001    // Copyright 2004, 2005 The Apache Software Foundation
002    //
003    // Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
004    // you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
005    // You may obtain a copy of the License at
006    //
007    //     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
008    //
009    // Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
010    // distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
011    // WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
012    // See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
013    // limitations under the License.
014    
015    package org.apache.tapestry.contrib.table.components;
016    
017    import org.apache.tapestry.IComponent;
018    import org.apache.tapestry.contrib.table.model.IAdvancedTableColumnSource;
019    import org.apache.tapestry.contrib.table.model.ITableColumnModel;
020    
021    /**
022     * Service used to generate a
023     * {@link org.apache.tapestry.contrib.table.model.ITableColumnModel}from a
024     * string description.
025     * 
026     * @author Howard M. Lewis Ship
027     * @since 4.0
028     */
029    public interface TableColumnModelSource
030    {
031    
032        /**
033         * Generate a table column model out of the description string provided.
034         * Entries in the description string are separated by commas. Each column
035         * entry is of the format name, name:expression, or
036         * name:displayName:expression. An entry prefixed with ! represents a
037         * non-sortable column. If the whole description string is prefixed with *,
038         * it represents columns to be included in a Form.
039         * 
040         * @param strDesc
041         *            the description of the column model to be generated
042         * @param objComponent
043         *            the component ordering the generation
044         * @param objColumnSettingsContainer
045         *            the component containing the column settings
046         * @return a table column model based on the provided parameters
047         */
048        ITableColumnModel generateTableColumnModel(
049                IAdvancedTableColumnSource objColumnSource, String strDesc,
050                IComponent objComponent, IComponent objColumnSettingsContainer);
051    }