com.bea.p13n.property
Interface PropertySet

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractPropertySet

public interface PropertySet

This is the public interface for Property Sets, which are logical groupings of property definitions. A Property Set can be defined to contain the definitions of a group of related properties, such as user preferences.

These property definitions are used by Configurable Entity EJB's to validate property values and retrieve default values for properties. They can also be used by tools to display a list of available properties for an entity.

You can use the no-arg constructor for the internal class com.bea.p13n.property.internal.PropertySetImpl when creating a PropertySet. PropertySetImpl extends com.bea.p13n.property.AbstractPropertySet. For example:

PropertySetImpl myPSet = new PropertySetImpl();
myPSet.setName(psName);
myPSet.setDescription(psDesc); myPSet.setType(psType);
myPSet.addPropertyDefinition(propName, myPropSetDefImpl);

See Also:

PropertyDefinition, ConfigurableEntity, AbstractPropertySet

Method Summary

String	getDescription() Get the description of this property set
String	getName() Get the name of this property set
PropertyDefinition	getPropertyDefinition(String key) Retrieve a particular PropertyDefinition by name.
Map	getPropertyDefinitions() Retrieve all the property definitions in this property set.
String	getType() Get the type of this property set.

Method Detail

getDescription

public String getDescription()

Get the description of this property set

getName

public String getName()

Get the name of this property set

getPropertyDefinition

public PropertyDefinition getPropertyDefinition(String key)

Retrieve a particular PropertyDefinition by name.

Parameters:

key - the name of the PropertyDefinition to retrieve

Returns:

the named PropertyDefinition, or null if it does not exist

getPropertyDefinitions

public Map getPropertyDefinitions()

Retrieve all the property definitions in this property set.

Returns:

a Map of property name -> PropertyDefinition objects that make up this property set; or null if this property set is empty

getType

public String getType()

Get the type of this property set. The Type is a String that specifies what types of Entities are intended to use the properties defined in a property set. When a ConfigurableEntity EJB is deployed, it must define a variable PropertySetType in its deployment descriptor; at run-time, only property sets of that type will be used to validate properties for that entity.

Type is also used as a way to namespace property sets - two property sets can have the same name, as long as they are different types.