/*
 * 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.
 * 
 */

package org.apache.jorphan.collections;

/**
 * By implementing this interface, a class can easily traverse a HashTree
 * object, and be notified via callbacks of certain events. There are three such
 * events:
 * <ol>
 * <li>When a node is first encountered, the traverser's
 * {@link #addNode(Object,HashTree)} method is called. It is handed the object
 * at that node, and the entire sub-tree of the node.</li>
 * <li>When a leaf node is encountered, the traverser is notified that a full
 * path has been finished via the {@link #processPath()} method. It is the
 * traversing class's responsibility to know the path that has just finished
 * (this can be done by keeping a simple stack of all added nodes).</li>
 * <li>When a node is retraced, the traverser's {@link #subtractNode()} is
 * called. Again, it is the traverser's responsibility to know which node has
 * been retraced.</li>
 * </ol>
 * To summarize, as the traversal goes down a tree path, nodes are added. When
 * the end of the path is reached, the {@link #processPath()} call is sent. As
 * the traversal backs up, nodes are subtracted.
 * <p>
 * The traversal is a depth-first traversal.
 * 
 * @see HashTree
 * @see SearchByClass
 * 
 * @author Michael Stover (mstover1 at apache.org)
 * @version $Revision: 493784 $
 */
public interface HashTreeTraverser {
	/**
	 * The tree traverses itself depth-first, calling addNode for each object it
	 * encounters as it goes. This is a callback method, and should not be
	 * called except by a HashTree during traversal.
	 * 
	 * @param node
	 *            the node currently encountered
	 * @param subTree
	 *            the HashTree under the node encountered
	 */
	public void addNode(Object node, HashTree subTree);

	/**
	 * Indicates traversal has moved up a step, and the visitor should remove
	 * the top node from its stack structure. This is a callback method, and
	 * should not be called except by a HashTree during traversal.
	 */
	public void subtractNode();

	/**
	 * Process path is called when a leaf is reached. If a visitor wishes to
	 * generate Lists of path elements to each leaf, it should keep a Stack data
	 * structure of nodes passed to it with addNode, and removing top items for
	 * every {@link #subtractNode()} call. This is a callback method, and should
	 * not be called except by a HashTree during traversal.
	 */
	public void processPath();
}