org.osid.binding.java

Interface OsidPrimitive

All Superinterfaces:

java.io.Serializable

All Known Subinterfaces:

Coordinate, Coordinate, Currency, Currency, DateTime, DateTime, DisplayText, DisplayText, Distance, Distance, Duration, Duration, Heading, Heading, Id, Id, OsidPrimitive, SpatialUnit, SpatialUnit, Speed, Speed, Time, Time, Type, Type, Version, Version

public interface OsidPrimitive
extends java.io.Serializable

Some OSID interfaces are designated as "primitives" in that they may be constructed by either the OSID Consumer or OSID Provider. They do not encapsulate provider-specific details but are used as a shuttle of information both ways across the OSIDs. The design of an OsidPrimitive implementation should take care not to include logic, such as introducing Type compatibility, where comparison methods exhibit different behavior. All comparison methods such as equals() should be commutative such that object1.equals(object2) has the same result as object2.equals(object1). Primitives support Java Serialization. Java serialization and deserialization is used for persisting and retrieving the state of the internal object. toString() can be used for outputting a standard format, as for example a date or a Type, using the exposed interfaces that can be used for reconstructing the underlying object from scratch. In this case, offering a valueOf() method to that is compatible with the object's output format can be handy. Output display and serialization will vary depending on the implementation of this interface. Consumers needing a consistent behavior across all OSID Providers should wrap this primitive in another of known behavior. Implementations of OsidPrimitives are also encouraged to permit easy construction given another object of the same interface.

Method Summary

Methods

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
java.lang.String	toString() Returns a string representation of this OsidPrimitive.

Method Detail

toString

java.lang.String toString()

Returns a string representation of this OsidPrimitive. All implementations are encouraged to supply this method to provide a readable display. Some objects may pretty print the primitive while others may serialize for convenient persistence.

Overrides:

toString in class java.lang.Object

Returns:

a string