/*
 *    GeoTools - The Open Source Java GIS Toolkit
 *    http://geotools.org
 * 
 *    (C) 2002-2008, Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)
 *
 *    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;
 *    version 2.1 of the License.
 *
 *    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.
 */
package org.geotools.filter.expression;

import org.geotools.factory.Hints;
import org.geotools.factory.Hints.Key;

/**
 * Factory used to create instances of {@link PropertyAccessor}
 *
 * @author Justin Deoliveira, The Open Planning Project
 *
 *
 *
 * @source $URL: http://svn.osgeo.org/geotools/branches/2.7.x/modules/library/api/src/main/java/org/geotools/filter/expression/PropertyAccessorFactory.java $
 */
public interface PropertyAccessorFactory {
		    
	/**
	 * {@link Hints} key used to pass namespace context to
	 * {@link #createPropertyAccessor(Class, String, Class, Hints)} in the form of a
	 * {@link NamespaceSupport} instance with the prefix/namespaceURI mappings
	 */
	public static final Key NAMESPACE_CONTEXT = new Hints.Key(org.xml.sax.helpers.NamespaceSupport.class);
	
	
    /**
     * Creates a property accessor for a particular class.
     *
     * @param type The type of object to be accessed.
     * @param xpath The xpath expression to evaluate.
     * @param target The kind of result we are expecting (ie Geometry)
     * @param hints Hints to be used when creatign the accessor.
     *
     * @return The property accessor, or <code>null</code> if this factory cannot create
     * an accessor for the specified type.
     */
    PropertyAccessor createPropertyAccessor(Class type, String xpath, Class target, Hints hints);
}
