001    /*******************************************************************************
002     * Portions created by Sebastian Thomschke are copyright (c) 2005-2011 Sebastian
003     * Thomschke.
004     * 
005     * All Rights Reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
006     * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
007     * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
008     * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
009     * 
010     * Contributors:
011     *     Sebastian Thomschke - initial implementation.
012     *******************************************************************************/
013    package net.sf.oval.ogn;
014    
015    import net.sf.oval.exception.InvalidConfigurationException;
016    
017    /**
018     * @author Sebastian Thomschke
019     */
020    public interface ObjectGraphNavigator
021    {
022            /**
023             * Navigates through the object graph starting at <code>root</code> object.
024             * 
025             * @param root the root object to start the navigation from
026             * @param path the object navigation path relative to the root object. The path format is implementation specific. 
027             * @return the result of the navigation operation. <code>null</code> is returned if the target could not be determined, e.g. because of null values in the path.
028             * @throws InvalidConfigurationException if the given path is invalid, e.g. because of non-existing fields/properties named in the path.  
029             */
030            ObjectGraphNavigationResult navigateTo(final Object root, final String path) throws InvalidConfigurationException;
031    }