001/*
002 * Copyright 2002-2013 the original author or authors.
003 *
004 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
005 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
006 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
007 *
008 *      https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
009 *
010 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
011 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
012 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
013 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
014 * limitations under the License.
015 */
016
017package org.springframework.expression;
018
019/**
020 * Implementers of this interface are expected to be able to locate types.
021 * They may use a custom {@link ClassLoader} and/or deal with common
022 * package prefixes (e.g. {@code java.lang}) however they wish.
023 *
024 * <p>See {@link org.springframework.expression.spel.support.StandardTypeLocator}
025 * for an example implementation.
026 *
027 * @author Andy Clement
028 * @since 3.0
029 */
030public interface TypeLocator {
031
032        /**
033         * Find a type by name. The name may or may not be fully qualified
034         * (e.g. {@code String} or {@code java.lang.String}).
035         * @param typeName the type to be located
036         * @return the {@code Class} object representing that type
037         * @throws EvaluationException if there is a problem finding the type
038         */
039        Class<?> findType(String typeName) throws EvaluationException;
040
041}