/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2000, 2004 IBM Corporation and others.
 * 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:
 *     IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
 *******************************************************************************/

package org.eclipse.ui;

/**
 * Defines a reference to an IViewPart.
 * <p>
 * This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.
 * </p>
 */
public interface IViewReference extends IWorkbenchPartReference {

    /**
     * Returns the secondary ID for the view.
     * 
     * @return the secondary ID, or <code>null</code> if there is no secondary id
     * @see IWorkbenchPage#showView(String, String, int)
     * @since 3.0
     */
    public String getSecondaryId();

    /**
     * Returns the <code>IViewPart</code> referenced by this object.
     * Returns <code>null</code> if the view was not instantiated or
     * it failed to be restored.  Tries to restore the view
     * if <code>restore</code> is true.
     */
    public IViewPart getView(boolean restore);

    /**
     * Returns true if the view is a fast view otherwise returns false.
     */
    public boolean isFastView();
}