001/*
002 * Resolve.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>Resolve</code> method is used to resolve an object that
026 * has been deserialized from the XML document. This is used when the
027 * deserialized object whats to provide a substitute to itself within
028 * the object graph. This is particularly useful when an object is
029 * used to reference an external XML document, as it allows that XML
030 * document to be deserialized in to a new object instance.
031 * <p>
032 * This is similar to the <code>readResolve</code> method used within
033 * Java Object Serialization in that it is used to create a object to 
034 * plug in to the object graph after it has been fully deserialized.
035 * Care should be taken when using this annotation as the object that
036 * is returned from the resolve method must match the field type such
037 * that the resolved object is an assignable substitute.
038 * 
039 * @author Niall Gallagher
040 */
041@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
042public @interface Resolve {  
043}