/*
 * 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
 * statements applied by the authors.  All third-party contributions are
 * distributed under license by Red Hat Inc.
 *
 * This copyrighted material is made available to anyone wishing to use, modify,
 * copy, or redistribute it subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU
 * Lesser General Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
 *
 * 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 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.
 * 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
 * Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
 */
package org.hibernate.metamodel.source.binder;

import org.hibernate.metamodel.binding.InheritanceType;

Models the source-agnostic view of an entity hierarchy.
Author:
Steve Ebersole/**
 * Models the source-agnostic view of an entity hierarchy.
 *
 * @author Steve Ebersole
 */
public interface EntityHierarchy {
	
The inheritance type/strategy for the hierarchy.

NOTE : The entire hierarchy must comply with the same inheritance strategy.
Returns:
The inheritance type./**
	 * The inheritance type/strategy for the hierarchy.
	 * <p/>
	 * NOTE : The entire hierarchy must comply with the same inheritance strategy.
	 *
	 * @return The inheritance type.
	 */
	public InheritanceType getHierarchyInheritanceType();

	
Obtain the hierarchy's root entity.
Returns:
THe root entity./**
	 * Obtain the hierarchy's root entity.
	 *
	 * @return THe root entity.
	 */
	public RootEntitySource getRootEntitySource();
}