001/*
002 * Copyright 2023 the original author or authors.
003 * <p>
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 * <p>
008 * https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
009 * <p>
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 */
016package de.cuioss.tools.formatting.template;
017
018import java.io.Serializable;
019
020/**
021 * The formatter should be able to convert complex type based on
022 * {@link FormatterSupport} into text by using a defined template.
023 * <p>
024 * See {@link de.cuioss.tools.formatting} for details.
025 *
026 * @param <T> bounded type based on {@link FormatterSupport}
027 *
028 * @author Eugen Fischer
029 */
030public interface TemplateFormatter<T extends FormatterSupport> extends Serializable {
031
032    /**
033     * Execute transformation based on configured template and values for the
034     * defined placeholders. Missing values should get ignored.
035     *
036     * @param reference must not be {@code null}
037     *
038     * @return formatted text
039     * @throws NullPointerException if reference is missing
040     */
041    String format(final T reference);
042
043}