source: trunk/src/org/expeditee/importer/FileImporter.java@ 1436

/**
 *    FileImporter.java
 *    Copyright (C) 2010 New Zealand Digital Library, http://expeditee.org
 *
 *    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 *    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 *    (at your option) any later version.
 *
 *    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 *    GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 *    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 *    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */

package org.expeditee.importer;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

import org.expeditee.core.Point;
import org.expeditee.items.Item;

/**
 * Used for importing files (and folders) into Expeditee. A FileImporter
 * may or maynot choose to import a file.
 * 
 * @author Brook Novak
 *
 */
public interface FileImporter {
        
        /**
         * Invoked when a file (or directory) is to be imported.
         * 
         * The importer can choose whether or not to stop other importers to import
         * the files by returning true.
         * 
         * @param f
         *              The file to import. Not null.
         * @param location
         *              The location in expeditee space where the import was requested. 
         *              Null if not applicable.
         * @param attachToFreeItems TODO
         * 
         * @return 
         *              True to stop the import handling proccess for this file. False to allow other
         *              potential import handlers to also import the file.
         *              Should always return false if cannot handle the file.
         * 
         * @throws IOException
         *              If the import procedure failed.
         */
        Item importFile(File f, Point location, boolean attachToFreeItems) throws IOException;
}