001/*
002 *  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
003 *  or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
004 *  distributed with this work for additional information
005 *  regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
006 *  to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
007 *  "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
008 *  with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
009 *  
010 *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
011 *  
012 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
013 *  software distributed under the License is distributed on an
014 *  "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
015 *  KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
016 *  specific language governing permissions and limitations
017 *  under the License. 
018 *  
019 */
020package org.apache.directory.server.core.jndi;
021
022
023import javax.naming.spi.DirObjectFactory;
024
025
026/**
027 * A specialized ObjectFactory that is optimized for our server-side JNDI
028 * provider.  This factory reports the Class of objects that it is creates as
029 * well as the objectClass corresponding to that Class.  This makes it easier
030 * for the server side provider to lookup the respective factory rather than
031 * attempt several others within the list of object factories in the order of
032 * greatest specificity.  JNDI SPI methods are inefficient since they are
033 * designed to try all object factories to produce the object.  Our provider
034 * looks up the most specific object factory based on this additional
035 * information.  This makes a huge difference when the number of ObjectFactory
036 * instances is large.
037 * <p>
038 * Eventually, it is highly feasible for generated schemas, to also include
039 * state and object factories for various objectClasses, or domain objects.
040 * This means the number of factories will increase.  By associating object and
041 * state factories with their respective objectClasses and Classes we can
042 * integrate these DAOs into the schema subsystem making factory lookups
043 * extremely fast and efficient without costing the user too much to create and
044 * store objects within the directory.  At the end of the day the directory
045 * becomes a hierarchical object store where lookup, bind and rebind are the
046 * only operations besides search to access and store objects.  That's pretty
047 * PHAT!
048 *
049 * @author <a href="mailto:dev@directory.apache.org">Apache Directory Project</a>
050 */
051public interface ServerDirObjectFactory extends DirObjectFactory
052{
053    /**
054     * Gets either the OID for the objectClass or the human readable name for
055     * the objectClass this DirStateFactory is associated with.  Note
056     * that associating this factory with an objectClass automatically
057     * associates this DirObjectFactory with all descendents of the objectClass.
058     *
059     * @return the OID or human readable name of the objectClass associated with this ObjectFactory
060     */
061    String getObjectClassId();
062
063
064    /**
065     * Gets the Class instance associated with this ObjectFactory.  Objects to
066     * be created by this ObjectFactory will be of this type, a subclass of
067     * this type, or implement this type if it is an interface.
068     *
069     * @return the Class associated with this factory.
070     */
071    Class<?> getAssociatedClass();
072}