/**
 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS HEADER.
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2007 Sun Microsystems Inc. All Rights Reserved
 *
 * The contents of this file are subject to the terms
 * of the Common Development and Distribution License
 * (the License). You may not use this file except in
 * compliance with the License.
 *
 * You can obtain a copy of the License at
 * https://opensso.dev.java.net/public/CDDLv1.0.html or
 * opensso/legal/CDDLv1.0.txt
 * See the License for the specific language governing
 * permission and limitations under the License.
 *
 * When distributing Covered Code, include this CDDL
 * Header Notice in each file and include the License file
 * at opensso/legal/CDDLv1.0.txt.
 * If applicable, add the following below the CDDL Header,
 * with the fields enclosed by brackets [] replaced by
 * your own identifying information:
 * "Portions Copyrighted [year] [name of copyright owner]"
 *
 * $Id: Action.java,v 1.2 2008/06/25 05:48:10 qcheng Exp $
 *
 */

package com.sun.identity.xacml.context;

import com.sun.identity.xacml.common.XACMLException;

import java.util.List;

/**
 * The <code>Action</code> element specifies information about the
 * action requested in the <code>Request</code> context by listing a 
 * sequence of <code>Attribute</code> elements associated with the
 * action.
 * <p>
 * <pre>
 * &lt;xs:element name="Action" type="xacml-context:ActionType"/>
 * &lt;xs:complexType name="ActionType">
 *    &lt;xs:sequence>
 *       &lt;xs:element ref="xacml-context:Attribute" minOccurs="0"
 *       maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
 *    &lt;xs:sequence>
 * &lt;xs:complexType>
 * </pre>
 *@supported.all.api
 */
public interface Action {
    /**
     * Returns zero to many <code>Attribute</code> elements of this object
     * If no attributes and present, empty <code>List</code> will be returned.
     *
     * @return the <code>Attribute</code> elements of this object
     */
    public List getAttributes();

    /**
     * Sets the <code>Attribute</code> elements of this object
     *
     * @param attributes <code>Attribute</code> elements of this object
     * attributes could be an empty <code>List</code>, if no attributes
     * are present.
     *
     * @exception XACMLException if the object is immutable
     * An object is considered <code>immutable</code> if <code>
     * makeImmutable()</code> has been invoked on it. It can
     * be determined by calling <code>isMutable</code> on the object.
     */
    public void setAttributes(List attributes) throws XACMLException;

   /**
    * Returns a <code>String</code> representation of this object
    * @param includeNSPrefix Determines whether or not the namespace qualifier
    *        is prepended to the Element when converted
    * @param declareNS Determines whether or not the namespace is declared
    *        within the Element.
    * @return a string representation of this object
    * @exception XACMLException if conversion fails for any reason
     */
    public String toXMLString(boolean includeNSPrefix, boolean declareNS)
            throws XACMLException;

   /**
    * Returns a string representation of this object
    *
    * @return a string representation of this object
    * @exception XACMLException if conversion fails for any reason
    */
    public String toXMLString() throws XACMLException;

   /**
    * Makes the object immutable
    */
    public void makeImmutable();

   /**
    * Checks if the object is mutable
    *
    * @return <code>true</code> if the object is mutable,
    *         <code>false</code> otherwise
    */
    public boolean isMutable();
    
}
