Package org.osgi.service.metatype

Interface AttributeDefinition

@ConsumerType public interface AttributeDefinition
An interface to describe an attribute.

An AttributeDefinition object defines a description of the data type of a property/attribute.

"ThreadSafe"

  • Field Summary

    Fields
    Modifier and Type
    Field
    Description
    static final int
    BIGDECIMAL
    Deprecated.
    As of 1.1.
    static final int
    BIGINTEGER
    Deprecated.
    As of 1.1.
    static final int
    BOOLEAN
    The BOOLEAN type.
    static final int
    BYTE
    The BYTE type.
    static final int
    CHARACTER
    The CHARACTER type.
    static final int
    DOUBLE
    The DOUBLE type.
    static final int
    FLOAT
    The FLOAT type.
    static final int
    INTEGER
    The INTEGER type.
    static final int
    LONG
    The LONG type.
    static final int
    PASSWORD
    The PASSWORD type.
    static final int
    SHORT
    The SHORT type.
    static final int
    STRING
    The STRING type.

  • Method Summary

    Modifier and Type
    Method
    Description
    int
    getCardinality()
    Return the cardinality of this attribute.
    String[]
    getDefaultValue()
    Return a default for this attribute.
    String
    getDescription()
    Return a description of this attribute.
    String
    getID()
    Unique identity for this attribute.
    String
    getName()
    Get the name of the attribute.
    String[]
    getOptionLabels()
    Return a list of labels of option values.
    String[]
    getOptionValues()
    Return a list of option values that this attribute can take.
    int
    getType()
    Return the type for this attribute.
    String
    validate(String value)
    Validate an attribute in String form.

  • Field Details

    • STRING

      static final int STRING
      The STRING type.

      Attributes of this type should be stored as String, List<String> or String[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.

      See Also:

    • LONG

      static final int LONG
      The LONG type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Long, List<Long> or long[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:

    • INTEGER

      static final int INTEGER
      The INTEGER type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Integer, List<Integer> or int[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:

    • SHORT

      static final int SHORT
      The SHORT type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Short, List<Short> or short[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:

    • CHARACTER

      static final int CHARACTER
      The CHARACTER type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Character, List<Character> or char[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:

    • BYTE

      static final int BYTE
      The BYTE type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Byte, List<Byte> or byte[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:

    • DOUBLE

      static final int DOUBLE
      The DOUBLE type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Double, List<Double> or double[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:

    • FLOAT

      static final int FLOAT
      The FLOAT type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Float, List<Float> or float[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:

    • BIGINTEGER

      static final int BIGINTEGER
      Deprecated.
      As of 1.1.
      The BIGINTEGER type. Attributes of this type should be stored as BigInteger, List<BigInteger> or BigInteger[] objects, depending on the getCardinality() value.
      See Also:

    • BIGDECIMAL

      static final int BIGDECIMAL
      Deprecated.
      As of 1.1.
      The BIGDECIMAL type. Attributes of this type should be stored as BigDecimal, List<BigDecimal> or BigDecimal[] objects depending on getCardinality().
      See Also:

    • BOOLEAN

      static final int BOOLEAN
      The BOOLEAN type. Attributes of this type should be stored as Boolean, List<Boolean> or boolean[] objects depending on getCardinality().
      See Also:

    • PASSWORD

      static final int PASSWORD
      The PASSWORD type. Attributes of this type must be stored as String, List<String> or String[] objects depending on getCardinality(). A PASSWORD must be treated as a string but the type can be used to disguise the information when displayed to a user to prevent others from seeing it.
      Since:
      1.2
      See Also:

  • Method Details

    • getName

      String getName()
      Get the name of the attribute. This name may be localized.
      Returns:
      The localized name of the definition.

    • getID

      String getID()
      Unique identity for this attribute. Attributes share a global namespace in the registry. For example, an attribute cn or commonName must always be a String and the semantics are always a name of some object. They share this aspect with LDAP/X.500 attributes. In these standards the OSI Object Identifier (OID) is used to uniquely identify an attribute. If such an OID exists, (which can be requested at several standard organizations and many companies already have a node in the tree) it can be returned here. Otherwise, a unique id should be returned which can be a Java class name (reverse domain name) or generated with a GUID algorithm. Note that all LDAP defined attributes already have an OID. It is strongly advised to define the attributes from existing LDAP schemes which will give the OID. Many such schemes exist ranging from postal addresses to DHCP parameters.
      Returns:
      The id or oid

    • getDescription

      String getDescription()
      Return a description of this attribute. The description may be localized and must describe the semantics of this type and any constraints.
      Returns:
      The localized description of the definition.

    • getCardinality

      int getCardinality()
      Return the cardinality of this attribute. The OSGi environment handles multi valued attributes in arrays ([]) or in List objects. The return value is defined as follows: 
       
    x = Integer.MIN_VALUE    no limit, but use List
    x < 0                    -x = max occurrences, store in List
    x > 0                     x = max occurrences, store in array []
    x = Integer.MAX_VALUE    no limit, but use array []
    x = 0                     1 occurrence required
      Returns:
      The cardinality of this attribute.

    • getType

      int getType()
      Return the type for this attribute.

      Defined in the following constants which map to the appropriate Java type. STRING,LONG,INTEGER, SHORT, CHARACTER, BYTE,DOUBLE,FLOAT, BOOLEAN, PASSWORD.

      Returns:
      The type for this attribute.

    • getOptionValues

      String[] getOptionValues()
      Return a list of option values that this attribute can take.

      If the function returns null, there are no option values available.

      Each value must be acceptable to validate() (return "") and must be a String object that can be converted to the data type defined by getType() for this attribute.

      This list must be in the same sequence as getOptionLabels(). That is, for each index i in getOptionValues, i in getOptionLabels() should be the label.

      For example, if an attribute can have the value male, female, unknown, this list can return new String[] { "male", "female", "unknown" }.

      Returns:
      A list values

    • getOptionLabels

      String[] getOptionLabels()
      Return a list of labels of option values.

      The purpose of this method is to allow menus with localized labels. It is associated with getOptionValues. The labels returned here are ordered in the same way as the values in that method.

      If the function returns null, there are no option labels available.

      This list must be in the same sequence as the getOptionValues() method. That is, for each index i in getOptionLabels, i in getOptionValues() should be the associated value.

      For example, if an attribute can have the value male, female, unknown, this list can return (for dutch) new String[] { "Man", "Vrouw", "Onbekend" }.

      Returns:
      A list values

    • validate

      String validate(String value)
      Validate an attribute in String form. An attribute might be further constrained in value. This method will attempt to validate the attribute according to these constraints. It can return three different values: 
        null           No validation present
  ""             No problems detected
  "..."          A localized description of why the value is wrong
      If the cardinality of this attribute is multi-valued then this string must be interpreted as a comma delimited string. The complete value must be trimmed from white space as well as spaces around commas. Commas ( ',' \u002C) and spaces (' ' \u0020) and backslashes ('\' \u005C) can be escaped with another backslash. Escaped spaces must not be trimmed. For example: 
       value="  a\,b,b\,c,\ c\\,d   " => [ "a,b", "b,c", " c\", "d" ]
      Parameters:
      value - The value before turning it into the basic data type. If the cardinality indicates a multi-valued attribute then the given string must be escaped.
      Returns:
      null, "", or another string

    • getDefaultValue

      String[] getDefaultValue()
      Return a default for this attribute. The object must be of the appropriate type as defined by the cardinality and getType(). The return type is a list of String objects that can be converted to the appropriate type. The cardinality of the return array must follow the absolute cardinality of this type. For example, if the cardinality = 0, the array must contain 1 element. If the cardinality is 1, it must contain 0 or 1 elements. If it is -5, it must contain from 0 to max 5 elements. Note that the special case of a 0 cardinality, meaning a single value, does not allow arrays or lists of 0 elements.
      Returns:
      Return a default value or null if no default exists.