/*
 * Hibernate, Relational Persistence for Idiomatic Java
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2011, Red Hat Inc. or third-party contributors as
 * indicated by the @author tags or express copyright attribution
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 *
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 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
 * or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License
 * for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
 * along with this distribution; if not, write to:
 * Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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package org.hibernate.metamodel.source.binder;

Contract for sources of information about a mapped discriminator.
Author:
Hardy Ferentschik, Steve Ebersole/**
 * Contract for sources of information about a mapped discriminator.
 *
 * @author Hardy Ferentschik
 * @author Steve Ebersole
 */
public interface DiscriminatorSource {
	
Obtain the column/formula information about the discriminator.
Returns:
The column/formula information/**
	 * Obtain the column/formula information about the discriminator.
	 *
	 * @return The column/formula information
	 */
	public RelationalValueSource getDiscriminatorRelationalValueSource();

	
Obtain the discriminator type.  Unlike the type of attributes, implementors here should generally specify the type
in case of no user selection rather than return null because we cannot infer it from any physical java member.
Returns:
The discriminator type/**
	 * Obtain the discriminator type.  Unlike the type of attributes, implementors here should generally specify the type
	 * in case of no user selection rather than return null because we cannot infer it from any physical java member.
	 *
	 * @return The discriminator type
	 */
	public String getExplicitHibernateTypeName();

	
"Forces" Hibernate to specify the allowed discriminator values, even when retrieving all instances of the
root class.
Returns:
true in case the discriminator value should be forces, false otherwise. Default is false./**
	 * "Forces" Hibernate to specify the allowed discriminator values, even when retrieving all instances of the
	 * root class.
	 *
	 * @return {@code true} in case the discriminator value should be forces, {@code false} otherwise. Default
	 * is {@code false}.
	 */
	boolean isForced();

	
Set this to false, if your discriminator column is also part of a mapped composite identifier. It tells Hibernate not to include the column in SQL INSERTs. 
Returns:
true in case the discriminator value should be included in inserts, false otherwise. Default is true./**
	 * Set this to {@code false}, if your discriminator column is also part of a mapped composite identifier.
	 * It tells Hibernate not to include the column in SQL INSERTs.
	 *
	 * @return {@code true} in case the discriminator value should be included in inserts, {@code false} otherwise.
	 * Default is {@code true}.
	 */
	boolean isInserted();
}