Inheritance.java

/**
 * Copyright (C) 2020 Czech Technical University in Prague
 *
 * This program 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 3 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. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */
package cz.cvut.kbss.jopa.model.annotations;

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**
 * Specifies the inheritance strategy to be used for an entity class hierarchy.
 * <p>
 * It is specified on the entity class that is the root of the entity class hierarchy. If the {@link Inheritance}
 * annotation is not specified or if no inheritance type is specified for an entity class hierarchy, the TWO_STEP
 * loading strategy is used.
 */
@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public @interface Inheritance {

    /**
     * The strategy to be used for the entity inheritance hierarchy.
     *
     * @return Inheritance strategy
     */
    InheritanceType strategy() default InheritanceType.TWO_STEP;
}