Package org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.capabilities

Interface Summary
ActionsDefineable This entity supports custom actions (as defined by RoR and REST microformat: http://microformats.org/wiki/rest/urls)
This is the more controllable version, use ActionsExecutable if you want to use the conventions and allow the system to detect your custom actions based on method names and annotations
This means that there are custom actions which can be invoked on entities or entity spaces, custom actions can augment the current entity operation or they can completely change the behavior and skip the current operation entirely
You can create methods in your entity provider which either end with or use the EntityCustomAction suffix to define the custom actions
You can describe the actions using the Describeable key: .action.
ActionsExecutable This entity supports custom actions (as defined by RoR and REST microformat: http://microformats.org/wiki/rest/urls)
This means that there are custom actions which can be invoked on entities or entity spaces, custom actions can augment the current entity operation or they can completely change the behavior and skip the current operation entirely
You can create methods in your entity provider which either end with "CustomAction" or use the EntityCustomAction suffix to define the custom actions
You can describe the actions using the Describeable key: .action.
ActionsExecutionControllable This entity supports custom actions (as defined by RoR and REST microformat: http://microformats.org/wiki/rest/urls)
This is the most complex interface for implementing custom actions but allows the most control also, use ActionsExecutable or ActionsDefineable in most circumstance
This means that there are custom actions which can be invoked on entities or entity spaces, custom actions can augment the current entity operation or they can completely change the behavior and skip the current operation entirely
You can describe the actions using the Describeable key: .action.
AutoRegisterEntityProvider By implementing this interface you are telling the EntityProviderManager to register this entity broker as soon as spring creates it, to be exposed as part of the EntityBroker
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
Browseable This indicates that this entity will participate in browse functionality for entities, For example, it will provide lists of entities which are visible to users in locations which can be looked through and selected
This is the root interface for browsing entities and does not do anything by itself, you must add at least BrowseableCollection or BrowseSearchable interface to this
If your entities are nested then the nested ones will need to implement BrowseNestable
Entities which do not implement this will not appear in lists of entities which are being browsed
Internationalization keys:
{prefix}.browse = the name to show in the browse list for this entity
{prefix}.browse.description = the optional description that is viable to show in the browse list for this entity

This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
BrowseableCollection This indicates that this entity will participate in browse functionality for entities, For example, it will provide lists of entities which are visible to users in locations which can be looked through and selected
Entities which do not implement this will not appear in lists of entities which are being browsed
This is the convention interface and simply uses the results of calls to CollectionResolvable to provide lists of entities for browsing, the implementor should be sure that ordering and limiting are supported for the provided search object in their implementation of CollectionResolvable.getEntities(org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.EntityReference, org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.search.Search)
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
See Browseable for the i18n keys
This extends CollectionResolvable, use the BrowseSearchable interface if you require more control
BrowseNestable This indicates that this entity will participate in browse functionality for entities and it is nested within another entity: Example:
A blog (parent) contains blog entries (children).
BrowseSearchable This indicates that this entity will participate in browse functionality for entities, For example, it will provide lists of entities which are visible to users in locations which can be looked through and selected
This provides fine grained control over which entities will appear in a browse list, normally CollectionResolvable should show all entities, however, for the browse list we will explicitly filter by users and/or locations and may not show all entities, entities which do not implement this or BrowseableCollection will not appear in lists of entities which are being browsed
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
This is the configuration interface for BrowseableCollection (the convention interface)
CollectionResolvable This type of entity supports retrieval of entities in a collection based on a search, this will be invoked when an entity space is accessed (/prefix) rather than accessing an individual entity (/prefix/id)
The data is returned as a list of entity objects (Object, Map, whatever POJO, etc.)
Createable This entity type can be created (this is the C in CRUD), the current user id should be used for permissions checking in most cases
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
CRUDable A convenient interface to define that this entity type supports all CRUD operations
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
Deleteable This entity type can be deleted (this is the D in CRUD), the current user id should be used for permissions checking in most cases
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
Describeable This entity will describe itself, this description can be accessed for display in interfaces, the description should generally be targeted at developers (in particular, those using REST or web services)
This is the convention interface, it will simply look for the properties file in the classloader which your EntityProvider is located in, the file must be named <entity-prefix>.properties (e.g. myentity.properties)
The keys inside the file must be as follows:
<entity-prefix> = This is the main description of the entity, appears at the top
<entity-prefix>.view.
DescribeDefineable Allows an entity to define the description of itself in code rather than using properties, this will be called each time a description is needed so it should be efficient
This is the configuration interface
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
DescribePropertiesable This allows an entity to define the Properties files/classes to be used for looking up descriptions of the entity (Describeable)
This is the configuration interface
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
EntityViewUrlCustomizable Indicates that the entity URLs for the types of entities handled by this provider are customized by the set of entity templates returned
These will be used
Exportable Indicates an entity provider has the capability of exporting entity data which is related to other entities, note that the decision about which data to export is left up to the implementor based on the reference supplied
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
Importable Indicates an entity provider has the capability of importing entity data that was previously exported via the Exportable capability which will be related to other entities, note that the way to associate the data is left up to the implementor based on the reference supplied
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
Inputable These entities can be entered as certain input formats which are handled automatically and translated into entity objects (of the type defined by Sampleable)
If you want to define the way the input is translated instead of using the internal methods then use InputTranslatable

NOTE: By default all entity view requests go through to the available access providers: EntityViewAccessProvider or HttpServletAccessProvider
InputTranslatable Allows this entity to define the way to translate data for a reference into an entity object depending on the format requested, if you just want to use the internal methods to handle formatting the input into an entity then simply use Inputable
NOTE: throwing FormatUnsupportedException will pass control over to the internal handlers for formatting, if you want to stop the request for this format type entirely then throw an IllegalStateException and the processing will be halted
Outputable These entities can be returned as certain output formats which are handled automatically
If you want to define the data that is returned instead of using the internal methods then use OutputFormattable

NOTE: By default all entity view requests go through to the available access providers: EntityViewAccessProvider or HttpServletAccessProvider NOTE: there is no internal handling of HTML, it will always redirect to the the available access provider if there is one (if there is not one then the entity will be toStringed)
OutputFormattable Allows this entity to define the output data format for a reference or a list of entity objects depending on the format requested, if you just want to use the internal methods to handle formatting the output then simply use Outputable
NOTE: throwing FormatUnsupportedException will pass control over to the internal handlers for formatting, if you want to stop the request for this format type entirely then throw an IllegalStateException and the processing will be halted
OutputSerializable Allows this entity to better control the data that is going to be output by allowing it to intercept the entities and return them as whatever objects which should be serialized for output, if you just want to use the internal methods to handle formatting the output then simply use Outputable
Propertyable Allows entities handled by the entity provider which implements this interface to have meta properties attached to them, properties can be accessed via the EntityBroker, properties will be stored and retrieved using the internal entity property retrieval implementation
For our usage, meta properties are extra or additional properties that are attached to an entity at runtime but are persisted so they can be retrieved later
WARNING: this should be used only for properties of entities which will be accessed very lightly, for production level access OR the ability to control how properties are stored on your own entities, you should use the PropertyProvideable instead
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
PropertyProvideable Allows entities handled by the entity provider which implements this interface to have meta properties attached to them, these properties can be accessed via the EntityBroker, properties will be stored and retrieved via the methods which are implemented in this interface
For our usage, meta properties are extra or additional properties that are attached to an entity at runtime but are persisted so they can be retrieved later
Allows the entity provider to define and control the way properties are stored on its own entities, if you would prefer to use the internal storage and only have lightweight property storage needs then use Propertyable instead
NOTE: the validity of references and parameters is checked in the broker before the call goes to the provider
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
Redirectable This entity type has the ability to define and handle configurable URLs, URLs like this can be handled and supported:
/gradebook/7890/student/70987 to view all the grades for a student from a course
/gradebook/6758/item/Quiz1 to view a particular item in a gradebook by it's human readable name
/gradebook/item/6857657 to maybe just a view an item by its unique id.
RedirectControllable This entity type has the ability to define and handle configurable URLs
This adds the ability to control all redirects via a central method
URLs like this can be handled and supported:
/gradebook/7890/student/70987 to view all the grades for a student from a course
/gradebook/6758/item/Quiz1 to view a particular item in a gradebook by it's human readable name
/gradebook/item/6857657 to maybe just a view an item by its unique id.
RedirectDefinable This entity type has the ability to define and handle configurable URLs
This adds the ability to supply a large set of simple redirects
URLs like this can be handled and supported:
/gradebook/7890/student/70987 to view all the grades for a student from a course
/gradebook/6758/item/Quiz1 to view a particular item in a gradebook by it's human readable name
/gradebook/item/6857657 to maybe just a view an item by its unique id.
ReferenceParseable Indicates an entity provider has the capability of parsing its own reference string.
RequestAware Indicates that this entity provider needs to be request aware, this allows the entity provider to get hold of information from the request at any time by directly accessing the request and response objects (if we are inside a request), if there is no current request then this method will fail to return anything
This is primarily intended to provide access to request parameters while operating inside the entity provider
RequestHandler Indicates that this entity provider will handle its own entity view requests, this would be very unusual but it allows the entity provider itself to redirect requests to a tool and normally would be used if there is some special circumstance only
WARNING: This will be called before any other request handling and before the access provider is called and will cause all other processing to be skipped (includes REST calls, custom actions, formatting, etc.)
RequestInterceptor Allows actions to be taken before a direct request is handled or after it has been handled, will only affect requests coming in via the direct servlet
RequestStorable Indicates that this entity provider is aware of the requests and can get to the stored values in the request or can store its own, this allows the entity provider to get hold of information from the request at any time
This is primarily intended to provide access to request data while operating inside the entity provider without depending on servlet knowledge
This provides access to the special indicator values which can be used to see what kind of request is operating and get information about it, see the RequestStorage object for more info
If you need to get to the servlet data see RequestAware and RequestInterceptor
Resolvable Allows the entities handled by this provider to be accessed directly as objects, this is also the interface for "reading" entities (this is the R in CRUD)
This is also used for resolving the type of entities
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
RESTful Indicates that entities handled by this provider are RESTful as defined by the REST microformat:
http://microformats.org/wiki/rest/urls
Requires all CRUD functionality, Collection handling, HTML handling, and ability to support output formats
This is mostly a convenience interface to make sure that everything needed to support REST has been implemented, it also includes the marker to indicate that RESTful URLs should work for entities of this type
Sampleable This entity type can be known and this allows access to a sample object which represents it, the sample object can be of any type including a POJO, a Map, etc.
Saveable Convenience interface to indicates that an entity is can be saved, i.e. it is creatable and updateable
Searchable Indicates an entity provider has the capability of allowing the entities associated with it to be searchable, entities which implement this will be linked to the core search functionality
If you need to force an entity or entities to be added to the search indexes then you should use the SearchProvider.add(String, org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.extension.SearchContent) method in the system core to cause immediate indexing
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
Statisticable This capability is for tracking statistics of events for entities related to a tool, it will be used by the site stats service for event tracking and reporting
Contact Nuno Fernandes (nuno@ufp.edu.pt) if you have questions
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
Taggable Allows an entity to have tags associated with it which can be searched for or simply used as a way to link to this entity
This uses the internal tag storage mechanism or a central tag storage mechanism to store the tag applications
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
TagProvideable Allows an entity to control and provide tag storage and searching, this overrides internal tag storage and any existing tag storage will be ignored in favor of the provided tags
This is the provider interface for Taggable, inherits all methods from TagProvider
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
TagSearchable Deprecated. no longer functional, use TagProvideable
Updateable This entity type can be updated (this is the U in CRUD), the current user id should be used for permissions checking in most cases
This is one of the capability extensions for the EntityProvider interface
 



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