/*
 *                 Sun Public License Notice
 * 
 * The contents of this file are subject to the Sun Public License
 * Version 1.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in
 * compliance with the License. A copy of the License is available at
 * http://www.sun.com/
 * 
 * The Original Code is NetBeans. The Initial Developer of the Original
 * Code is Sun Microsystems, Inc. Portions Copyright 1997-2000 Sun
 * Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 */

package org.openide.explorer.propertysheet.editors;

/** An interface to be implemented by property editors which want to provide
 * a load/store of property values in human-readable XML.
 * The XML persistence is currently used by the form editor module for storage of
 * modified property values.
 *
 * @author  Ian Formanek
 */
public interface XMLPropertyEditor extends java.beans.PropertyEditor {

    /** Called to load property value from specified XML subtree. If succesfully loaded,
    * the value should be available via the getValue method.
    * An IOException should be thrown when the value cannot be restored from the specified XML element
    * @param element the XML DOM element representing a subtree of XML from which the value should be loaded
    * @exception IOException thrown when the value cannot be restored from the specified XML element
    */
    public void readFromXML (org.w3c.dom.Node element) throws java.io.IOException;

    /** Called to store current property value into XML subtree. The property value should be set using the
    * setValue method prior to calling this method.
    * @param doc The XML document to store the XML in - should be used for creating nodes only
    * @return the XML DOM element representing a subtree of XML from which the value should be loaded
    */
    public org.w3c.dom.Node storeToXML(org.w3c.dom.Document doc);
}