/*
 * Copyright (C) 2003-2007 eXo Platform SAS.
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License
 * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3
 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, see<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */
package org.exoplatform.services.organization;

import org.exoplatform.container.component.ComponentPlugin;

/**
 * Created by The eXo Platform SAS Author : Mestrallet Benjamin
 * benjmestrallet@users.sourceforge.net Author : Tuan Nguyen
 * tuan08@users.sourceforge.net Date: Aug 22, 2003 Time: 4:46:04 PM Concept: The
 * eXo platform organization has 5 main components: user , user profile, group,
 * membership type and memebership.
 * 
 * <pre>
 * |-----------------|    |---------------|  |---------------|    |---------------|
 * |                 |    |               |  |               |    |               |
 * |                 |    |               |  |               |==| |               | 
 * |      USER       |&lt;=&gt; | USER PROFILE  |  |     GROUP     |  | |MEMBERSHIP TYPE|
 * |                 |    |               |  |               |&lt;=| |               |
 * |                 |    |               |  |               |    |               |
 * |---------------- |    |---------------|  |---------------|    |---------------|
 *              \                                  /            /
 *               \                                /            /
 *                \                              /            /
 *                 \                            /            /
 *                  \                          /            /
 *                   \                        /            /
 *                    \ |----------------------------------|
 *                      |                                  |
 *                      |            MEMBERSHIP            |
 *                      |     The membership hold the      |
 *                      |     relation of the user, group  |
 *                      |     and membership type          |
 *                      |                                  |
 *                      |--------------------------------- |
 * </pre>
 * 
 * The user component contain and manage the basic information of an user such
 * the username , password, first name, last name, email.. The user profile
 * component contain and manage the extra user information such the user
 * personal information, businese information.. The third party developers can
 * also add the information of an user for thier application use. The group
 * component contains and manage a tree of the groups. The membership type
 * contains and manage a list of the predefined membership The membership
 * component contains and manage the relation of the user , group and membership
 * type. An user can have one or more membership in a group, for example: user A
 * can have the 'member' and 'admin' membership in group /user. An user is in a
 * group if he has at least one membership in that group. This is the main
 * interface of the organization service. From this interface, the developer can
 * access the sub interface UserHandler to manage the user, UserProfile handler
 * to manage the user profile, GroupHandler to manage the group and the
 * MembershipHandler to manage the user group and memberhip relation.
 */
public interface OrganizationService {
  /**
   * This method return an UserHandler object that use to manage the user
   * opeation such create, update , detele , find user.
   * 
   * @see UserHandler
   **/
  public UserHandler getUserHandler();

  /**
   * @return a UserProfileHandler object that use to manage the information of
   *         the user
   * @see UserProfileHandler
   */
  public UserProfileHandler getUserProfileHandler();

  /**
   * @return return an GroupHandler implementation instance.
   * @see GroupHandler
   */
  public GroupHandler getGroupHandler();

  /**
   * @return return a MembershipTypeHandler implementation instance
   * @see MembershipTypeHandler
   */
  public MembershipTypeHandler getMembershipTypeHandler();

  /**
   * @return return a MembershipHandler implementation instance
   * @see MembershipHandler
   */
  public MembershipHandler getMembershipHandler();

  /**
   * Use this method to register an listener to the UserHandler, GroupHandler or
   * MembershipHandler. The listener must be and instance of @see
   * UserEventistener ,
   * 
   * @see GroupEventListener or @see MembershipEventListener.
   * @param listener A customized listener instance
   * @throws Exception
   */
  public void addListenerPlugin(ComponentPlugin listener) throws Exception;
}