ca.uhn.cache.internal
Interface IParamSpaceConfig

All Known Implementing Classes:

ParamSpaceConfig

public interface IParamSpaceConfig

Configuration data for a ParamSpace.

Version:

$Revision: 1.1 $ updated on $Date: 2005/01/24 22:53:27 $ by $Author: bryan_tripp $

Author:

Bryan Tripp

Method Summary

IQueryParam[]	getChunkBoundaries(IDimension theDimension) This method is only meaningful along dimensions for which isChunked() returns true.
IDimension[]	getDimensions()
IQueryParam	getSaturationPoint(IDimension theDimension) For ordered dimensions, the distances between their members is important.
boolean	isChunked(IDimension theDimension) True iff data are split into a known list of chunks along this dimension (the usual case).

Method Detail

getDimensions

public IDimension[] getDimensions()

Returns:

a list of dimensions according to which data are organized.

getChunkBoundaries

public IQueryParam[] getChunkBoundaries(IDimension theDimension)

This method is only meaningful along dimensions for which isChunked() returns true.

Parameters:

theDimension - a dimension in the space (must be one of those returned by getDimensions()).

Returns:

the limits of each chunk along the given dimension. The whole space must be covered by this list. Returns an empty array if isChunked() returns false for the given dimension.

isChunked

public boolean isChunked(IDimension theDimension)

True iff data are split into a known list of chunks along this dimension (the usual case). If true, then getChunkBoundaries() must return a list of the boundaries of chunks along this dimension. Dimensions are not always chunked. For example a dimension may correspond to a large, volatile list of values such as person IDs. It would not be efficient to provide a complete list of (possibly millions of) chunk boundaries for such dimensions, or to iterate through them to see which ones are intersected by a query. For such dimensions it is assumed that any valid IQueryParam corresponds to a chunk. For example in an employee ID dimension, it might make sense to have each chunk encompass exactly one ID, in which case this method would return false.

Parameters:

theDimension - one of the values returned by getDimensions().

Returns:

true iff data are split into a known list of chunks along this dimension

getSaturationPoint

public IQueryParam getSaturationPoint(IDimension theDimension)

For ordered dimensions, the distances between their members is important. Distances (see IQueryParam.getDistance()) are normalized to between zero and 1. The distance corresponding to 1 is configurable. For example a time dimension may have a relevant range over the last week or the last 20 years. In the first case, a difference of a week would correspond to a distance of 1, and in the second case a difference of 20 years would correspond to 1.

Parameters:

theDimension - a dimension in this space

Returns:

the param corresponding to a distance of 1, from the origin that is natural for that dimension (e.g. now for a time dimension, 'a' for an alphabetical dimension). Null for non-ordered dimensions.