AttributeDefinition (OSGi Residential Release 6)

```
@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 and Description
`static int`	`BIGDECIMAL` Deprecated. As of 1.1.
`static int`	`BIGINTEGER` Deprecated. As of 1.1.
`static int`	`BOOLEAN` The `BOOLEAN` type.
`static int`	`BYTE` The `BYTE` type.
`static int`	`CHARACTER` The `CHARACTER` type.
`static int`	`DOUBLE` The `DOUBLE` type.
`static int`	`FLOAT` The `FLOAT` type.
`static int`	`INTEGER` The `INTEGER` type.
`static int`	`LONG` The `LONG` type.
`static int`	`PASSWORD` The `PASSWORD` type.
`static int`	`SHORT` The `SHORT` type.
`static int`	`STRING` The `STRING` type.

Method Summary

Methods
Modifier and Type	Method and 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 Detail
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
  - 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:
    Constant Field Values
- Method Detail
  - 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.

Interface AttributeDefinition

Field Summary

Method Summary

Field Detail

STRING

LONG

INTEGER

SHORT

CHARACTER

BYTE

DOUBLE

FLOAT

BIGINTEGER

BIGDECIMAL

BOOLEAN

PASSWORD

Method Detail

getName

getID

getDescription

getCardinality

getType

getOptionValues

getOptionLabels

validate

getDefaultValue