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1   /*
2    * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
3    * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
4    * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
5    * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
6    * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
7    * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
8    * 
9    *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
10   * 
11   * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
12   * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
13   * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
14   * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
15   * limitations under the License.
16   */ 
17  package org.apache.commons.betwixt.registry;
18  
19  import org.apache.commons.betwixt.io.read.ElementMapping;
20  import org.apache.commons.betwixt.io.read.ReadContext;
21  
22  /***
23   * <p>Resolves polymorphic references.
24   * </p><p>
25   * A polymorphic reference is an element whose name and type
26   * resolution are postponed till bind-time.
27   * When the xml is read, the type can then resolved from 
28   * by calling {@link #resolveType}.
29   * </p>
30   * @since 0.7
31   * @author <a href='http://jakarta.apache.org/'>Jakarta Commons Team</a>
32   */
33  public interface PolymorphicReferenceResolver {
34  
35      /***
36       * Resolves the bind-time type of a polymorphic element.
37       * @param mapping <code>ElementMapping</code> describing the (polymorphic) element being mapped,
38       * not null
39       * @param context <code>ReadContext</code>, not null
40       * @return the <code>Class</code> describing the type to which this element should be bound,
41       * or null if the reference cannot be resolved
42       */
43      public Class resolveType(ElementMapping mapping, ReadContext context);
44  }