org.apache.directory.api.ldap.model.entry
Interface Attribute

All Superinterfaces:

Externalizable, Iterable<Value<?>>, Serializable

All Known Implementing Classes:

DefaultAttribute

public interface Attribute
extends Iterable<Value<?>>, Externalizable

A generic interface used to store the LDAP Attributes.

Author:

Apache Directory Project

Method Summary

int	add(byte[]... vals) Adds some values to this attribute.
int	add(String... vals) Adds some values to this attribute.
int	add(Value<?>... val) Adds some values to this attribute.
void	apply(AttributeType attributeType) Set the attribute type associated with this EntryAttribute.
void	clear() Remove all the values from this attribute.
Attribute	clone()
boolean	contains(byte[]... vals) Indicates whether the specified values are some of the attribute's values.
boolean	contains(String... vals) Indicates whether the specified values are some of the attribute's values.
boolean	contains(Value<?>... vals) Indicates whether the specified values are some of the attribute's values.
Value<?>	get() Get the first value of this attribute.
AttributeType	getAttributeType() Get the attribute type associated with this EntryAttribute.
byte[]	getBytes() Get the byte[] value, if and only if the value is known to be Binary, otherwise a InvalidAttributeValueException will be thrown
String	getId() Get's the attribute identifier for this entry.
String	getString() Get the String value, if and only if the value is known to be a String, otherwise a InvalidAttributeValueException will be thrown
String	getUpId() Get's the user provided identifier for this entry.
boolean	isHumanReadable() Tells if the attribute is human readable.
boolean	isInstanceOf(AttributeType attributeType) Check if the current attribute type has the same type (or is a descendant of) than the given attributeType
boolean	isValid(AttributeType attributeType) Checks to see if this attribute is valid along with the values it contains.
boolean	remove(byte[]... val) Removes all the values that are equal to the given values.
boolean	remove(String... vals) Removes all the values that are equal to the given values.
boolean	remove(Value<?>... vals) Removes all the values that are equal to the given values.
void	setUpId(String upId) Set the user provided ID.
void	setUpId(String upId, AttributeType attributeType) Set the user provided ID.
int	size() Retrieves the number of values in this attribute.
String	toString(String tabs) A pretty-pinter for Attribute

Methods inherited from interface java.lang.Iterable

iterator

Methods inherited from interface java.io.Externalizable

readExternal, writeExternal

Method Detail

add

int add(String... vals)
        throws LdapInvalidAttributeValueException

Adds some values to this attribute. If the new values are already present in the attribute values, the method has no effect.

The new values are added at the end of list of values.

This method returns the number of values that were added.

If the value's type is different from the attribute's type, a conversion is done. For instance, if we try to set some String into a Binary attribute, we just store the UTF-8 byte array encoding for this String.

If we try to store some byte[] in a HR attribute, we try to convert those byte[] assuming they represent an UTF-8 encoded String. Of course, if it's not the case, the stored value will be incorrect.

It's the responsibility of the caller to check if the stored values are consistent with the attribute's type.

The caller can set the HR flag in order to enforce a type for the current attribute, otherwise this type will be set while adding the first value, using the value's type to set the flag.

Parameters:

vals - some new values to be added which may be null

Returns:

the number of added values, or 0 if none has been added

Throws:

LdapInvalidAttributeValueException - if some of the added values are not valid

add

int add(byte[]... vals)
        throws LdapInvalidAttributeValueException

Adds some values to this attribute. If the new values are already present in the attribute values, the method has no effect.

The new values are added at the end of list of values.

This method returns the number of values that were added.

If the value's type is different from the attribute's type, a conversion is done. For instance, if we try to set some String into a Binary attribute, we just store the UTF-8 byte array encoding for this String. If we try to store some byte[] in a HR attribute, we try to convert those byte[] assuming they represent an UTF-8 encoded String. Of course, if it's not the case, the stored value will be incorrect.
It's the responsibility of the caller to check if the stored values are consistent with the attribute's type.
The caller can set the HR flag in order to enforce a type for the current attribute, otherwise this type will be set while adding the first value, using the value's type to set the flag.

Parameters:

vals - some new values to be added which may be null

Returns:

the number of added values, or 0 if none has been added

Throws:

LdapInvalidAttributeValueException - if some of the added values are not valid

add

int add(Value<?>... val)
        throws LdapInvalidAttributeValueException

Adds some values to this attribute. If the new values are already present in the attribute values, the method has no effect.

The new values are added at the end of list of values.

This method returns the number of values that were added.

If the value's type is different from the attribute's type, a conversion is done. For instance, if we try to set some StringValue into a Binary attribute, we just store the UTF-8 byte array encoding for this StringValue.

If we try to store some BinaryValue in a HR attribute, we try to convert those BinaryValue assuming they represent an UTF-8 encoded String. Of course, if it's not the case, the stored value will be incorrect.

It's the responsibility of the caller to check if the stored values are consistent with the attribute's type.

The caller can set the HR flag in order to enforce a type for the current attribute, otherwise this type will be set while adding the first value, using the value's type to set the flag.

Note : If the entry contains no value, and the unique added value is a null length value, then this value will be considered as a binary value.

Parameters:

val - some new values to be added which may be null

Returns:

the number of added values, or 0 if none has been added

Throws:

LdapInvalidAttributeValueException - if some of the added values are not valid

clear

void clear()

Remove all the values from this attribute.

clone

Attribute clone()

Returns:

A clone of the current object

contains

boolean contains(String... vals)

Indicates whether the specified values are some of the attribute's values.

If the Attribute is not HR, the values will be converted to byte[]

Parameters:

vals - the values

Returns:

true if this attribute contains all the given values, otherwise false

contains

boolean contains(byte[]... vals)

Indicates whether the specified values are some of the attribute's values.

If the Attribute is HR, the values will be converted to String

Parameters:

vals - the values

Returns:

true if this attribute contains all the given values, otherwise false

contains

boolean contains(Value<?>... vals)

Indicates whether the specified values are some of the attribute's values.

If the Attribute is HR, the binary values will be converted to String before being checked.

Parameters:

vals - the values

Returns:

true if this attribute contains all the given values, otherwise false

getAttributeType

AttributeType getAttributeType()

Get the attribute type associated with this EntryAttribute.

Returns:

the attributeType associated with this entry attribute

apply

void apply(AttributeType attributeType)
           throws LdapInvalidAttributeValueException

Set the attribute type associated with this EntryAttribute.

The current attributeType will be replaced. It is the responsibility of the caller to insure that the existing values are compatible with the new AttributeType

Parameters:

attributeType - the attributeType associated with this entry attribute

Throws:

LdapInvalidAttributeValueException - if the contained values are not valid accordingly to the added AttributeType

isInstanceOf

boolean isInstanceOf(AttributeType attributeType)
                     throws LdapInvalidAttributeValueException

Check if the current attribute type has the same type (or is a descendant of) than the given attributeType

Parameters:

attributeType - The AttributeType to check

Returns:

true if the current attribute is of the expected attributeType or a descendant of it

Throws:

LdapInvalidAttributeValueException - If there is no AttributeType

get

Value<?> get()

Get the first value of this attribute. If there is none, null is returned.

This method is meant to be used if the attribute hold only one value.

Returns:

The first value for this attribute.

getBytes

byte[] getBytes()
                throws LdapInvalidAttributeValueException

Get the byte[] value, if and only if the value is known to be Binary, otherwise a InvalidAttributeValueException will be thrown

Note that this method returns the first value only.

Returns:

The value as a byte[]

Throws:

LdapInvalidAttributeValueException - If the value is a String

getId

String getId()

Get's the attribute identifier for this entry. This is the value that will be used as the identifier for the attribute within the entry.

Returns:

the identifier for this attribute

getUpId

String getUpId()

Get's the user provided identifier for this entry. This is the value that will be used as the identifier for the attribute within the entry. If this is a commonName attribute for example and the user provides "COMMONname" instead when adding the entry then this is the format the user will have that entry returned by the directory server. To do so we store this value as it was given and track it in the attribute using this property.

Returns:

the user provided identifier for this attribute

isHumanReadable

boolean isHumanReadable()

Tells if the attribute is human readable.

This flag is set by the caller, or implicitly when adding String values into an attribute which is not yet declared as Binary.

Returns:

true if the attribute is human readable

getString

String getString()
                 throws LdapInvalidAttributeValueException

Get the String value, if and only if the value is known to be a String, otherwise a InvalidAttributeValueException will be thrown

Note that this method returns the first value only.

Returns:

The value as a String

Throws:

LdapInvalidAttributeValueException - If the value is a byte[]

remove

boolean remove(String... vals)

Removes all the values that are equal to the given values.

Returns true if all the values are removed.

If the attribute type is not HR, then the values will be first converted to byte[]

Parameters:

vals - the values to be removed

Returns:

true if all the values are removed, otherwise false

remove

boolean remove(byte[]... val)

Removes all the values that are equal to the given values.

Returns true if all the values are removed.

If the attribute type is HR, then the values will be first converted to String

Parameters:

val - the values to be removed

Returns:

true if all the values are removed, otherwise false

remove

boolean remove(Value<?>... vals)

Removes all the values that are equal to the given values.

Returns true if all the values are removed.

If the attribute type is HR and some value which are not String, we will convert the values first (same thing for a non-HR attribute).

Parameters:

vals - the values to be removed

Returns:

true if all the values are removed, otherwise false

setUpId

void setUpId(String upId)
             throws IllegalArgumentException

Set the user provided ID. It will also set the ID, normalizing the upId (removing spaces before and after, and lower casing it)

Parameters:

upId - The attribute ID

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - If the ID is empty or null or resolve to an empty value after being trimmed

setUpId

void setUpId(String upId,
             AttributeType attributeType)

Set the user provided ID. If we have none, the upId is assigned the attributetype's name. If it does not have any name, we will use the OID.

If we have an upId and an AttributeType, they must be compatible. : - if the upId is an OID, it must be the AttributeType's OID - otherwise, its normalized form must be equals to ones of the attributeType's names.

In any case, the ATtributeType will be changed. The caller is responsible for the present values to be compatible with the new AttributeType.

Parameters:

upId - The attribute ID

attributeType - The associated attributeType

size

int size()

Retrieves the number of values in this attribute.

Returns:

the number of values in this attribute, including any values wrapping a null value if there is one

isValid

boolean isValid(AttributeType attributeType)
                throws LdapInvalidAttributeValueException

Checks to see if this attribute is valid along with the values it contains.

Parameters:

attributeType - The AttributeType

Returns:

true if the attribute and it's values are valid, false otherwise

Throws:

LdapInvalidAttributeValueException - if there is a failure to check syntaxes of values

toString

String toString(String tabs)

A pretty-pinter for Attribute

Parameters:

tabs - The tabs to add before any output

Returns:

The pretty-printed entry