/*

 * Copyright (c) 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.

 *

 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it

 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as

 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this

 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided

 * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.

 *

 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT

 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or

 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License

 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that

 * accompanied this code).

 *

 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version

 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,

 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

 *

 * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA

 * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any

 * questions.

 */

package javax.xml.stream.events;

import javax.xml.namespace.QName;

import javax.xml.namespace.NamespaceContext;

import java.util.Iterator;

/**

 * The StartElement interface provides access to information about

 * start elements.  A StartElement is reported for each Start Tag

 * in the document.

 *

 * @version 1.0

 * @author Copyright (c) 2009 by Oracle Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

 * @since 1.6

 */

public interface StartElement extends XMLEvent {

  /**

   * Get the name of this event

   * @return the qualified name of this event

   */

  public QName getName();

  /**

   * Returns an Iterator of non-namespace declared attributes declared on

   * this START_ELEMENT,

   * returns an empty iterator if there are no attributes.  The

   * iterator must contain only implementations of the javax.xml.stream.Attribute

   * interface.   Attributes are fundamentally unordered and may not be reported

   * in any order.

   *

   * @return a readonly Iterator over Attribute interfaces, or an

   * empty iterator

   */

  public Iterator<Attribute> getAttributes();

  /**

   * Returns an Iterator of namespaces declared on this element.

   * This Iterator does not contain previously declared namespaces

   * unless they appear on the current START_ELEMENT.

   * Therefore this list may contain redeclared namespaces and duplicate namespace

   * declarations. Use the getNamespaceContext() method to get the

   * current context of namespace declarations.

   *

   * <p>The iterator must contain only implementations of the

   * javax.xml.stream.Namespace interface.

   *

   * <p>A Namespace isA Attribute.  One

   * can iterate over a list of namespaces as a list of attributes.

   * However this method returns only the list of namespaces

   * declared on this START_ELEMENT and does not

   * include the attributes declared on this START_ELEMENT.

   *

   * Returns an empty iterator if there are no namespaces.

   *

   * @return a readonly Iterator over Namespace interfaces, or an

   * empty iterator

   *

   */

  public Iterator<Namespace> getNamespaces();

  /**

   * Returns the attribute referred to by this name

   * @param name the qname of the desired name

   * @return the attribute corresponding to the name value or null

   */

  public Attribute getAttributeByName(QName name);

  /**

   * Gets a read-only namespace context. If no context is

   * available this method will return an empty namespace context.

   * The NamespaceContext contains information about all namespaces

   * in scope for this StartElement.

   *

   * @return the current namespace context

   */

  public NamespaceContext getNamespaceContext();

  /**

   * Gets the value that the prefix is bound to in the

   * context of this element.  Returns null if

   * the prefix is not bound in this context

   * @param prefix the prefix to lookup

   * @return the uri bound to the prefix or null

   */

  public String getNamespaceURI(String prefix);

}