--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/artifact-database/src/main/java/org/dive4elements/artifactdatabase/state/Settings.java	Thu Apr 25 10:57:18 2013 +0200
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+package de.intevation.artifactdatabase.state;
+
+import java.io.Serializable;
+
+import org.w3c.dom.Node;
+
+
+/**
+ * @author <a href="mailto:ingo.weinzierl@intevation.de">Ingo Weinzierl</a>
+ */
+public interface Settings extends Serializable {
+
+    /**
+     * Adds a new Section to this Settings object.
+     *
+     * @param section the new Section.
+     */
+    void addSection(Section section);
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the number of Sections in this Settings object.
+     *
+     * @return the number of sections.
+     */
+    int getSectionCount();
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the section at position <i>pos</i>.
+     *
+     * @param pos the position of the target Section.
+     *
+     * @return the Section at position <i>pos</i> or null if no Section is
+     * existing at <i>pos</i>.
+     */
+    Section getSection(int pos);
+
+    /**
+     * Removes a Section if it is existing in this Settings.
+     *
+     * @param section The section that should be removed.
+     */
+    void removeSection(Section section);
+
+    /**
+     * Transforms this Settings object into a XML representation. Therefore,
+     * each Section object's <i>toXML</i> method is called to append its XML
+     * representation to the final document.
+     *
+     * @param parent The parent node.
+     */
+    void toXML(Node parent);
+}
+// vim:set ts=4 sw=4 si et sta sts=4 fenc=utf-8 :