org.glassfish.apf
Interface AnnotationHandler

@Contract
public interface AnnotationHandler

This interface defines the contract for annotation handlers and the annotation processing engine. Each annotation handler is registered for a particular annotation type and will be called by the engine when such annotation type is encountered. The AnnotationHandler is a stateless object, no state should be stored, instead users should use the ProcessingContext. Annotation can be defined or processed in random orders on a particular type, however, a particular annotation may need other annotation to be processed before itself in order to be processed successfully. An annotation type can indicate through the @see getAnnotations() method which annotation types should be processed before itself.

Author:

Jerome Dochez

Method Summary

Class<? extends Annotation>	getAnnotationType()
Class<? extends Annotation>[]	getTypeDependencies()
HandlerProcessingResult	processAnnotation(AnnotationInfo element) Process a particular annotation which type is the same as the one returned by @see getAnnotationType().

Method Detail

getAnnotationType

Class<? extends Annotation> getAnnotationType()

Returns:

the annoation type this annotation handler is handling

processAnnotation

HandlerProcessingResult processAnnotation(AnnotationInfo element)
                                          throws AnnotationProcessorException

Process a particular annotation which type is the same as the one returned by @see getAnnotationType(). All information pertinent to the annotation and its context is encapsulated in the passed AnnotationInfo instance.

Parameters:

element - the annotation information

Throws:

AnnotationProcessorException

getTypeDependencies

Class<? extends Annotation>[] getTypeDependencies()

Returns:

an array of annotation types this annotation handler would require to be processed (if present) before it processes it's own annotation type.