001/*
002 * Position.java July 2006
003 *
004 * Copyright (C) 2006, 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.stream;
020
021/**
022 * The <code>Position</code> object is used to acquire the position
023 * of the read cursor within the XML file. This allows exceptions to
024 * be thrown with the line number so that the XML can be debugged. 
025 * 
026 * @author Niall Gallagher
027 */ 
028public interface Position {
029
030   /**
031    * This is the actual line number within the read XML document. 
032    * The line number allows any problems within the source XML
033    * document to be debugged if it does not match the schema. 
034    * This will return -1 if the line number cannot be determined.
035    *
036    * @return this returns the line number of an XML event 
037    */        
038   int getLine();
039
040   /**
041    * This provides a textual description of the position the 
042    * read cursor is at within the XML document. This allows the
043    * position to be embedded within the exception thrown.
044    *
045    * @return this returns a textual description of the position
046    */ 
047   String toString();   
048}