public interface TypeCoercer
024{
025    /**
026     * Performs a coercion from an input type to a desired output type. When the target type is a primitive, the actual
027     * conversion will be to the equivalent wrapper type. In some cases, the TypeCoercer will need to search for an
028     * appropriate coercion, and may even combine existing coercions to form new ones; in those cases, the results of
029     * the search are cached.
030     *
031     * The TypeCoercer also caches the results of a coercion search.
032     * 
033     * @param <S>
034     *            source type (input)
035     * @param <T>
036     *            target type (output)
037     * @param input
038     * @param targetType
039     *            defines the target type
040     * @return the coerced value
041     * @throws RuntimeException
042     *             if the input can not be coerced
043     */
044    <S, T> T coerce(S input, Class<T> targetType);
045
046    /**
047     * Given a source and target type, computes the coercion that will be used.
048     *
049     * Note: holding the returned coercion past the time when {@linkplain #clearCache() the cache is cleared} can cause
050     * a memory leak, especially in the context of live reloading (wherein holding a reference to a single class make
051     * keep an entire ClassLoader from being reclaimed).
052     * 
053     * @since 5.2.0
054     * @param <S>
055     *            source type (input)
056     * @param <T>
057     *            target type (output)
058     * @param sourceType
059     *            type to coerce from
060     * @param targetType
061     *            defines the target type
062     * @return the coercion that will ultimately be used
063     */
064    <S, T> Coercion<S, T> getCoercion(Class<S> sourceType, Class<T> targetType);
065
066    /**
067     * Used primarily inside test suites, this method performs the same steps as {@link #coerce(Object, Class)}, but
068     * returns a string describing the series of coercions, such as "Object --&gt; String --&gt; Long --&gt; Integer".
069     * 
070     * @param <S>
071     *            source type (input)
072     * @param <T>
073     *            target type (output)
074     * @param sourceType
075     *            the source coercion type (use void.class for coercions from null)
076     * @param targetType
077     *            defines the target type
078     * @return a string identifying the series of coercions, or the empty string if no coercion is necessary
079     */
080    <S, T> String explain(Class<S> sourceType, Class<T> targetType);
081
082    /**
083     * Clears cached information stored by the TypeCoercer.
084     */
085    void clearCache();
086}