Interface CandyFinder

All Superinterfaces:
EventListener, PropertyChangeListener

public interface CandyFinder extends PropertyChangeListener

This interface is a main entry point to a set of controlled vocabularies.

The implementation is supposed to behave as a Java bean (usually an invisible bean unless it implements some additional GUI methods which are not defined in this interface).

Version:
$Id$
Author:
Martin Senger, Matthew Pocock
  • Field Details

  • Method Details

    • connect

      void connect() throws CandyException

      It creates a connection to an object representing a vocabulary finder, or/and it makes all necessary initialization steps needed for further communication.

      However, there should be no need to call this method explicitly, the other methods should do it automatically before they need to use the finder.

      Throws:
      CandyException - if the connection/initialization cannot be established
    • isReady

      boolean isReady()
      It checks if a vocabulary finder object is available. The semantic of availabledepends on the implementation.
    • disconnect

      void disconnect()
      It closes connection with the finder object. Implementations may choose to use this method for freeing resources.
    • getAllVocabularyNames

      It returns names of all vocabularies known to this vocabulary finder. Any of the returned names can be later used in the method getVocabularyByName.

      Returns:
      a list of available vocabulary names
      Throws:
      CandyException - if the finder fails to communicate with its vocabularies
    • getVocabularyByName

      It returns a selected vocabulary.
      Parameters:
      name - a name of a vocabulary to be returned
      Returns:
      a selected vocabulary
      Throws:
      CandyException - when the vocabulary cannot be found (likely the given name is wrong)
      See Also:
    • getAllVocabularies

      It returns all available vocabularies.
      Returns:
      all available vocabularies
      Throws:
      CandyException - if the finder fails to communicate with its vocabularies
    • getNumCount

      It returns the number of available vocabularies.
      Throws:
      CandyException - if the finder fails to communicate with its vocabularies
    • getFinderName

      It returns a name of this vocabulary finder.
      Throws:
      CandyException - if the finder fails to return its name