/*
 * Copyright (c) OSGi Alliance (2009). All Rights Reserved.
 * 
 * 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.
 */

package org.osgi.framework.launch;

import java.util.Map;

import org.osgi.framework.Bundle;

/**
 * A factory for creating {@link Framework} instances.
 * 
 * <p>
 * A framework implementation jar must contain the following resource:
 * 
 * <pre>
 * /META-INF/services/org.osgi.framework.launch.FrameworkFactory
 * </pre>
 * 
 * This UTF-8 encoded resource must contain the name of the framework
 * implementation's FrameworkFactory implementation class. Space and tab
 * characters, including blank lines, in the resource must be ignored. The
 * number sign ('#' \u0023) and all characters following it on each line are a
 * comment and must be ignored.
 * 
 * <p>
 * Launchers can find the name of the FrameworkFactory implementation class in
 * the resource and then load and construct a FrameworkFactory object for the
 * framework implementation. The FrameworkFactory implementation class must have
 * a public, no-argument constructor. Java&#8482; SE 6 introduced the
 * <code>ServiceLoader</code> class which can create a FrameworkFactory instance
 * from the resource.
 * 
 * @ThreadSafe
 * @version $Revision: 6397 $
 */
public interface FrameworkFactory {

	/**
	 * Create a new {@link Framework} instance.
	 * 
	 * @param configuration The framework properties to configure the new
	 *        framework instance. If framework properties are not provided by
	 *        the configuration argument, the created framework instance must
	 *        use some reasonable default configuration appropriate for the
	 *        current VM. For example, the system packages for the current
	 *        execution environment should be properly exported. The specified
	 *        configuration argument may be <code>null</code>. The created
	 *        framework instance must copy any information needed from the
	 *        specified configuration argument since the configuration argument
	 *        can be changed after the framework instance has been created.
	 * @return A new, configured {@link Framework} instance. The framework
	 *         instance must be in the {@link Bundle#INSTALLED} state.
	 * @throws SecurityException If the caller does not have
	 *         <code>AllPermission</code>, and the Java Runtime Environment
	 *         supports permissions.
	 */
	Framework newFramework(Map configuration);
}
