1 /*
2 * ModeShape (http://www.modeshape.org)
3 * See the COPYRIGHT.txt file distributed with this work for information
4 * regarding copyright ownership. Some portions may be licensed
5 * to Red Hat, Inc. under one or more contributor license agreements.
6 * See the AUTHORS.txt file in the distribution for a full listing of
7 * individual contributors.
8 *
9 * ModeShape is free software. Unless otherwise indicated, all code in ModeShape
10 * is licensed to you under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as
11 * published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of
12 * the License, or (at your option) any later version.
13 *
14 * ModeShape is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
15 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
16 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
17 * Lesser General Public License for more details.
18 *
19 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
20 * License along with this software; if not, write to the Free
21 * Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
22 * 02110-1301 USA, or see the FSF site: http://www.fsf.org.
23 */
24 package org.modeshape.graph.property;
25
26 import java.io.Serializable;
27 import net.jcip.annotations.Immutable;
28 import org.modeshape.common.text.TextEncoder;
29
30 /**
31 * A representation of a reference to another node. Node references may not necessarily resolve to an existing node.
32 */
33 @Immutable
34 public interface Reference extends Comparable<Reference>, Serializable {
35
36 /**
37 * Get the string form of the Reference. The {@link Path#DEFAULT_ENCODER default encoder} is used to encode characters in the
38 * reference.
39 *
40 * @return the encoded string
41 * @see #getString(TextEncoder)
42 */
43 public String getString();
44
45 /**
46 * Get the encoded string form of the Reference, using the supplied encoder to encode characters in the reference.
47 *
48 * @param encoder the encoder to use, or null if the {@link Path#DEFAULT_ENCODER default encoder} should be used
49 * @return the encoded string
50 * @see #getString()
51 */
52 public String getString( TextEncoder encoder );
53
54 }