/*

  *  Copyright 2004 The Apache Software Foundation

  *

  *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");

  *  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.

  *  You may obtain a copy of the License at

  *

  *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

  *

  *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software

  *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,

  *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.

  *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and

  *  limitations under the License.

  */

 package org.apache.commons.convert;

 /**

  * Defines a class that can convert one object to an object of another type.

  * <p>

  * All configuration data for the conversion must be set on the converter

  * separately.

  *

  * @author Stephen Colebourne

  * @version $Id: Conversion.java 155441 2005-02-26 13:19:22Z dirkv $

  * @since 1.0

  */

 public interface Conversion {

     /**

      * Convert the specified input object into an output object

      * of the another type.

      *

      * @param value  the value to be converted, read only, may be null

      * @param converter  the converter being used, not null

      * @return the converted value

      * @throws Exception if conversion fails, use ConversionException if creating

      *  a new exception, otherwise just allow exceptions to be thrown

      */

     Object convert(Object value, Converter converter) throws Exception;

     /**

      * The type to convert from.

      *

      * @return the Class object representing the class to convert to

      */

     Class getFromType();

     /**

      * The type to convert to.

      *

      * @return the Class object representing the class to convert from

      */

     Class getToType();

 }