/* $Id: DigesterRule.java 992737 2010-09-05 08:49:48Z simonetripodi $
 *
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package org.apache.commons.digester.annotations;

import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;
import java.lang.reflect.AnnotatedElement;

import org.apache.commons.digester.Rule;
import org.apache.commons.digester.annotations.handlers.DefaultLoaderHandler;

Meta-annotation that marks an annotation as part of commons-digester.
Since:
2.1/**
 * Meta-annotation that marks an annotation as part of commons-digester.
 *
 * @since 2.1
 */
@Documented
@Target(ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public @interface DigesterRule {

    
The reflected commons-digester rule.
Returns:
the reflected commons-digester rule./**
     * The reflected commons-digester rule.
     *
     * @return the reflected commons-digester rule.
     */
    Class<? extends Rule> reflectsRule();

    
The handler that takes care on converting this annotation in the related AnnotationRuleProvider and adds it o the FromAnnotationsRuleSet 
Returns:
the DigesterLoaderHandler/**
     * The handler that takes care on converting this annotation in the related
     * {@link AnnotationRuleProvider} and adds it o the {@link FromAnnotationsRuleSet}
     *
     * @return the {@link DigesterLoaderHandler}
     */
    Class<? extends DigesterLoaderHandler<? extends Annotation, ? extends AnnotatedElement>>
        handledBy() default DefaultLoaderHandler.class;

    
Define the AnnotationRuleProvider that builds the Rule related to the digester rule. 
Returns:
the AnnotationRuleProvider./**
     * Define the {@link AnnotationRuleProvider} that builds the {@link Rule}
     * related to the digester rule.
     *
     * @return the {@link AnnotationRuleProvider}.
     */
    Class<? extends AnnotationRuleProvider<? extends Annotation, ? extends AnnotatedElement, ? extends Rule>>
        providedBy();

}