001/*
002 * ============================================================================
003 *  Copyright © 2002-2021 by Thomas Thrien.
004 *  All Rights Reserved.
005 * ============================================================================
006 *  Licensed to the public under the agreements of the GNU Lesser General Public
007 *  License, version 3.0 (the "License"). You may obtain a copy of the License at
008 *
009 *       http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html
010 *
011 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
012 *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
013 *  WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
014 *  License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
015 *  under the License.
016 */
017
018package org.tquadrat.foundation.config;
019
020import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.METHOD;
021import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.CLASS;
022import static org.apiguardian.api.API.Status.STABLE;
023
024import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
025import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
026import java.lang.annotation.Target;
027
028import org.apiguardian.api.API;
029import org.tquadrat.foundation.annotation.ClassVersion;
030import org.tquadrat.foundation.lang.StringConverter;
031
032/**
033 *  <p>{@summary This annotation defines the implementation of
034 *  {@link StringConverter}
035 *  that is used to convert the value of annotated property into a String, or
036 *  a String into the value.}</p>
037 *  <p>If not applied, an attempt is made to derive the respective
038 *  implementation from the type of the property; if this fails, no String
039 *  conversion is used.</p>
040 *  <p>If the relevant {@code StringConverter} is implemented in the current
041 *  project, it always has to be specified with this annotation, even when it
042 *  is published as a service.</p>
043 *
044 *  @extauthor Thomas Thrien - thomas.thrien@tquadrat.org
045 *  @version $Id: StringConversion.java 1002 2022-02-01 21:33:00Z tquadrat $
046 *  @UMLGraph.link
047 *  @since 0.1.0
048 */
049@ClassVersion( sourceVersion = "$Id: StringConversion.java 1002 2022-02-01 21:33:00Z tquadrat $" )
050@Documented
051@Retention( CLASS )
052@Target( METHOD )
053@API( status = STABLE, since = "0.1.0" )
054public @interface StringConversion
055{
056        /*------------*\
057    ====** Attributes **=======================================================
058        \*------------*/
059    /**
060     *  The class of the
061     *  {@link StringConverter}
062     *  implementation.
063     *
064     *  @return The String converter class.
065     */
066    public Class<? extends StringConverter<?>> value();
067}
068//  annotation StringConversion
069
070/*
071 *  End of File
072 */