/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2006, 2009 Oracle. All rights reserved.
 * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
 * terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0, which accompanies this distribution
 * and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html.
 * 
 * Contributors:
 *     Oracle - initial API and implementation
 ******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.jpt.core.context;

/**
 * JPA attribute mapping.
 * <p>
 * Provisional API: This interface is part of an interim API that is still
 * under development and expected to change significantly before reaching
 * stability. It is available at this early stage to solicit feedback from
 * pioneering adopters on the understanding that any code that uses this API
 * will almost certainly be broken (repeatedly) as the API evolves.
 */
public interface AttributeMapping
	extends JpaContextNode
{
	PersistentAttribute getPersistentAttribute();
	
	String getName();

	boolean isDefault();

	/**
	 * Return a unique key for the attribute mapping.  If this is defined in
	 * an extension they should be equal.
	 */
	String getKey();

	/**
	 * Return whether the "attribute" mapping can be overridden.
	 * Must be a {@link ColumnMapping}
	 */
	boolean isOverridableAttributeMapping();

	/**
	 * Return whether the "association" mapping can be overridden.
	 * Must be a {@link RelationshipMapping}
	 */
	boolean isOverridableAssociationMapping();

	/**
	 * Return the mapping for the attribute mapping's attribute's type.
	 */
	TypeMapping getTypeMapping();

	/**
	 * Return whether the "attribute" mapping is for an ID.
	 */
	boolean isIdMapping();

	/**
	 * If the mapping is for a primary key column, return the column's name,
	 * otherwise return null.
	 */
	String getPrimaryKeyColumnName();
	
	/**
	 * Return whether the given mapping manages a relationship with this mapping
	 */
	boolean isOwnedBy(RelationshipMapping mapping);
	
	/**
	 * Return whether any database metadata specific validation should occur.
	 * (For instance, if the connection is not active, then it should not.)
	 */
	boolean shouldValidateAgainstDatabase();

}