/*
 * Hibernate, Relational Persistence for Idiomatic Java
 *
 * License: GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1 or later.
 * See the lgpl.txt file in the root directory or <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html>.
 */
package org.hibernate.boot.model.source.spi;

import org.hibernate.boot.model.source.internal.hbm.XmlElementMetadata;

Contract for sources of persistent attribute descriptions.
 These values are used to build Property instances. 
Author:
Steve Ebersole/**
 * Contract for sources of persistent attribute descriptions.
 * <p/>
 * These values are used to build {@link org.hibernate.mapping.Property} instances.
 *
 * @author Steve Ebersole
 */
public interface AttributeSource extends ToolingHintContextContainer {
	public XmlElementMetadata getSourceType();

	
Obtain the attribute name.
Returns:
The attribute name. null is NOT allowed!/**
	 * Obtain the attribute name.
	 *
	 * @return The attribute name. {@code null} is NOT allowed!
	 */
	public String getName();

	
Attributes are (coarsely speaking) either singular or plural.
Returns:
true indicates the attribute is singular (and therefore castable to SingularAttributeSource); false indicates it is plural (and therefore castable to PluralAttributeSource)./**
	 * Attributes are (coarsely speaking) either singular or plural.
	 *
	 * @return {@code true} indicates the attribute is singular (and therefore castable
	 * to {@link SingularAttributeSource}); {@code false} indicates it is plural (and
	 * therefore castable to {@link PluralAttributeSource}).
	 */
	public boolean isSingular();

	
Ugh.  This is the deprecated DOM4J entity-mode feature
Returns:
The xml node name/**
	 * Ugh.  This is the deprecated DOM4J entity-mode feature
	 *
	 * @return The xml node name
	 */
	public String getXmlNodeName();

	public AttributePath getAttributePath();
	public AttributeRole getAttributeRole();

	
Obtain information about the Hibernate type (Type) for this attribute. 
Returns:
The Hibernate type information/**
	 * Obtain information about the Hibernate type ({@link org.hibernate.type.Type}) for this attribute.
	 *
	 * @return The Hibernate type information
	 */
	public HibernateTypeSource getTypeInformation();

	
Obtain the name of the property accessor style used to access this attribute.
See Also:
PropertyAccessStrategy
Returns:
The property accessor style for this attribute./**
	 * Obtain the name of the property accessor style used to access this attribute.
	 *
	 * @return The property accessor style for this attribute.
	 *
	 * @see org.hibernate.property.access.spi.PropertyAccessStrategy
	 */
	public String getPropertyAccessorName();

	
If the containing entity is using optimistic locking, should this
attribute participate in that locking?  Meaning, should changes in the
value of this attribute at runtime indicate that the entity is now dirty
in terms of optimistic locking?
Returns:
true indicates it should be included; false, it should not./**
	 * If the containing entity is using optimistic locking, should this
	 * attribute participate in that locking?  Meaning, should changes in the
	 * value of this attribute at runtime indicate that the entity is now dirty
	 * in terms of optimistic locking?
	 *
	 * @return {@code true} indicates it should be included; {@code false}, it should not.
	 */
	public boolean isIncludedInOptimisticLocking();
}