/* 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;

 /**

  * Provides a cache of {@link BasicAclEntry} objects.

  *

  * <P>

  * Implementations should provide appropriate methods to set their cache

  * parameters (eg time-to-live) and/or force removal of entities before their

  * normal expiration. These are not part of the

  * <code>BasicAclEntryCache</code> interface contract because they vary

  * depending on the type of caching system used (eg in-memory vs disk vs

  * cluster vs hybrid).

  * </p>

  *

  * @author Ben Alex

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

  */

 public interface BasicAclEntryCache {

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

     /**

      * Obtains an array of {@link BasicAclEntry}s from the cache.

      *

      * @param aclObjectIdentity which should be obtained from the cache

      *

      * @return any applicable <code>BasicAclEntry</code>s (no <code>null</code>s are permitted in the returned array)

      *         or <code>null</code> if the object identity could not be found or if the cache entry has expired

      */

     BasicAclEntry[] getEntriesFromCache(AclObjectIdentity aclObjectIdentity);

     /**

      * Places an array of {@link BasicAclEntry}s in the cache.<P>No <code>null</code>s are allowed in the

      * passed array. If any <code>null</code> is passed, the implementation may throw an exception.</p>

      *

      * @param basicAclEntry the ACL entries to cache (the key will be extracted from the {@link

      *        BasicAclEntry#getAclObjectIdentity()} method

      */

     void putEntriesInCache(BasicAclEntry[] basicAclEntry);

     /**

      * Removes all ACL entries related to an {@link AclObjectIdentity} from the cache.

      *

      * @param aclObjectIdentity which should be removed from the cache

      */

     void removeEntriesFromCache(AclObjectIdentity aclObjectIdentity);

 }