org.semanticweb.owl.util
Interface ShortFormProvider

All Known Subinterfaces:

BidirectionalShortFormProvider

All Known Implementing Classes:

AnnotationValueShortFormProvider, BidirectionalShortFormProviderAdapter, CachingBidirectionalShortFormProvider, PropertyAssertionValueShortFormProvider, QNameShortFormProvider, SimpleShortFormProvider

public interface ShortFormProvider

Author: Matthew Horridge
The University Of Manchester
Bio-Health Informatics Group
Date: 18-Apr-2007

A short form provider produces renderings of entities. These renderings are strings which in general can be used for display and serialisation purposes. A given entity only has one short form for a given short form provider. However, a short form may map to multiple enntities for a given short form provider. In other words, for a given short form provider the mapping from entity to short form is functional, but is not inverse functional i.e. an injective mapping.

Method Summary

void	dispose() Disposes of the short form proivider.
java.lang.String	getShortForm(OWLEntity entity) Gets the short form for the specified entity.

Method Detail

getShortForm

java.lang.String getShortForm(OWLEntity entity)

Gets the short form for the specified entity.

Parameters:

entity - The entity.

Returns:

A string which represents a short rendering of the speicified entity.

dispose

void dispose()

Disposes of the short form proivider. This frees any resources and clears any caches.