| /* |
| * Copyright 1999-2004 The Apache Software Foundation. |
| * |
| * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); |
| * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. |
| * You may obtain a copy of the License at |
| * |
| * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 |
| * |
| * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software |
| * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, |
| * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. |
| * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and |
| * limitations under the License. |
| */ |
| package org.apache.cocoon; |
| |
| /** |
| * This interface is implemented by those classes that change |
| * their behavior/results over time (non-ergodic). |
| * |
| * @author <a href="mailto:stefano@apache.org">Stefano Mazzocchi</a> |
| * @author <a href="mailto:pier@apache.org">Pierpaolo Fumagalli</a> |
| * @version CVS $Id: Modifiable.java,v 1.2 2004/03/05 13:02:42 bdelacretaz Exp $ |
| */ |
| public interface Modifiable |
| { |
| /** |
| * Queries the class to estimate its ergodic period termination. |
| * <br> |
| * This method is called to ensure the validity of a cached product. It |
| * is the class responsibility to provide the fastest possible |
| * implementation of this method or, whether this is not possible and the |
| * costs of the change evaluation is comparable to the production costs, |
| * to return <b>true</b> directly with no further delay, thus reducing |
| * the evaluation overhead to a minimum. |
| * |
| * @return <b>true</b> if the class ergodic period is over and the class |
| * would behave differently if processed again, <b>false</b> if the |
| * resource is still ergodic so that it doesn't require |
| * reprocessing. |
| */ |
| boolean modifiedSince( long date ); |
| } |