Source for java.lang.reflect.AnnotatedElement

   1: /* AnnotatedElement.java
   2:    Copyright (C) 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   3: 
   4: This file is part of GNU Classpath.
   5: 
   6: GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
   7: it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
   8: the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
   9: any later version.
  10: 
  11: GNU Classpath is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
  12: WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  13: MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
  14: General Public License for more details.
  15: 
  16: You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  17: along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
  18: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
  19: 02110-1301 USA.
  20: 
  21: Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
  22: making a combined work based on this library.  Thus, the terms and
  23: conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
  24: combination.
  25: 
  26: As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
  27: permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
  28: executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
  29: modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under
  30: terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked
  31: independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that
  32: module.  An independent module is a module which is not derived from
  33: or based on this library.  If you modify this library, you may extend
  34: this exception to your version of the library, but you are not
  35: obligated to do so.  If you do not wish to do so, delete this
  36: exception statement from your version. */
  37: 
  38: 
  39: package java.lang.reflect;
  40: 
  41: import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
  42: 
  43: /**
  44:  * <p>
  45:  * Represents an element that can be annotated.  The methods of this interface
  46:  * provide reflection-based access to the annotations associated with a
  47:  * particular element, such as a class, field, method or package.  Each
  48:  * annotation returned by these methods is both immutable and serializable.
  49:  * The returned arrays may be freely modified, without any effect on the
  50:  * arrays returned to future callers.
  51:  * </p>
  52:  * <p>
  53:  * If an annotation refers to a type or enumeration constant that is
  54:  * inaccessible, then a <code>TypeNotPresentException</code> or
  55:  * <code>EnumConstantNotPresentException</code> will be thrown.  Likewise,
  56:  * invalid annotations will produce either a
  57:  * <code>AnnotationTypeMismatchException</code> or
  58:  * <code>IncompleteAnnotationException</code>.
  59:  * </p>
  60:  * 
  61:  * @author Tom Tromey (tromey@redhat.com)
  62:  * @author Andrew John Hughes (gnu_andrew@member.fsf.org)
  63:  * @since 1.5
  64:  */
  65: public interface AnnotatedElement
  66: {
  67: 
  68:   /**
  69:    * Returns the element's annotation for the specified annotation type,
  70:    * or <code>null</code> if no such annotation exists.
  71:    *
  72:    * @param annotationClass the type of annotation to look for.
  73:    * @return this element's annotation for the specified type, or
  74:    *         <code>null</code> if no such annotation exists.
  75:    * @throws NullPointerException if the annotation class is <code>null</code>.
  76:    */
  77:   <T extends Annotation> T getAnnotation(Class<T> annotationClass);
  78: 
  79:   /**
  80:    * Returns all annotations associated with the element.  If there are
  81:    * no annotations associated with the element, then a zero-length array
  82:    * will be returned.  The returned array may be modified by the client
  83:    * code, but this will have no effect on the annotation content of the
  84:    * element, and hence no effect on the return value of this method for
  85:    * future callers.
  86:    *
  87:    * @return this element's annotations.
  88:    */
  89:   Annotation[] getAnnotations();
  90: 
  91:   /**
  92:    * Returns all annotations directly defined by the element.  If there are
  93:    * no annotations directly associated with the element, then a zero-length
  94:    * array will be returned.  The returned array may be modified by the client
  95:    * code, but this will have no effect on the annotation content of this
  96:    * class, and hence no effect on the return value of this method for
  97:    * future callers.
  98:    *
  99:    * @return the annotations directly defined by the element.
 100:    * @since 1.5
 101:    */
 102:   Annotation[] getDeclaredAnnotations();
 103: 
 104:   /**
 105:    * Returns true if an annotation for the specified type is associated
 106:    * with the element.  This is primarily a short-hand for using marker
 107:    * annotations.
 108:    *
 109:    * @param annotationClass the type of annotation to look for.
 110:    * @return true if an annotation exists for the specified type.
 111:    * @since 1.5
 112:    */
 113:   boolean isAnnotationPresent(Class<? extends Annotation> annotationClass);
 114: 
 115: }