core/api/src/main/java/org/qi4j/api/type/Serialization.java

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2009, Rickard Öberg. All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * 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.qi4j.api.type;

import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**
 * Serialization options for Property intstances.
 * <p>
 * The {@code entry} type represents the explicit key=keyValue, value=valueValue. For JSON serialization;
 * </p>
 * <pre>
 *     [
 *         { "key1" : "value1" },
 *         { "key2" : "value2" }
 *     ]
 * </pre>
 * <p>
 * For XML serialization;
 * </p>
 * <pre>
 *     &lt;object&gt;
 *         &lt;
 *     &lt;/object&gt;
 * </pre>
 * <p>
 * The {@code object} type represents the explicit keyValue=valueValue.
 * </p>
 */
@Retention( RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME )
@Target( { ElementType.TYPE, ElementType.METHOD } )
@Documented
public @interface Serialization
{
    Variant value();

    enum Variant
    {
        entry, object
    }
}