root/trunk/cdmlib/cdmlib-model/src/main/java/eu/etaxonomy/cdm/model/common/IMultiLanguageText.java

/**
* Copyright (C) 2007 EDIT
* European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy 
* http://www.e-taxonomy.eu
* 
* The contents of this file are subject to the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1
* See LICENSE.TXT at the top of this package for the full license terms.
*/
package eu.etaxonomy.cdm.model.common;

import java.util.List;

public interface IMultiLanguageText {

        /**
         * @param language
         * @return
         */
        public String getText(Language language);

        /**
         * @param languageString
         * @return String the previous text in the MultilanguageSet that was associated with the language
         * defined in languageString, or null if there was no such text before. (A null return can also indicate that the text was previously null.)
         */
        public LanguageString put(LanguageString languageString);

        /**
         * @param languageString
         * @return String the previous text in the MultilanguageSet that was associated with the language
         * defined in languageString, or null if there was no such text before. (A null return can also indicate that the text was previously null.)
         * @deprecated should follow the put semantic of maps, this method will be removed in v4.0
         *                                      Use the {@link #put(LanguageString) put} method instead
         */
        @Deprecated
        public LanguageString add(LanguageString languageString);
        /**
         * Iterates on the languages. As soon as there exists a language string for this language in 
         * this multilanguage text
         * it is returned.
         * @param languages
         * @return 
         */
        public LanguageString getPreferredLanguageString(List<Language> languages);

}