/*
 This file is part of the software framework JStatCom, 
 a library for building applications for data based analysis.

 Copyright (C) 2000-2005  Markus Kraetzig

 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; either version 2.1 of the
 License, or (at your option) any later version.

 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.

 You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
 License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
 Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307
 USA
 */

package com.jstatcom.project;

/**
 * Interface to be implemented by shared data repositories that hold the project
 * data and that should interact with the project management system. The
 * interface methods handle how project data is set to the implementing
 * repository and how it is retrieved from there for serialization.
 * 
 * @author Markus Kraetzig 
 */
public interface ProjectDataHandler {
    /**
     * Sets the project data to the implementing handler.
     * 
     * @param data
     *            the project data to set
     */
    public void setProjectData(ProjectData data);

    /**
     * Gets the project data from the implementing data handler.
     * 
     * @return project data
     */
    public ProjectData getProjectData();

    /**
     * Gets the type of project data that this handler uses.
     * 
     * @return project data type
     */
    public ProjectDataTypes getProjectDataType();

}