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package com.sun.jersey.spi.template;

import com.sun.jersey.api.core.ResourceConfig;
import com.sun.jersey.api.view.Viewable;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Application;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.Provider;

/**
 * A view processor.
 * <p>
 * Implementations of this interface shall be capable of resolving a
 * template name to a template reference that identifies a template supported
 * by the implementation. And, processing the template, identified by template
 * reference, the results of which are written to an output stream.
 * <p>
 * Implementations can register a view processor as a provider, for
 * example, annotating the implementation class with {@link Provider}
 * or registering an implementing class or instance as a singleton with
 * {@link ResourceConfig} or {@link Application}.
 * <p>
 * Such view processors could be JSP view processors (supported by the
 * Jersey servlet and filter implementations) or say Freemarker or Velocity
 * view processors (not implemented).
 * 
 * @param <T> the type of the template object.
 * @author Paul.Sandoz@Sun.Com
 */
public interface ViewProcessor<T> {
   
    /**
     * Resolve a template name to a template reference.
     * 
     * @param name the template name
     * @return the template reference, otherwise null
     *         if the template name cannot be resolved.
     */
    T resolve(String name);
    
    /**
     * Process a template and write the result to an output stream.
     * 
     * @param t the template reference. This is obtained by calling the
     *        {@link #resolve(java.lang.String)} method with a template name.
     * @param viewable the viewable that contains the model to be passed to the
     *        template.
     * @param out the output stream to write the result of processing the
     *        template.
     * @throws java.io.IOException if there was an error processing the
     *         template.
     */
    void writeTo(T t, Viewable viewable, OutputStream out) throws IOException;
}