1 /*
2 * Copyright 2004-2009 the original author or authors.
3 *
4 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
5 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
6 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
7 *
8 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
9 *
10 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
11 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
12 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
13 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
14 * limitations under the License.
15 */
16
17 package org.springmodules.validation.bean.rule;
18
19 import org.springmodules.validation.util.condition.Condition;
20
21 /**
22 * Represents a validation rule. A validation rule binds an error to a condition.
23 *
24 * @author Uri Boness
25 */
26 public interface ValidationRule {
27
28 /**
29 * Checks whether this validation is applicable on the given object. This can be used
30 * to define applicability rules base on runtime factors.
31 *
32 * @param obj The object to be validated
33 * @return True if this validation rule is applicable on the given obj, false otherwise.
34 */
35 boolean isApplicable(Object obj);
36
37 /**
38 * Returns the condition of this validation rule.
39 *
40 * @return The condition of this validation rule.
41 */
42 Condition getCondition();
43
44 /**
45 * Return the error code of this validation rule. This method cannot return <code>null</code>.
46 *
47 * @return The error code of this validation rule.
48 */
49 String getErrorCode();
50
51 /**
52 * Returns the arguments that apply to the error code of this validation rule. This
53 * method should never return null. If there are no arguments, this method must return
54 * an empty array. This method accepts the validated object, this enables runtime generation
55 * of arguments based on that object.
56 *
57 * @param obj The validated object.
58 * @return The arguments that apply to the error code of this validation rule.
59 */
60 Object[] getErrorArguments(Object obj);
61
62 /**
63 * Returns the default error message that can be used in case no error message is bound
64 * to the error code of the rule. This method can return <code>null</code> to indicate that
65 * no default message exists.
66 *
67 * @return The default error message of this validation rule.
68 */
69 String getDefaultErrorMessage();
70
71 }