001/*
002 *  Copyright 2011 Chris Pheby
003 *
004 *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
005 *  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
006 *  You may obtain a copy of the License at
007 *
008 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
009 *
010 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
011 *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
012 *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
013 *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
014 *  limitations under the License.
015 */
016package org.jadira.bindings.core.annotation;
017
018import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
019import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
020import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
021import java.lang.annotation.Target;
022
023/**
024 * This annotation, when applied to a method indicates that it is suitable for
025 * converting an object to or from a given representation as indicated by the
026 * method signature.
027 * <p>
028 * For any given ConverterScope, this annotation can be defined once for
029 * any related input / output class pair.
030 * <p>
031 * The annotation may be applied to either a static method, a constructor, or an
032 * instance method. In the case of the static method or the constructor, the
033 * annotated method must have a single parameter (the input class). In the case
034 * of a method, the return type must be of the output class. In the case of a
035 * constructor, this must be for the bound output class. The instance method
036 * takes no parameters, must be applied to the source (input) type and returns
037 * the output type.
038 * For disambiguation, @From and @To may be used instead 
039 */
040@Target({ ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR })
041@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
042public @interface Convert {
043}