/*

  * Copyright 2012, Ryan J. McDonough

  *

  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");

  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.

  * You may obtain a copy of the License at

  *

  *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

  *

  * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software

  * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,

  * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.

  * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and

  * limitations under the License.

  */

 package com.damnhandy.uri.template;

 import java.util.Collection;

 import java.util.Map;

 /**

  *

  * <p>

  * A {@link VarExploder} is invoked when an explode modifier "*" is encountered within

  * a variable name within a URI expression expression and the replacement value is a complex

  * type, such a some type of POJO or other data type. For most use cases, the {@link DefaultVarExploder} will be

  * sufficient. Please refer to the {@link DefaultVarExploder} JavaDoc

  * for more details on how it works.

  * </p>

  *

  * <p>

  * Should the {@link DefaultVarExploder} not be suitable for your needs, custom {@link VarExploder}

  * implementations can be added by rolling your own implementation. A custom {@link VarExploder}

  * implementation can be registered in one of two ways. By wrapping your object in your {@link VarExploder}:

  * </p>

  * <pre>

  * UriTemplate.fromTemplate("/mapper{?address*}").set("address", new MyCustomVarExploder(address)).expand();

  * </pre>

  * <p>

  * <strong>Note:</strong> {@link VarExploder} implementations are <strong>ONLY</strong> invoked when the

  * explode modifier "*" is declared in the URI Template expression. If the variable declaration does not

  * specify the explode modifier, a {@link VariableExpansionException} will be raised.

  * </p>

  *

  * <p>

  * Please see the unit test on example usage of a custom {@link VarExploder}.

  * </p>

  *

  *

  * @author <a href="ryan@damnhandy.com">Ryan J. McDonough</a>

  * @version $Revision: 1.1 $

  * @since 1.0

  */

 public interface VarExploder

 {

    /**

     * Returns the properties of the source object a {@link Map} of

     * name/value pairs.

     *

     * @return the object properties as name/value pairs.

     */

    Map<String, Object> getNameValuePairs() throws VariableExpansionException;

    /**

     * Returns the properties of the source object a {@link Collection} of

     * object values.

     *

     * @return

     */

    Collection<Object> getValues() throws VariableExpansionException;

 }