/* 
 * Copyright 2001-2009 Terracotta, Inc. 
 * 
 * Licensed 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.quartz.spi;

import java.net.URL;
import java.io.InputStream;

/**
 * An interface for classes wishing to provide the service of loading classes
 * and resources within the scheduler...
 * 
 * @author jhouse
 * @author pl47ypus
 */
public interface ClassLoadHelper {

    /**
     * Called to give the ClassLoadHelper a chance to initialize itself,
     * including the opportunity to "steal" the class loader off of the calling
     * thread, which is the thread that is initializing Quartz.
     */
    void initialize();

    /**
     * Return the class with the given name.
     *
     * @param name the fqcn of the class to load.
     * @return the requested class.
     * @throws ClassNotFoundException if the class can be found in the classpath.
     */
    Class loadClass(String name) throws ClassNotFoundException;

    /**
     * Finds a resource with a given name. This method returns null if no
     * resource with this name is found.
     *
     * @param name name of the desired resource
     * @return a java.net.URL object
     */
    URL getResource(String name);

    /**
     * Finds a resource with a given name. This method returns null if no
     * resource with this name is found.
     *
     * @param name name of the desired resource
     * @return a java.io.InputStream object
     */
    InputStream getResourceAsStream(String name);

    /**
     * Enable sharing of the class-loader with 3rd party (e.g. digester).
     *
     * @return the class-loader user be the helper.
     */
    ClassLoader getClassLoader();
}