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Class framework.ModuleData 

java.lang.Object
   |
   +----framework.ModuleData
public abstract class ModuleData
extends Object
implements Data
Abstract class that should be used as the super class of all Data classes. It has an implementation for each method of the the Data interface to make the task of writing a Data class easier. A Data class only has provide implementations for a limited number of methods in this class and to override the methods of interest.

This class provides three boolean variables called canLoad, canSave and canDisplay with the value true. It also implements emtpy methods load(), save() and display(). Data classes that can load, save or display their data need to override the appropriate methods. Data classes that do not want to provide methods for load, save or display need to override the corresponding canLoad, canSave or canDisplay variable with one that has the value false, so the Framework will not call the corresponding load(), save() or display() method. Please note: the canLoad, canSave and canDisplay methods must be public and static because they are meant to override a variable declared in an interface.

This class is abstract to prevent it from instantiation.

Version:
$Revision: $
See Also:
Data

Variable Index

o canDisplay
Indicates whether the data objects of this type can be displayed to the user of the Framework.
o canLoad
Indicates whether the data objects of this type can be loaded from disk.
o canSave
Indicates whether the data objects of this type can be saved to disk.

Constructor Index

o ModuleData()

Method Index

o display(String, String)
All Data classes can have a display method that displays the data to the user of the Framework.
o getLoadTags()
The subclass of this class should implement the getLoadTags method.
o getSaveTags()
The subclass of this class should implement the getSaveTags method.
o load(String)
May be overridden by subclasses of this class, the method in the subclass will then load data from disk.
o loadFileAvailable(String)
Checks whether a file exists with this name and (one of the defined) extension(s).
o save(String)
May be overridden by subclasses of this class, the method in the subclass will then write data to disk.
o saveFileAvailable(String)
Checks whether a file can be saved with this name and the first extension as it is defined in the data type class.

Variables

o canLoad 
 public static boolean canLoad
Indicates whether the data objects of this type can be loaded from disk. If there is no load method implemented for the data type then the Data class should contain a public and static boolean variable called canLoad that has the value false.

See Also:
load
o canSave 
 public static boolean canSave
Indicates whether the data objects of this type can be saved to disk. If there is no save method implemented for the data type then the Data class should contain a public and static boolean variable called canSave that has the value false.

See Also:
save
o canDisplay 
 public static boolean canDisplay
Indicates whether the data objects of this type can be displayed to the user of the Framework. If there is no display method implemented for the data type then the Data class should contain a public and static boolean variable called canDisplay that has the value false.

See Also:
display

Constructors

o ModuleData 
 public ModuleData()

Methods

o getLoadTags 
 protected abstract String[] getLoadTags()
The subclass of this class should implement the getLoadTags method.

o getSaveTags 
 protected abstract String[] getSaveTags()
The subclass of this class should implement the getSaveTags method.

o load 
 public void load(String filename) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException
May be overridden by subclasses of this class, the method in the subclass will then load data from disk. If not overridden, the subclass must contain a public and static boolean variable called canLoad which must have the value false, so the Framework will not call the load() method of the Data class. So in reality this method is never called.

See Also:
canLoad
o save 
 public void save(String filename) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException
May be overridden by subclasses of this class, the method in the subclass will then write data to disk. If not overridden, the subclass must contain a public and static boolean variable called canSave which must have the value false, so the Framework will not call the save() method of the Data class. So in reality this method is never called.

See Also:
canSave
o display 
 public DataVisualisation display(String title,
                                  String filename)
All Data classes can have a display method that displays the data to the user of the Framework. The empty implementation in this class may be overridden by subclasses, the method in the subclass will then display the data. If not overridden, the subclass must contain a public and static boolean variable called canDisplay which must have the value false, so the Framework will not call the display() method of the Data class. So in reality this method is never called.

Returns:
null. Subclasses must override this method with one that returns a proper instance of a class that implements the DataVisualisation class.
See Also:
canDisplay, display, DataVisualisation
o loadFileAvailable 
 public File loadFileAvailable(String partialFilename)
Checks whether a file exists with this name and (one of the defined) extension(s).

Returns:
the File if one file has been found that can be loaded,null otherwise.
o saveFileAvailable 
 public File saveFileAvailable(String partialFilename) throws DataException
Checks whether a file can be saved with this name and the first extension as it is defined in the data type class.

Returns:
the File if the file can be saved, null otherwise. 
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