content: // ===============================================================================
  // Authors: AFRL/RQQD
  // Organization: Air Force Research Laboratory, Aerospace Systems Directorate, Power and Control Division
  // 
  // Copyright (c) 2017 Government of the United State of America, as represented by
  // the Secretary of the Air Force.  No copyright is claimed in the United States under
  // Title 17, U.S. Code.  All Other Rights Reserved.
  // ===============================================================================
  
  /*
   * GRAL: GRAphing Library for Java(R)
   *
   * (C) Copyright 2009-2013 Erich Seifert <dev[at]erichseifert.de>,
   * Michael Seifert <mseifert[at]error-reports.org>
   *
   * This file is part of GRAL.
   *
   * GRAL is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
   * it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
   * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
   * (at your option) any later version.
   *
   * GRAL 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 Lesser General Public License for more details.
   *
   * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
   * along with GRAL.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
   */
  package de.erichseifert.gral.io;
  
  import java.util.List;
  
  /**
   * Interface for factories producing input (reader) or output (writer) classes.
   * This is be used to create a extensible plug-in system for reading or writing
   * data.
   * @param <T> Class of the objects produced by the factory.
   */
  public interface IOFactory<T> {
  	/**
  	 * Returns an object for reading or writing the specified format.
  	 * @param mimeType MIME type.
  	 * @return Reader or writer for the specified MIME type.
  	 */
  	T get(String mimeType);
  
  	/**
  	 * Returns the capabilities for a specific format.
  	 * @param mimeType MIME type of the format
  	 * @return Capabilities for the specified format.
  	 */
  	IOCapabilities getCapabilities(String mimeType);
  
  	/**
  	 * Returns a list of capabilities for all supported formats.
  	 * @return Supported capabilities.
  	 */
  	List<IOCapabilities> getCapabilities();
  
  	/**
  	 * Returns an array of Strings containing all supported formats.
  	 * @return Supported formats.
  	 */
  	String[] getSupportedFormats();
  
  	/**
  	 * Returns whether the specified MIME type is supported.
  	 * @param mimeType MIME type.
  	 * @return {@code true} if supported, otherwise {@code false}.
  	 */
  	boolean isFormatSupported(String mimeType);
  }
  