/**

  * Copyright 2005-2013 Dozer Project

  *

  * 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.dozer.metadata;

 import org.dozer.classmap.MappingDirection;

 /**

  * This interface can be used to obtain information about the mapping between two fields.

  * @author  Florian Kunz

  */

 public interface FieldMappingMetadata {

         /**

          * @return The name of the source field.

          */

         String getSourceName();

         /**

          * @return The name of the destination field.

          */

         String getDestinationName();

         /** 

          * @return The name of the getter of the source field.

          */

         String getSourceFieldGetMethod();

         /** 

          * @return The name of the setter of the source field.

          */

         String getSourceFieldSetMethod();

         /** 

          * @return The name of the getter of the destination field.

          */

         String getDestinationFieldGetMethod();

         /** 

          * @return The name of the setter of the destination field.

          */

         String getDestinationFieldSetMethod();

         /**

          * @return true if nested objects are copied by reference. false if a deep copy 

          * is performed.

          */

         boolean isCopyByReference();

         boolean isSourceFieldAccessible();

         boolean isDestinationFieldAccessible();

         /**

          * Can be used to check whether a mapping in unidirectional or bidirectional.

          *  

          * @return An instance of {@link org.dozer.classmap.MappingDirection}.

          */

         MappingDirection getMappingDirection();

         /**

          * @return The date format used for conversions as a string.

          */

         String getDateFormat();

         /** 

          * The name of the custom converter class, or an empty string if no custom converter is used.

          *

          * @return The name of the custom converter class as a string.

          */

         String getCustomConverter();

 }