cachedclauseset.java

Mandarax是一个规则引擎的纯Java实现。它支持多类型的事实和基于反映的规则

/*
 * Copyright (C) 1999-2004 <A href="http://www-ist.massey.ac.nz/JBDietrich" target="_top">Jens Dietrich</a>
 *
 * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
 * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
 * version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * This library 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
 * Lesser General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
 * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
 */
package org.mandarax.kernel;


/**
 * Clause set with a caching mechanism. In case the cache is switched off, each call of <code>clauses()</code>
 * will build a new set of clauses in case such a set is not explicitely given but implicitely
 * defined (e.g., by a database access description). This can be an expensive operation, so we support
 * caching this set (e.g., during a session) and reseting the cache.
 * @author <A href="http://www-ist.massey.ac.nz/JBDietrich" target="_top">Jens Dietrich</A>
 * @version 3.4 <7 March 05>
 * @since 1.0
 */
public interface CachedClauseSet extends ClauseSet {

    /**
     * Indicates whether the cache is enabled.
     * @return true of the cache is enabled and false otherwise
     */
    boolean isCacheEnabled();

    /**
     * Reset the clause set. In particular, this may include cleaning the cache.
     */
    void reset();

    /**
     * Enable / disable the cache property.
     * @param flag true if the cache should be enabled, false if the cahe should be disabled
     */
    void setCacheEnabled(boolean flag);
}