EntityProperty.java

/* 
 * _____________________________________________________________________________
 * 
 * INAF - OATS National Institute for Astrophysics - Astronomical Observatory of
 * Trieste INAF - IA2 Italian Center for Astronomical Archives
 * _____________________________________________________________________________
 * 
 * Copyright (C) 2016 Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
 * 
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
 * the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 3 as published by the
 * Free Software Foundation.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
 * FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
 * details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
 * this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51
 * Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
 */
package it.inaf.ia2.tsm.api;

/**
 * Store the value of an entity property (that corresponds to a column of the
 * mapped table).
 *
 * @author Sonia Zorba {@literal <zorba at oats.inaf.it>}
 */
public interface EntityProperty {

    /**
     * Retrieve the current value.
     */
    <T> T getValue(Class<T> type);

    /**
     * Initialize the value.
     */
    <T> void init(T initialValue);
    
    boolean isChanged();
}