base/Externalizable

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/****************************************************************************
  Copyright (C)2002 David Jung <opensim@pobox.com>

  This program/file is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
  (at your option) any later version.
  
  This program 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 for more details. (http://www.gnu.org)
  
  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
  Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
  
  $Id: Externalizable 1029 2004-02-11 20:45:54Z jungd $
  $Revision: 1.4 $
  $Date: 2004-02-11 15:45:54 -0500 (Wed, 11 Feb 2004) $
  $Author: jungd $
 
****************************************************************************/

#ifndef _BASE_EXTERNALIZABLE_
#define _BASE_EXTERNALIZABLE_

#include <base/base>
#include <base/Object>
#include <base/VFile>


namespace base {

class Externalizer;

class Externalizable : public virtual base::Object
{
public:
  enum ExternalizationType { Input=1, Output=2, IO = 3 };

  virtual bool formatSupported(String format, Real version = 1.0, ExternalizationType type = IO) const = 0; ///< query if specific format is supported (for input, output or both)
  virtual void externalize(Externalizer& e, String format = "", Real version = 1.0) = 0; ///< read or write object state to Externalizer
  virtual void externalize(Externalizer& e, String format = "", Real version = 1.0) const; ///< write object state to Externalizer (throws if e is in Input)


  // convenience methods
  void load(ref<VFile> archive, const String& format = "", Real version = 1.0);
  void save(ref<VFile> archive, const String& format = "", Real version = 1.0);

};

} // base

#endif

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