001    package org.apache.maven.settings.building;
002    
003    /*
004     * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
005     * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
006     * distributed with this work for additional information
007     * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
008     * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
009     * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
010     * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
011     *
012     *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
013     *
014     * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
015     * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
016     * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
017     * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
018     * specific language governing permissions and limitations
019     * under the License.
020     */
021    
022    import java.io.IOException;
023    import java.io.InputStream;
024    
025    /**
026     * Provides access to the contents of settings independently of the backing store (e.g. file system, database, memory).
027     * 
028     * @author Benjamin Bentmann
029     */
030    public interface SettingsSource
031    {
032    
033        /**
034         * Gets a byte stream to the settings contents. Closing the returned stream is the responsibility of the caller.
035         * Note that each invocation of this method returns a new/fresh stream which represents the entire contents.
036         * 
037         * @return A byte stream to the settings contents, never {@code null}.
038         */
039        InputStream getInputStream()
040            throws IOException;
041    
042        /**
043         * Provides a user-friendly hint about the location of the settings. This could be a local file path, a URI or just
044         * an empty string. The intention is to assist users during error reporting.
045         * 
046         * @return A user-friendly hint about the location of the settings, never {@code null}.
047         */
048        String getLocation();
049    
050    }