Uses of Interface
org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.EntityProvider

Packages that use EntityProvider

Package	Description
org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider
org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.capabilities
org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.extension

Uses of EntityProvider in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider

Subinterfaces of EntityProvider in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider

Modifier and Type

Interface and Description

interface

CoreEntityProvider This is the base unit for working with Sakai entities, by implementing this interface and creating a spring bean you will tie your entities into Sakai, there are many other interfaces which you can implement to extend the interaction of your entities with Sakai in this package You (the implementor) will want to create one implementation of this interface for each type of entity you want to link to Sakai to track events, provide URL access, etc.

Methods in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider with type parameters of type EntityProvider

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
<T extends EntityProvider> List<String>	EntityProviderManager.getPrefixesByCapability(Class<T> capability) Gets the prefixes which support a specific capability
<T extends EntityProvider> T	EntityProviderManager.getProviderByPrefixAndCapability(String prefix, Class<T> capability) Get the entity provider by the prefix which uniquely defines all entities of a type and also handles a specific capability NOTE: this returns the provider that handles this capability (it may handle many other things as well)
<T extends EntityProvider> List<T>	EntityProviderManager.getProvidersByCapability(Class<T> capability) Get all the entity providers which support a specific capability, this useful if you need to get the providers and call the capability methods on them directly
<T extends EntityProvider> void	EntityProviderManager.registerListener(EntityProviderListener<T> listener, boolean includeExisting) Registers a listener which is called whenever entity providers are registered depending on the filters in the EntityProviderListener This is particularly useful for capabilities which should/must be executed one time only and should not be called over and over OR will not do anything until they are triggered
<T extends EntityProvider> void	EntityProviderManager.unregisterListener(EntityProviderListener<T> listener) Unregisters the listener if it is registered or does nothing

Methods in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider that return EntityProvider

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
EntityProvider	EntityProviderManager.getProviderByPrefix(String prefix) Get the entity provider by the prefix which uniquely defines all entities of a type, NOTE: this returns the CoreEntityProvider that handles the exists check (it may handle many other things as well), the basic EntityProvider if there is no CoreEntityProvider, OR null if neither exists
EntityProvider	EntityProviderManager.getProviderByReference(String reference) Deprecated. this method is no longer functional or supported

Methods in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider that return types with arguments of type EntityProvider

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
List<Class<? extends EntityProvider>>	EntityProviderManager.getPrefixCapabilities(String prefix) Get all the capabilities for a given entity prefix, WARNING: This is very inefficient so you should normally use EntityProviderManager.getProviderByPrefixAndCapability(String, Class) when trying to determine if a provider implements a specific capability
Map<String,List<Class<? extends EntityProvider>>>	EntityProviderManager.getRegisteredEntityCapabilities() Get all registered prefixes and their capabilities, WARNING: This is very inefficient so you should normally use EntityProviderManager.getProviderByPrefixAndCapability(String, Class) when trying to determine if a provider implements a specific capability

Methods in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider with parameters of type EntityProvider

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
CustomAction[]	EntityProviderMethodStore.findCustomActions(EntityProvider entityProvider, boolean ignoreFailures) Get all the custom actions that can be found
URLRedirect[]	EntityProviderMethodStore.findURLRedirectMethods(EntityProvider entityProvider) Looks for redirect methods in the given entity provider
void	EntityProviderManager.registerEntityProvider(EntityProvider entityProvider) Registers an entity provider with the manager, this allows registration to happen programatically but the preferred method is to use the AutoRegisterEntityProvider instead (see the EntityProvider interface), replaces an existing entity provider which uses the same prefix and handles the same capabilities if one is already registered, does not affect other providers which handle the same prefix but handle other capabilities NOTE: This allows developers to register providers from all over the code base without requiring all capabilities to live in the same project (i.e. allows for a large reduction in dependencies and conflicts)
void	EntityProviderManager.unregisterEntityProvider(EntityProvider entityProvider) Unregisters an entity provider with the manager, this will remove a registered entity broker from the manager registration, if the entity provider supplied is not registered then no error is thrown

Method parameters in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider with type arguments of type EntityProvider

Modifier and Type

Method and Description

void

EntityProviderManager.unregisterCapability(String prefix, Class<? extends EntityProvider> capability) Unregisters an entity provider with the manager based on a prefix and capability, this will remove a registered entity broker from the manager registration, if the prefix and capability are not registered then no error is thrown NOTE: Attempting to unregister the base EntityProvider will cause an exception, if you want to completely unregister a type of entity you must use the EntityProviderManager.unregisterEntityProviderByPrefix(String)

Uses of EntityProvider in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.capabilities

Subinterfaces of EntityProvider in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.capabilities

Modifier and Type	Interface and Description
interface	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.
interface	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.
interface	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.
interface	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
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
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
interface	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).
interface	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)
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.)
interface	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
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
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
interface	DepthLimitable This entity type can specify its own recursion depth limit.
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.
interface	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
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
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
interface	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
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
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
interface	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
interface	LearningTrackable This capability is for tracking learning events (LRS statements) related to this entity If more advanced control is needed then use of the full LRS_Statement in then LearningResourceStoreService.
interface	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)
interface	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
interface	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
interface	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
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
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.
interface	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.
interface	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.
interface	ReferenceParseable Indicates an entity provider has the capability of parsing its own reference string.
interface	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
interface	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.)
interface	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
interface	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
interface	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
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
interface	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.
interface	Saveable Convenience interface to indicates that an entity is can be saved, i.e. it is creatable and updateable
interface	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
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
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
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
interface	TagSearchable Deprecated. no longer functional, use TagProvideable
interface	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

Uses of EntityProvider in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.extension

Classes in org.sakaiproject.entitybroker.entityprovider.extension with type parameters of type EntityProvider

Modifier and Type	Interface and Description
interface	EntityProviderListener<T extends EntityProvider> This allows a developer to be notified whenever a provider is registered, it will also ensure that it calls the listener method for any providers that are already registered when it is first registered if desired Usage: Just implement this class and use EntityProviderManager#registerNotifier(EntityProviderNotifier) to register it with the system.