/*
 * This file is part of "SnipSnap Radeox Rendering Engine".
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2002 Stephan J. Schmidt, Matthias L. Jugel
 * All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Please visit http://radeox.org/ for updates and contact.
 *
 * --LICENSE NOTICE--
 * Licensed 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.
 * --LICENSE NOTICE--
 */

package org.radeox.api.engine;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.Reader;
import java.io.Writer;

import org.radeox.api.engine.context.RenderContext;

/**
 * Interface for RenderEngines. A RenderEngine renders a input string to an
 * output string with the help of filters.
 * 
 * @author Stephan J. Schmidt
 * @version $Id: RenderEngine.java 7756 2006-04-13 12:25:49Z ian@caret.cam.ac.uk $
 */

public interface RenderEngine
{
	/**
	 * Name of the RenderEngine. This is used to get a RenderEngine instance
	 * with EngineManager.getInstance(name);
	 * 
	 * @return name Name of the engine
	 */
	public String getName();

	/**
	 * Render an input with text markup and return a String with e.g. HTML
	 * 
	 * @param content
	 *        String with the input to render
	 * @param context
	 *        Special context for the render engine, e.g. with configuration
	 *        information
	 * @return result Output with rendered content
	 */
	public String render(String content, RenderContext context);

	/**
	 * Render an input with text markup and an write the result e.g. HTML to a
	 * writer
	 * 
	 * @param out
	 *        Writer to write the output to
	 * @param content
	 *        String with the input to render
	 * @param context
	 *        Special context for the render engine, e.g. with configuration
	 *        information
	 */

	public void render(Writer out, String content, RenderContext context)
			throws IOException;

	/**
	 * Render an input with text markup from a Reader and write the result to a
	 * writer
	 * 
	 * @param in
	 *        Reader to read the input from
	 * @param context
	 *        Special context for the render engine, e.g. with configuration
	 *        information
	 */
	public String render(Reader in, RenderContext context) throws IOException;

	// public void render(Writer out, Reader in, RenderContext context);
}
