tapestry/tapestry-framework/src/java/org/apache/tapestry/coerce/TypeConverter.java

// Copyright 2004, 2005 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.tapestry.coerce;

/** 
 * Converts a value to a specific (implicit) type.
 * 
 * @author Howard M. Lewis Ship
 * @since 4.0
 */
public interface TypeConverter
{
    /**
     * Converts the value.
     * 
     * @param value the value to be converted (which may be null)
     * @return the value converted to a specific type; different implementations of TypeConverter
     * will return different types.
     * @throws org.apache.hivemind.ApplicationRuntimeException if the value can not be converted
     */
    Object convertValue(Object value);
}