iScreen Glossary

Introduction

This glossary is designed to describe the special terms that are used by iScreen.

Resource - A Resource represents a set of name/value String pairs that can be referenced within a configuration file for use as Label text or failure message text. Resources can reference other Resources, and any duplication of names between them are resolved by the most "outer" Resource (i.e. if Resource A references Resource B, then any duplicates are resolved by using the name/value in Resource A).

Validation Set - A Validation Set is an order grouping of configured Validators with a unique identification. For example, you could define a single Validation Set to represent a form on a web page, with a configured validator representing individual form inputs (such as an edit box). The Validation Set would be given a unique name that is referenced either from code or from an IoC Containers configuration file. There is a one-to-one mapping between a Validation Set and a Validation Service. The only real difference between the two is the Validation Service is a Java interface and is part of the iScreen API. The Validation Set is a term used to represent that service within a configuration file.

Validation - A Validation is the execution of code to validate a set of data (an instance of a Java object, typically a JavaBean). This implies that multiple Validators may be asked to validate the data provided to them as part of an overall Validation. Basically, a Validation is a call to a Validation Service.

Validation Service - A Validation Service is an instance of an implementation of the org.iscreen.ValidationService interface. There is a one-to-one mapping from a Validation Service to a Validation Set. That is, calling the validate() method on an instance of ValidationService will perform a Validation on the Java object being validated using the configured Validation Set.

Validator - A Validator is a Java class that implements the org.iscreen.Validator interface. It can be configured and referenced with a configuration file. It's typically treated like a JavaBean with its contraints and failure messages. During a validation, it's what actually validates the data.