1 /*
2 * EL4J, the Extension Library for the J2EE, adds incremental enhancements to
3 * the spring framework, http://el4j.sf.net
4 * Copyright (C) 2005 by ELCA Informatique SA, Av. de la Harpe 22-24,
5 * 1000 Lausanne, Switzerland, http://www.elca.ch
6 *
7 * EL4J is published under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
8 * Version 2.1. See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/
9 *
10 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
11 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
12 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
13 * GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
14 *
15 * For alternative licensing, please contact info@elca.ch
16 */
17 package ch.elca.el4j.services.search.criterias;
18
19 import java.io.Serializable;
20
21
22 /**
23 * A Criteria represents some restrictions for a Query (e.g. used to
24 * get values from a database).
25 *
26 * @see QueryObject
27 *
28 * Refer to tests of keyword/test module for example usages
29 *
30 * @svnLink $Revision: 3874 $;$Date: 2009-08-04 14:25:40 +0200 (Di, 04. Aug 2009) $;$Author: swismer $;$URL: https://el4j.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/el4j/branches/el4j_3_1/el4j/framework/modules/core/src/main/java/ch/elca/el4j/services/search/criterias/Criteria.java $
31 *
32 * @author Martin Zeltner (MZE)
33 */
34 public interface Criteria extends Serializable {
35
36 /**
37 * @deprecated No longer use this method as it was used in an older
38 * implementation only.
39 * @return Returns the criteria type.
40 */
41 public String getType();
42
43 /**
44 * The full Criteria as SQL representation. This does not
45 * mean that we want to break encapsulation (Criteria should
46 * be independent of the database) but SQL is a representation
47 * that is easy to understand.
48 * @return an SQL string as it could occur in a SQL WHERE clause
49 */
50 public String getSqlWhereCondition();
51
52 }