/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2007, 2010 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;

/**
 * Read-only
 * <ul>
 * <li>column
 * <li>join column
 * <li>primary key join column
 * <li>discriminator column
 * <li>order column
 * </ul>
 * 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 ReadOnlyNamedColumn
	extends JpaContextNode
{
	// ********** name **********

	/**
	 * Return the specified name if present, otherwise return the default
	 * name.
	 */
	String getName();
	String getSpecifiedName();
		String SPECIFIED_NAME_PROPERTY = "specifiedName"; //$NON-NLS-1$
	String getDefaultName();
		String DEFAULT_NAME_PROPERTY = "defaultName"; //$NON-NLS-1$


	// ********** table **********

	/**
	 * Return the name of the column's table. A column that does not have a
	 * <em>specified</em> table still has a table (as determined by
	 * the column's owner).
	 */
	String getTable();


	// ********** column definition **********

	String getColumnDefinition();
		String COLUMN_DEFINITION_PROPERTY = "columnDefinition"; //$NON-NLS-1$


	// ********** owner **********

	/**
	 * Interface allowing columns to be used in multiple places
	 * (e.g. basic mappings and attribute overrides).
	 */
	interface Owner
	{
		/**
		 * Return the type mapping containing the column.
		 */
		TypeMapping getTypeMapping();

		/**
		 * Return the name of the table which the column belongs to by default.
		 */
		String getDefaultTableName();

		/**
		 * Return the default column name.
		 */
		String getDefaultColumnName();
	}
}