cern.gp.beans

Interface PropertyInfo

All Known Implementing Classes:

PropertyInfoSupport

public interface PropertyInfo

This interface defines information that can be returned for a given property. It is similar to the java.beans. PropertyDescriptor but it aims to be a complementary and ligther version of it.

The properties of a JavaBean are describe using the PropertyDescriptor returned by the BeanInfo. If you provide an explicit BeanInfo you can use the PropertyDescriptor to specify the needed information (expert, hidden, PropertyEditor ...) and you do not need to use this interface.

If you do not provide an explicit BeanInfo you cannot specify that information as the PropertyDescriptor will be automatically generated by the Introspector. In this case, you can returned an array of PropertyInfo specifying the proper information directly from your bean. The node representing the bean will invoke the method to get that array of PropertyInfo and use the information from it.

Author:

Lionel Mestre

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
java.lang.String	getDisplayName() Returns the display name of the property
java.lang.String	getName() Returns the name of the property
java.lang.Class	getPropertyEditorClass() Gets an explicit PropertyEditor Class for this property.
java.lang.Boolean	isCacheable() Returns a boolean indicating the caching strategy for this property.
boolean	isExpert() Returns if this property is expert.
boolean	isHidden() Returns if this property is hidden.
void	updatePropertyDescriptor(java.beans.PropertyDescriptor propertyDescriptor) Update the given PropertyDescriptor with the information contained in this PropertyInfo

Method Detail

getName

java.lang.String getName()

Returns the name of the property

Returns:

the name of the property

getDisplayName

java.lang.String getDisplayName()

Returns the display name of the property

Returns:

the display name of the property

isExpert

boolean isExpert()

Returns if this property is expert. The "expert" flag is used to distinguish between those features that are intended for expert users from those that are intended for normal users.

Returns:

true if this property is intended for use by experts only

isHidden

boolean isHidden()

Returns if this property is hidden. The "hidden" flag is used to identify features that are intended only for tool use, and which should not be exposed to humans.

Returns:

true if this property should be hidden from human users.

isCacheable

java.lang.Boolean isCacheable()

Returns a boolean indicating the caching strategy for this property. Three value can be returned :

• null : no caching strategy specified, the property inherit from the one defined for the bean or from the default one if the bean does not specified one.
• True : the property can be cached. This will override the caching strategy defined at the bean level. It is the responsibility of the bean to send PropertyChangeEvent to update the cached value
• False : the property cannot be cached. This will override the caching strategy defined at the bean level.

Returns:

null, True or False depending the caching strategy specified.

getPropertyEditorClass

java.lang.Class getPropertyEditorClass()

Gets an explicit PropertyEditor Class for this property. The method will return "null" for indicating that no special editor has been registered, so the PropertyEditorManager should be used to locate a suitable PropertyEditor.

Returns:

An explicit PropertyEditor Class for this property or null.

updatePropertyDescriptor

void updatePropertyDescriptor(java.beans.PropertyDescriptor propertyDescriptor)

Update the given PropertyDescriptor with the information contained in this PropertyInfo

Parameters:

propertyDescriptor - the PropertyDescriptor to update