/*
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor license
 * agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional information regarding
 * copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file to You 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.apache.geode.cache;

/**
 * Allows data from outside of the VM to be placed into a region. When
 * {@link org.apache.geode.cache.Region#get(Object)} is called for a region entry that has a
 * <code>null</code> value, the {@link CacheLoader#load load} method of the region's cache loader is
 * invoked. The <code>load</code> method creates the value for the desired key by performing an
 * operation such as a database query. The <code>load</code> may also perform a
 * {@linkplain LoaderHelper#netSearch net search} that will look for the value in a cache instance
 * hosted by another member of the distributed system.
 * </p>
 *
 *
 *
 * @see AttributesFactory#setCacheLoader
 * @see RegionAttributes#getCacheLoader
 * @see AttributesMutator#setCacheLoader
 * @since GemFire 2.0
 */
public interface CacheLoader<K, V> extends CacheCallback {
  /**
   * Loads a value. Application writers should implement this method to customize the loading of a
   * value. This method is called by the caching service when the requested value is not in the
   * cache. Any exception (including an unchecked exception) thrown by this method is propagated
   * back to and thrown by the invocation of {@link Region#get(Object, Object)} that triggered this
   * load.
   * <p>
   *
   * @param helper a LoaderHelper object that is passed in from cache service and provides access to
   *        the key, region, argument, and <code>netSearch</code>.
   * @return the value supplied for this key, or null if no value can be supplied. A local loader
   *         will always be invoked if one exists. Otherwise one remote loader is invoked. Returning
   *         <code>null</code> causes {@link Region#get(Object, Object)} to return
   *         <code>null</code>.
   * @throws CacheLoaderException, if an error occurs. This exception or any other exception thrown
   *         by this method will be propagated back to the application from the get method.
   *
   * @see Region#get(Object, Object) Region.get
   */
  public V load(LoaderHelper<K, V> helper) throws CacheLoaderException;
}
