/* Copyright 2004, 2005, 2006 Acegi Technology Pty Limited

  *

  * 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.acegisecurity.acl.basic;

 /**

  * Represents a data access object that can return the {@link BasicAclEntry}s

  * applying to a given ACL object identity.

  *

  * <P>

  * <code>BasicAclDao</code> implementations are responsible for interpreting a

  * given {@link AclObjectIdentity} and being able to lookup and return the

  * corresponding {@link BasicAclEntry}[]s.

  * </p>

  *

  * <P>

  * <code>BasicAclDao</code>s many, but are not required to, allow the backend

  * ACL repository to specify the class of <code>BasicAclEntry</code>

  * implementations that should be returned.

  * </p>

  *

  * @author Ben Alex

  * @version $Id: BasicAclDao.java 1784 2007-02-24 21:00:24Z luke_t $

  */

 public interface BasicAclDao {

     //~ Methods ========================================================================================================

     /**

      * Obtains the ACLs that apply to the specified domain instance.<P>Does <b>not</b> perform caching, include

      * ACLs from any inheritance hierarchy or filter returned objects based on effective permissions. Implementations

      * are solely responsible for returning ACLs found in the ACL repository for the specified object identity.</p>

      *

      * @param aclObjectIdentity the domain object instance that ACL information is being requested for (never

      *        <code>null</code>)

      *

      * @return the ACLs that apply (no <code>null</code>s are permitted in the array), or <code>null</code> if no ACLs

      *         could be found for the specified ACL object identity

      */

     BasicAclEntry[] getAcls(AclObjectIdentity aclObjectIdentity);

 }