/*=========================================================================

  Program:   ParaView
  Module:    vtkPVDataInformationHelper.h

  Copyright (c) Kitware, Inc.
  All rights reserved.
  See Copyright.txt or http://www.paraview.org/HTML/Copyright.html for details.

     This software is distributed WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even
     the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
     PURPOSE.  See the above copyright notice for more information.

=========================================================================*/
// .NAME vtkPVDataInformationHelper - allows extension of types that
// PVDataInformation can handle
//
// .SECTION Description
// Plugins can subclass this and call vtkPVDataInformation::RegisterHelper()
// in order to allow vtkPVDataInformation (and thus ParaView) to handle new
// data types.

#ifndef vtkPVDataInformationHelper_h
#define vtkPVDataInformationHelper_h

#include "vtkPVClientServerCoreCoreModule.h" //needed for exports
#include "vtkObject.h"

class vtkPVDataInformation;
class vtkDataObject;

class VTKPVCLIENTSERVERCORECORE_EXPORT vtkPVDataInformationHelper : public vtkObject
{
public:
  vtkTypeMacro(vtkPVDataInformationHelper, vtkObject);
  void PrintSelf(ostream& os, vtkIndent indent);

  //Description:
  //This class is a friend of PVDI, so the work of copying
  //into self happens here.
  void CopyFromDataObject(vtkPVDataInformation *self,
                          vtkDataObject* data);

  virtual const char* GetPrettyDataTypeString() = 0;

protected:
  vtkPVDataInformationHelper();
  ~vtkPVDataInformationHelper();

  vtkDataObject *Data; //not reference counted

  virtual bool ValidateType(vtkDataObject *data) = 0;

  //API to access information from data that I fill the 
  //PVDataInformation I am friend of with.
  virtual double *GetBounds() = 0;
  virtual int GetNumberOfDataSets() = 0;
  virtual vtkTypeInt64 GetNumberOfCells() = 0;
  virtual vtkTypeInt64 GetNumberOfPoints() = 0;
  virtual vtkTypeInt64 GetNumberOfRows() = 0;

private:
  vtkPVDataInformationHelper(const vtkPVDataInformationHelper&); // Not implemented
  void operator=(const vtkPVDataInformationHelper&); // Not implemented
};

#endif
