/**
 * DataCleaner (community edition)
 * Copyright (C) 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 *
 * This copyrighted material is made available to anyone wishing to use, modify,
 * copy, or redistribute it subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU
 * Lesser General Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
 *
 * 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 Lesser General Public License
 * for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
 * along with this distribution; if not, write to:
 * Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 * 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
 * Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
 */
package org.datacleaner.connection;

import java.io.Serializable;

import org.apache.metamodel.util.HasName;

/**
 * Defines a datastore from which data can be queried.
 *
 * Datastores are kept in the {@link DatastoreCatalog}.
 */
public interface Datastore extends Serializable, HasName {

    /**
     * Gets the name of the datastore
     *
     * @return a String name
     */
    @Override
    String getName();

    /**
     * Gets an optional description of the datastore.
     *
     * @return a String description, or null if no description is available.
     */
    String getDescription();

    /**
     * Sets the description of the datastore.
     *
     * @param description
     *            the new description of the datastore.
     */
    void setDescription(String description);

    /**
     * Opens up the connection to the datastore. If the datastore is already
     * opened, most times this method will simply share the existing connection.
     *
     * @see DatastoreConnection
     *
     * @return a {@link DatastoreConnection} to use for querying and exploring
     *         the datastore.
     */
    DatastoreConnection openConnection();

    /**
     * Gets the performance characteristics of this datastore.
     *
     * @return the performance characteristics of this datastore.
     */
    PerformanceCharacteristics getPerformanceCharacteristics();
}
