com.ccg.beans
Interface ObjectFactory

All Known Implementing Classes:

NamedObjectFactory, ObjectFactoryAdapter

public interface ObjectFactory

Interface defining the methods which objects that act as "factories" for producing instances of other objects.

When designing software that allows one to dynamically plug-in implementations for various modules, it is often useful to use a "factory" to load and construct the implementations to be used. The factory has the following responsibility:

• To indicate the actual Class which it is associated with (which may be set at run time).
• The ability to create new instances of the associated object when required by the application.

Since:

1.0

Version:

$Revision: 1.1 $

Author:

$Author: pkb $

Method Summary

Object	createObjectInstance() Creates a new instance of the type of associated object.
Class	getObjectClass() Get the associated object Class.

Method Detail

getObjectClass

Class getObjectClass()
                     throws IllegalStateException

Get the associated object Class.

Returns:

The associated Class - never returns null.

Throws:

IllegalStateException - If the associated class information is not available.

Since:

1.0

createObjectInstance

Object createObjectInstance()
                            throws IllegalStateException

Creates a new instance of the type of associated object.

This method can be used when you want to produce a "new" object.

Returns:

New instance of a object associated with the menu item (never returns null).

Throws:

IllegalStateException - If the class has not been set, or we could not create a new instance of the object using the newInstance method.

Since:

1.0