001/*
002 * Replace.java June 2007
003 *
004 * Copyright (C) 2007, Niall Gallagher <niallg@users.sf.net>
005 *
006 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
007 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
008 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
009 *
010 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
011 *
012 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
013 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
014 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or 
015 * implied. See the License for the specific language governing 
016 * permissions and limitations under the License.
017 */
018
019package org.simpleframework.xml.core;
020
021import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
022import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
023
024/**
025 * The <code>Replace</code> method is used to replace an object that
026 * is about to be serialized to an XML document. This is used to so
027 * that an object can provide a substitute to itself. Scenarios such
028 * as serializing an object to an external file or location can be
029 * accommodated using a write replacement method.
030 * <p>
031 * This is similar to the <code>writeReplace</code> method used within
032 * Java Object Serialization in that it is used to plug a replacement
033 * in to the resulting stream during the serialization process. Care
034 * should be taken to provide a suitable type from the replacement so
035 * that the object can be deserialized at a later time.
036 * 
037 * @author Niall Gallagher
038 */
039@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
040public @interface Replace {  
041}