#region License

/*
 * Copyright © 2002-2005 the original author or authors.
 *
 * 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.
 */

#endregion
using System.Xml;
using Spring.Objects.Factory.Config;

namespace Spring.Objects.Factory.Xml
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Interface used to handle custom, top-level tags.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>Implementations are free to turn the metadata in the custom tag into as
    /// many <see cref="Spring.Objects.Factory.Config.IObjectDefinition"/> as required.
    /// </remarks>
    /// <author>Rob Harrop</author>
    /// <author>Mark Pollack (.NET)</author>
    public interface IObjectDefinitionParser
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Parse the specified XmlElement and register the resulting
        /// ObjectDefinitions with the <see cref="ParserContext.Registry"/> IObjectDefinitionRegistry
        /// embedded in the supplied <see cref="ParserContext"/>
        /// </summary>
        /// <remarks>
        /// <p>
        /// This method is never invoked if the parser is namespace aware
        /// and was called to process the root node.
        /// </p>
        /// </remarks>
        /// <param name="element">
        /// The element to be parsed.
        /// </param>
        /// <param name="parserContext">
        /// TThe object encapsulating the current state of the parsing process. 
        /// Provides access to a IObjectDefinitionRegistry
        /// </param>
        /// <returns>
        /// The primary object definition.
        /// </returns>
        IObjectDefinition ParseElement(XmlElement element, ParserContext parserContext);
    }
}
