/* ================================================================

 * Cewolf : Chart enabling Web Objects Framework

 * ================================================================

 *

 * Project Info:  http://cewolf.sourceforge.net

 * Project Lead:  Guido Laures (guido@laures.de);

 *

 * (C) Copyright 2002, by Guido Laures

 *

 * This library 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 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

 *

 * This library 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 this

 * library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330,

 * Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

 */

package de.laures.cewolf;

/**

 * An object of this type represents a full descritption of a chart.

 * Therefore it is able to produce the chart and dataset object

 * resulting out of this definition.

 * @author  Guido Laures

 */

public interface ChartHolder {

	/**

	 * Returns a chart. The type of this object is dependant on the underlying

	 * chart implementation. As of this version of Cewolf it is of type

	 * org.jfree.chart.JFreeChart.

	 * @return the chart object for this definition

	 * @throws DatasetProduceException if there could be no data produced for

	 * the cahrt

	 * @throws ConfigurationException if there is something wrong in the

	 * Cewolf configuration

	 * @throws PostProcessingException if a post processor failed to 

	 * process the chart

	 */

    public Object getChart() throws DatasetProduceException, PostProcessingException, ChartValidationException;

	/**

	 * Returns the dataset produced when using this definition.The type of this object is dependant on the underlying

	 * chart implementation. As of this version of Cewolf it is of type

	 * org.jfree.data.Dataset.

	 * @return Object the dataset for this definition

	 * @throws DatasetProduceException if the dataset could not be produced

	 */

    public Object getDataset() throws DatasetProduceException;

}