--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/artifacts/src/main/java/org/dive4elements/artifacts/ArtifactFactory.java	Thu Apr 25 10:50:31 2013 +0200
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2010 by Intevation GmbH
+ *
+ * This program is free software under the LGPL (>=v2.1)
+ * Read the file LGPL.txt coming with the software for details
+ * or visit http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ if it does not exist.
+ */
+
+package de.intevation.artifacts;
+
+import java.io.Serializable;
+
+import org.w3c.dom.Document;
+import org.w3c.dom.Node;
+
+
+/**
+ * Interface of an artifact producing factory.
+ *
+ * @author <a href="mailto:sascha.teichmann@intevation.de">Sascha L. Teichmann</a>
+ */
+public interface ArtifactFactory extends Serializable
+{
+    /**
+     * The short name of this factory.
+     * @return the name of this factory.
+     */
+    String getName();
+
+    /**
+     * Description of this factory.
+     * @return description of the factory.
+     */
+    String getDescription();
+
+    /**
+     * Create a new artifact of certain type, given a general purpose context and
+     * an identifier.
+     * @param context a context from the ArtifactDatabase.
+     * @param identifier unique identifer for the new artifact
+     * @param data  the data containing more details for the setup of an Artifact.
+     * @return a new {@linkplain de.intevation.artifacts.Artifact Artifact}
+     */
+    Artifact createArtifact(
+        String        identifier,
+        GlobalContext context,
+        CallMeta      callMeta,
+        Document      data);
+
+    /**
+     * Setup the factory with a given configuration
+     * @param config the configuration
+     * @param factoryNode the ConfigurationNode of this Factory
+     */
+    void setup(Document config, Node factoryNode);
+
+    /**
+     * Tells how long an artifact should survive if it is
+     * not touched. This is put in the factory because
+     * life time is nothing an artifact should handle it self.
+     * This method is only called once directly after the
+     * artifact is created.
+     * @param artifact The artifact to be rated.
+     * @param context  The global context.
+     * @return time to live in ms. null means eternal.
+     */
+    Long timeToLiveUntouched(Artifact artifact, Object context);
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the serializer used to store the artifacts.
+     * @return The Serializer
+     */
+    ArtifactSerializer getSerializer();
+}
+// vim:set ts=4 sw=4 si et sta sts=4 fenc=utf8 :