/*
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
 * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
 * distributed with this work for additional information
 * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
 * to you 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.
 */

/* $Rev$ $Date$ */

#ifndef tuscany_sca_model_binding_h
#define tuscany_sca_model_binding_h
#include <string>
using std::string;

namespace tuscany
{
    namespace sca
    {
        namespace model
        {
            /**
             * Represents a binding.
             * Bindings are used by services and references. References use bindings
             * to describe the access mechanism used to call an external service (which can
             * be a service provided by another SCA composite). Services use bindings to describe
             * the access mechanism that clients (which can be a client from another SCA composite)
             * have to use to call the service.
             * This interface will typically be extended by binding implementations to allow
             * specification of binding/transport specific information.
             */
            class Binding 
            {
                
            public:

                /**
                 * Constructor to create a new binding.
                 * @param uri The binding URI.
                 */ 
                SCA_API Binding(const string& uri);

                /**
                 * Destructor.
                 */ 
                SCA_API virtual ~Binding();
                
                /**
                 * Returns the binding type
                 * @return The binding type.
                 */
                SCA_API virtual string getType() = 0;
                            
                /**
                 * Returns the binding URI.
                 * @return The binding URI.
                 */
                SCA_API const string& getURI() const { return uri; };
                
            private:
            
                /**
                 * The binding URI.
                 */ 
                string uri;
            };
            
        } // End namespace model
    } // End namespace sca
} // End namespace tuscany

#endif // tuscany_sca_model_binding_h