/**
 * <copyright> Copyright 2006 by Know-Center, Graz, Austria </copyright>
 * PDF-AS has been contracted by the E-Government Innovation Center EGIZ, a
 * joint initiative of the Federal Chancellery Austria and Graz University of
 * Technology.
 *
 * Licensed under the EUPL, Version 1.1 or - as soon they will be approved by
 * the European Commission - subsequent versions of the EUPL (the "Licence");
 * You may not use this work except in compliance with the Licence.
 * You may obtain a copy of the Licence at:
 * http://www.osor.eu/eupl/
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the Licence is distributed on an "AS IS" basis,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the Licence for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the Licence.
 *
 * This product combines work with different licenses. See the "NOTICE" text
 * file for details on the various modules and licenses.
 * The "NOTICE" text file is part of the distribution. Any derivative works
 * that you distribute must include a readable copy of the "NOTICE" text file.
 *
 * $Id: Settings.java,v 1.2 2006/08/03 07:43:03 wprinz Exp $
 */

package at.knowcenter.wag.egov.egiz.cfg;

import at.knowcenter.wag.egov.egiz.exceptions.SettingNotFoundException;

/**
 * Defines an interface reading a configuration file.
 * 
 * @author wlackner
 */
public interface Settings {
  /**
   * Search for a key in the configuration file.
   * 
   * @param key to search for
   * @return the corresponding value
   * @throws SettingNotFoundException if the key is not found
   */
  public String getSetting(String key) throws SettingNotFoundException;

  /**
   * Search for a key in the configuration file.
   * 
   * @param key to search for
   * @param defaultValue return this value if the key is not found
   * @return the corresponding value
   */
  public String getSetting(String key, String defaultValue);

  /**
   * 
   * @param primaryKey to search for
   * @param defaultKey to search for if the primaryKey is not found
   * @param defaultValue return this value if the defaultKey is not found
   * @return the corresponding value
   */
  public String getSetting(String primaryKey, String defaultKey, String defaultValue);
}