content: /*
   * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
   * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
   * distributed with this work for additional information
   * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
   * to you 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.archiva.repository.content;
  
  import java.util.List;
  
  /**
   * The namespace represents some kind of hierarchical coordinate where artifacts are stored.
   * The syntax of the namespace (e.g. the separator like '.' or '/') is dependent on the repository type.
   *
   * <pre>
   * namespace1 +--> project 1 +--> version 11 +--> artifact 111
   *            |              |               |
   *            |              |               +--> artifact 112
   *            |              |
   *            |              +--> version 12 +--> artifact 121
   *            |                              |
   *            |                              +--> artifact 122
   *            |                              +--> ...
   *            |
   *            +--> project 2 +--> version 21 +--> artifact 211
   *                           |               +--> ...
   *                           +--> version 22 +--> artifact 221
   *                                           +--> ...
   * </pre>
   *
   * @author Martin Stockhammer <martin_s@apache.org>
   */
  public interface Namespace extends ContentItem
  {
      /**
       * Return the namespace string that identifies the current namespace.
       * Namespaces are hierarchical and have a separator that separates the path elements. Default
       * separator is '.'. But this may depend on the repository type.
       *
       * A namespace may be empty which is equal to the root.
       *
       * @return the unique name of the namespace
       */
      String getId( );
  
      /**
       * Returns the elements that represent the path to the namespace.
       *
       * @return the list of path elements
       */
      List<String> getNamespacePath( );
  
  }
  