com.edustructures.sifworks
Class Element

java.lang.Object
  com.edustructures.sifworks.Element

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.io.Serializable, java.lang.Cloneable

Direct Known Subclasses:

SIFElement, SimpleField

public abstract class Element
extends java.lang.Object
implements java.io.Serializable, java.lang.Cloneable

The abstract base class for all element and attribute classes in the SIF Data Objects library.

Agent developers do not generally work with this class directly.

ElementDef

Each Element instance is associated with an ElementDef that both identifies and describes the element or attribute encapsulated by this class. ElementDef constants are defined by the SIFDTD class for each element and attribute defined in the SIF Specification. These objects provide information about how to render elements in a version-dependent way, including the tag name and sequence number (which may vary from one version of SIF to the next), the SDO implementation class name, the earliest version of SIF the element or attribute appeared in, and the latest version of SIF that supports the element or attribute.

An ElementDef must be provided to the constructor.

Version:

ADK 1.0

See Also:

Serialized Form

Field Summary

static int

CURRENT_SERIALIZE_VERSION

Constructor Summary

Element(ElementDef def)
Constructor

Method Summary

int	compareTo(Element target) Compare the text value of this Element to another Element
ElementDef	getElementDef() Gets the metadata for this Element
Element	getParent() Gets the parent of this Element.
Element	getRoot() Enumerating the ancestry of this object to return the root Element
abstract SIFSimpleType	getSIFValue() Gets the SIF strongly-typed value of this element
abstract java.lang.String	getTextValue() Gets the text value of this element if applicable.
boolean	isChanged() Determines if this object is in the changed state.
boolean	isDoNotEncode() Determines if automatic XML Encoding of character entities should be performed on this element when rendered by the ADK.
boolean	isEmpty() Determines if this object is in the empty state
void	setChanged() Sets this DataObject and each of its children to the dirty state.
void	setChanged(boolean changed) Sets this DataObject and each of its children to the specified dirty state.
void	setDoNotEncode(boolean option) Determines if automatic XML Encoding of character entities should be performed on this element when rendered by the ADK.
void	setElementDef(ElementDef def) Sets the metadata for this Element.
void	setEmpty() Sets this DataObject and each of its children to the empty state.
void	setEmpty(boolean empty) Sets this DataObject and each of its children to the specified empty state.
void	setParent(Element parent) Sets the parent of this Element.
abstract void	setSIFValue(SIFSimpleType value) Sets the SIF strongly-typed value of this element
abstract void	setTextValue(java.lang.String value) Sets the text value of this element if applicable.
java.lang.String	toString() Returns the value of getTextValue

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

CURRENT_SERIALIZE_VERSION

public static final int CURRENT_SERIALIZE_VERSION

See Also:

Constant Field Values

Constructor Detail

Element

public Element(ElementDef def)

Constructor

Parameters:

def - The metadata that describes this Element

Method Detail

getElementDef

public ElementDef getElementDef()

Gets the metadata for this Element

Returns:

an ElementDef that describes this Element

setElementDef

public void setElementDef(ElementDef def)

Sets the metadata for this Element.

Note this method should not generally be called by agents because the ElementDef metadata is established in the constructor. It is provided in order to support the dynamic creation of Element instances by clients that do not (or cannot) use reflection to call the default constructor. These clients can call the Class.newInstance method followed by setElementDef to construct an Element dynamically.

Parameters:

def - An ElementDef instance that describes this Element

getTextValue

public abstract java.lang.String getTextValue()

Gets the text value of this element if applicable. The default format of the text value is the SIF 1.x format

To change the format used for Text values on elements, set the ADK.setTextFormatter(SIFFormatter) property

Returns:

The text value of this element

setTextValue

public abstract void setTextValue(java.lang.String value)

Sets the text value of this element if applicable. The text value will be parsed into the native datatype of the the element.

The formatter used for parsing by default is the SIF 1.x formatter, which means this value must be able to be parsed using SIF 1.x formatting rules. To change the format used for Text values on elements, set the ADK.setTextFormatter(SIFFormatter) property

Parameters:

value - The text value of this element

setSIFValue

public abstract void setSIFValue(SIFSimpleType value)

Sets the SIF strongly-typed value of this element

Parameters:

value - The SIF Value to set

getSIFValue

public abstract SIFSimpleType getSIFValue()

Gets the SIF strongly-typed value of this element

Returns:

The value of this element as a SIFSimpleType

setChanged

public void setChanged()

Sets this DataObject and each of its children to the dirty state. An object in the dirty state will not be written to an XML stream when a SIF message is rendered.

setChanged

public void setChanged(boolean changed)

Sets this DataObject and each of its children to the specified dirty state. An object in the dirty state will not be written to an XML stream when a SIF message is rendered.

Parameters:

changed - true to set the dirty state, false to clear it

setEmpty

public void setEmpty()

Sets this DataObject and each of its children to the empty state. An object in the empty state will be written to an XML stream as an empty element with no attributes and no child elements.

setEmpty

public void setEmpty(boolean empty)

Sets this DataObject and each of its children to the specified empty state. An object in the empty state will be written to an XML stream as an empty element with no attributes and no child elements.

Parameters:

changed - true to set the empty state, false to clear it

isChanged

public boolean isChanged()

Determines if this object is in the changed state.

Returns:

true if this object has been marked changed. The return value assumes all children are in the same state.

isEmpty

public boolean isEmpty()

Determines if this object is in the empty state

Returns:

true if this object has explicitly been marked empty. The return value assumes all children are in the same state.

isDoNotEncode

public boolean isDoNotEncode()

Determines if automatic XML Encoding of character entities should be performed on this element when rendered by the ADK. By default, all elements and attributes are encoded. Use the #setDoNotEncode method to turn off automatic encoding for an element if you will be assigning XML content to its text value (e.g. if you are using SIF_ExtendedElement to exchange raw XML content with another agent).

Returns:

true if automatic XML Encoding is disabled for this element; false if enabled (the default)

setDoNotEncode

public void setDoNotEncode(boolean option)

Determines if automatic XML Encoding of character entities should be performed on this element when rendered by the ADK. By default, all elements and attributes are encoded. Use this method to turn off automatic encoding for an element if you will be assigning XML content to its text value (e.g. if you are using SIF_ExtendedElement to exchange raw XML content with another agent).

Parameters:

option - true if automatic XML Encoding is disabled for this element; false if enabled (the default)

compareTo

public int compareTo(Element target)

Compare the text value of this Element to another Element

Parameters:

target - The Element to be compared

Returns:

the value 0 if the argument's text value is lexicographically equal to this Element's text value; a value less than 0 if the argument's value is lexicographically greater than this Element's text value; and a value greater than 0 if the argument's text value is lexicographically less than this Element's text value. If one Element's text value is null and the others is not, a negative value is returned.

toString

public java.lang.String toString()

Returns the value of getTextValue

Overrides:

toString in class java.lang.Object

Returns:

The text value of this element if applicable

getParent

public Element getParent()

Gets the parent of this Element.

Returns:

this Element's parent or null if it has none

See Also:

setParent(com.edustructures.sifworks.Element)

setParent

public void setParent(Element parent)

Sets the parent of this Element.

See Also:

getParent()

getRoot

public Element getRoot()

Enumerating the ancestry of this object to return the root Element