/*
 * Copyright (c) OSGi Alliance (2008, 2009). All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package org.osgi.service.blueprint.reflect;

import java.util.List;

/**
 * Metadata for a Map based value.
 * 
 * <p>
 * This is specified by the <code>map</code> element.
 * 
 * @ThreadSafe
 * @version $Revision: 7563 $
 */
public interface MapMetadata extends NonNullMetadata {
	/**
	 * Return the name of the type of the map keys.
	 * 
	 * This is specified by the <code>key-type</code> attribute of the map.
	 * 
	 * @return The name of the type of the map keys, or <code>null</code> if
	 *         none is specified.
	 */
	String getKeyType();

	/**
	 * Return the name of the type of the map values.
	 * 
	 * This is specified by the <code>value-type</code> attribute of the map.
	 * 
	 * @return The name of the type of the map values, or <code>null</code> if
	 *         none is specified.
	 */
	String getValueType();

	/**
	 * Return the entries for the map.
	 * 
	 * @return An immutable List of {@link MapEntry} objects for each entry in
	 *         the map. The List is empty if no entries are specified for the
	 *         map.
	 */
	List /* <MapEntry> */getEntries();
}