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package org.glassfish.api.deployment;

/**
 * Interface to an application container. mainly used to start and stop 
 * the application.
 *
 * @author Jerome Dochez
 */

public interface ApplicationContainer<T> {

    /**
     * Returns the deployment descriptor associated with this application
     * 
     * @return deployment descriptor if they exist or null if not
     */
    public T getDescriptor();
    
    /**
     * Starts an application container. 
     * ContractProvider starting should not throw an exception but rather should
     * use their prefered Logger instance to log any issue they encounter while 
     * starting. Returning false from a start mean that the container failed 
     * to start
     * @param startupContext the start up context 
     * @return true if the container startup was successful.
     *
     * @throws Exception if this application container could not be started
     */
    public boolean start(ApplicationContext startupContext) throws Exception;
    
    /**
     * Stop the application container
     * @return true if stopping was successful.
     * @param stopContext
     */
    public boolean stop(ApplicationContext stopContext);

    /**
     * Suspends this application container.
     *
     * @return true if suspending was successful, false otherwise.
     */
    public boolean suspend();

    /**
     * Resumes this application container.
     *
     * @return true if resumption was successful, false otherwise
     *
     * @throws Exception if this application container could not be
     * resumed
     */
    public boolean resume() throws Exception;

    /**
     * Returns the class loader associated with this application
     * @return ClassLoader for this app
     */
    public ClassLoader getClassLoader();
    
}