/*
 *    GeoTools - OpenSource mapping toolkit
 *    http://geotools.org
 *    (C) 2004-2006, GeoTools Project Managment Committee (PMC)
 *    
 *    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 *    modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
 *    License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
 *    version 2.1 of the License.
 *
 *    This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 *    Lesser General Public License for more details.
 */
package org.geotools.xml.schema;

import java.net.URI;
import java.util.Map;

import org.xml.sax.Attributes;


/**
 * <p>
 * This interface is intended to represent an XML Schema complexType. This
 * interface extends the generic XML schema type interface to represent datum
 * within nested elements.
 * </p>
 *
 * @author dzwiers www.refractions.net
 * @source $URL: http://svn.geotools.org/geotools/tags/2.4.1/modules/library/xml/src/main/java/org/geotools/xml/schema/ComplexType.java $
 */
public interface ComplexType extends Type {
    /**
     * <p>
     * This is used to represent the heirarchy represented within an xml schema
     * document(s). This is particularily useful, as the parent will have the
     * first attempt to create a real (non Object[]) value of the element. For
     * more information see getValue.
     * </p>
     *
     *
     * @see Type#getValue(Element, ElementValue[], Attributes)
     */
    public Type getParent();

    /**
     * Returns true when the complexType should be considered abstract, as
     * defined by the XML schema of which this complex type definition is a
     * part.
     *
     */
    public boolean isAbstract();

    /**
     * This methos represents the potential 'anyAttribute' declaration's
     * namespace attribute which may occur within a complex type definition.
     *
     */
    public String getAnyAttributeNameSpace();

    /**
     * The set of attributes required by this complex type declaration. As  per
     * the xml schema definition, there is not an implied order to the
     * attributes. For performance reasons an implementor may wich to order
     * the attributes from most common to least commonly used attributes.
     *
     */
    public Attribute[] getAttributes();

    /**
     * Specifies a mask which denotes which substitution mechanisms may be used
     * for this complex type definition.
     *
     *
     * @see Schema#EXTENSION
     * @see Schema#RESTRICTION
     * @see Schema#ALL
     */
    public int getBlock();

    /**
     * Returns the child element representing the structure of nested  child
     * nodes (if any are allowed).
     *
     *
     * @see ElementGrouping
     */
    public ElementGrouping getChild();

    public Element[] getChildElements();

    /**
     * Specifies a mask which denotes which substitution mechanisms prohibited
     * for use by child definitions of this complex type.
     *
     *
     * @see Schema#EXTENSION
     * @see Schema#RESTRICTION
     * @see Schema#ALL
     */
    public int getFinal();

    /**
     * Returns the xml schema id of this complexType if one  exists, null
     * otherwise.
     *
     */
    public String getId();

    /**
     * Returns true if this complexType allows mixed content (Child elements
     * and a String value).
     *
     */
    public boolean isMixed();

    /**
     * This method is used to publish whether this complexType is at the root
     * of an inheritance tree, or a leaf within an inheritance tree. This
     * method should return true when the complexType is not a root of an
     * inheritance  tree.
     *
     */
    public boolean isDerived();

    /**
     * This method is a directive to the parser whether to keep the data around
     * in  memory for post processing. Generally this should return True,
     * except when  streaming.
     *
     * @param element DOCUMENT ME!
     * @param hints DOCUMENT ME!
     *
     * @return True, except when streaming the element.
     */
    public boolean cache(Element element, Map hints);

}
