1 /*
2 * Copyright 2013 the original author or authors.
3 *
4 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
5 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
6 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
7 *
8 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
9 *
10 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
11 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
12 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
13 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
14 * limitations under the License.
15 */
16 package org.openehealth.ipf.commons.core.extend.config;
17
18 /**
19 * DSL extensions implementing this marker interface can be auto discovered
20 * by IPF's extension configuration framework.
21 * <p>
22 * This is an alternative to the standard Extension Module mechanism provided by Groovy
23 * Instead of a module descriptor in META-INF/services you simply define a Spring bean that
24 * extends this type and adheres to the structure described in
25 * http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GROOVY/Creating+an+extension+module.
26 * </p><p>
27 * This interface defines method that provide information that the module descriptor
28 * would usually deliver. Bean instance of this type are picked up by Spring when
29 * it contains a {@link DynamicExtensionConfigurer} and dynamically registered in
30 * Groovy's metaclass/metamethod registry.
31 * </p><p>
32 * The advantage is that due to late initialization your extensions can be stateful (e.g.
33 * providing a configuration object), which is normally only possible by accessing a
34 * global registry via {@link org.openehealth.ipf.commons.core.config.ContextFacade#getBean(Class)}.
35 * The disadvantage is that you need to define a bunch of Spring beans (including the extension
36 * bean) in order to get the machinery working.
37 *
38 * @see DynamicExtensionConfigurer
39 *
40 * @author Christian Ohr
41 */
42 public interface DynamicExtension {
43
44 String getModuleName();
45 String getModuleVersion();
46
47 /**
48 * @return true if the extensions methods shall have static access from
49 * the extended class, false otherwise.
50 */
51 boolean isStatic();
52
53 }