uk.ac.ebi.arrayexpress2.magetab.handler

Interface ConversionHandler<D,O>

Type Parameters:

D - the data item that can be written

O - the output resource that can be supplied in order to convert data to it

All Superinterfaces:

Handler

All Known Implementing Classes:

ADFConversionHandler, ADFNodeConversionHandler, IDFConversionHandler, SDRFConversionHandler, SDRFNodeConversionHandler

@Spi
public interface ConversionHandler<D,O>
extends Handler

A type of Handler that enables convert functionality over a lump of data.

Author:

Tony Burdett

Method Summary

Methods

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
boolean	canConvert(Object data, Object outputResource) Determine whether this handler can convert the supplied data.
void	convert(D data, O out) Converts data from a data item into some resource.

Methods inherited from interface uk.ac.ebi.arrayexpress2.magetab.handler.Handler

accept, addListener, getListeners, removeListener

Method Detail

canConvert

boolean canConvert(Object data,
                 Object outputResource)

Determine whether this handler can convert the supplied data. Typically, the data will be a MAGETABInvestigation, MAGETABArrayDesign, IDF, SDRF, ADF or nodes from the SDRF or ADF graphs.

This data should be passed to the handler prior to writing to determine whether this handler can handle it

Parameters:

data - the data that needs to be written

outputResource - the output resource the will be written to

Returns:

true if this handler can handle the supplied data, false otherwise

convert

void convert(D data,
           O out)
             throws ConversionException

Converts data from a data item into some resource. The target resource is generic and can be implemented to utilise any resource: you should supply your own implementations of this interface to access underlying resources directly. This resource could be anything from an output stream to a database.

This method has a void return type, as ConversionHandlers will be invoked by a converter. As such, if your convert operation is designed to generate new objects you should implement an object cache, using the OuputResource interface, and simply store your newly created objects in this cache whilst parsing. On completion you can then retrieve your new objects and process them in your application.

Normally, handlers of this class will be used to convert data to a database, create objects in an alternative object model, or in some other way generate objects in a MAGE-TAB-like domain model without having to reimplement your own parser.

Parameters:

data - the data model object that information should be written from

out - the resource that data can be converted to

Throws:

ConversionException - if data in the buffer could not be converted