Package org.exolab.castor.mapping

The Class Mapping API

See:
Description

Interface Summary

ClassDescriptor	Describes the properties of a class and its fields.
CollectionHandler	Collection handler for adding/listing elements of a collection.
FieldDescriptor	Describes the properties of a field.
FieldHandler	A field handler knows how to perform various operations on the field that require access to the field value.
MapHandler	A Map handler for adding and retreiving key-value pairs from A map.
MappingResolver	Provides the mapping descriptor for Java classes.
TypeConvertor	Interface for a type convertor.

Class Summary

AbstractFieldHandler	An extended version of the FieldHandler interface which is used for adding additional functionality while preserving backward compatability.
AccessMode	The access mode for a class.
ExtendedFieldHandler	An extended version of the FieldHandler interface which is used for adding additional functionality while preserving backward compatability.
FieldHandlerFactory	An abstract factory class for creating GeneralizedFieldHandlers.
GeneralizedFieldHandler	An extended version of the FieldHandler interface which is used for making generic libraries of FieldHandlers which can be used for more than one field or class, but have similar conversion algorithms.
MapItem	Represents a Mapped Object.
Mapping	Utility class for loading mapping files and providing them to the XML marshaller, JDO engine etc.

Exception Summary

MappingException	An exception indicating an invalid mapping error.
MappingRuntimeException	An exception indicating an invalid mapping error.
ValidityException	An exception indicating an integrity violation.

Package org.exolab.castor.mapping Description

The Class Mapping API

Version:

$Revision: 1.1.1.1 $ $Date: 2003/03/03 07:08:28 $

Author:

Assaf Arkin

Author:

Keith Visco

This package provides a common base for the class mapping descriptors and tools to generate mapping descriptors from a mapping file. The Java objects for the XML-based mapping file are contained in the sub-package xml and the DTD and XML schema originate in this package. The sub-package loader implements a mapping loader.

Mapping serves as a generic mapping loader that can be used to load multiple mapping files and feed them to the XML marshaller, JDO engine, and DAX engine.

ClassDescriptor is a mapping descriptor for a Java class, consisting of any number of fields. FieldDescriptor is a mapping descriptor for a Java field within that class. Access to the field value is granted through a FieldHandler, obtained from the field descriptor.

MappingResolver is an interface to a collection of class mapping that can provide the mapping descriptor for a particular Java class. A MappingResolver is constructed using a mapping loader, see the loader package.

The following example illustrates how to load a mapping file with the current class loader and use it to marshal an object:

  Mapping      map;
  Marshaller   mar;

  // Load the specified mapping file
  map = new Mapping( getClass().getClassLoader() );
  map.loadMapping( "mapping.xml" );

  // Marshal the object into a document
  mar = new Marshaller( output );
  mar.setMapping( mapping );
  mar.marshal( object );